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To the Editor:
This year, America celebrates 244 years of freedom. However the sad fact is most aren’t completely free and are in slavery to sin, fear and addictions. Everyone is made up of spirit, soul (mind, emotions and will) and body. The Bible tells us our body is the least important part of us. Jesus will very soon give all true Christians a new body at the rapture. In America millions are addicted to eating, shopping, video games, alcohol, sex, pornography, gambling and drugs. There are 752,000 registered sex offenders in America. Addictions have caused people to lose their friends, job, house, spouse and lives! In fact, U.S. drug overdose deaths set a record at over 67,000 in 2018!
Coronavirus deaths in America so far in 2020 is 128,000. Many have been overcome by fear of the coronavirus because they have confused emotion with facts. While coronavirus ranks high on the scary list because the media has talked about it over a billion times, more than any other thing. It is not high on the dangerous list like heart disease that kills over 650,000 in America every year or cancer that kills over 606,000 every year. While coronavirus cases are going up the deaths are going down showing coronavirus probably has mutated and is less dangerous. Choose freedom over safety and continue to do what God called you to do such as go to church with a mask on.
Ben Franklin in 1755 said, “Those who would give up essential liberty (freedom), to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety!”
Addictions destroy people and their families and hurt everyone by causing crime. Addictions can begin because parents fail to lock up their drugs, alcohol and pornography. Don’t be an accidental drug dealer. Slaves to drunkenness always want one more drink. Slaves to drug addiction always want one more high. Slaves to sexual lust always crave another score or more pornography. Slaves to materialism or greed always seek more to acquire. Slaves to bitterness and self-pity always look for someone to blame. Slaves to pride always seek more fame or popularity for themselves. They don’t care who they hurt. They are only focused on themselves. C.S. Lewis said, “Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Jesus and you will find him and with him everything thrown in!”
Doctors say it can take 18 months to overcome some addictions. Many addicts who became Christians say Jesus took away their addictions in one day. No education, counseling, positive thoughts, high self-esteem or good intentions can overcome our evil. We must believe in Jesus’ blood, death, burial and resurrection as our only way to heaven. It’s only by abiding in Jesus that a Christian believer may be free from manipulation and have true, God-given self-control and true freedom. As America rejects Jesus the people are dying from the inside out. To those without Jesus life becomes bitter and hopeless. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and set people free. This was the first message Jesus preached. The solution is rebirth and transformation from the inside out that only comes from Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
You can’t be a slave if Jesus has made you a son or daughter. “Entertainment will leave you empty, power will leave you heartless, lust will leave you loveless, money (and things) will leave you comfortless, drugs will leave you senseless; Jesus won’t leave you regardless! Jesus led the most freeing revolution in history awashed in blood, His own. His revolution is one person at a time from the inside out. There’s only one way to have true freedom and live free in Tennessee and for eternity — Jesus!

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton