FOR FREEDOM

FOR FREEDOM CHRIST HAS SET US FREE!

I make no excuse for having "borrowed" some things from others, changed a word here and there, and added a few things. ["The cow grazes in many pastures, but the milk she gives is her own."] But I believe these speak truth about who we are in Christ Jesus. And so I pass them on.

"Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." Galatians 5:1 (MsgB) But sometimes WE are the one who keeps ourself in slavery by REFUSING to be free.


CAN WE FORGIVE WITHOUT GOD? [Terry Rush]

We shout obedience, but whisper grace and repentance. When God's children left Egypt He let them wander in the wilderness for the rest of their lives because they began their trek with grumbling and complaining which never stopped. They went around the same old mountains and through the same old dry places year after year. Why?

They refused to flip the switch on their talk. It wasn't they wouldn't walk the talk. They refused to TALK the WALK. It was all about them and how bad they had it and how much they wanted God to bless…and how irritated with Him they were because He didn't. But what they couldn't figure out was they were their own Barney Fife, arresting themselves one crabby and sulking complaint at time.

What a tragedy to plant our own land mines and then step on them. How much sadder to find ourselves jailed and WE are our own jailer. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free..." Gal 5:1 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Eph 6:12-13 Petersen words it: "Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet." (MsgB)


WHO GOD IS! [Patrick Mead]

God can do all things by Himself, but He seems to be a God who relishes community and relationship. He didn't have to create us, but He did. He didn't have to leave His treasures in us "earthen vessels" but He did. He earnestly desires a working, loving, relationship with us; one that transforms us and makes us ready for eternity with Him. Even in heaven, He doesn't work alone. Again, it must be stressed that God could work alone. We don't want to fall into Zoroasterism or any other kind of dualism. Simply put, dualism says that there is a great cosmic war between good and evil and those two forces are roughly equal in power and influence. Humans are urged to choose good and work hard to tip the scales, even if ever so slightly, in the favor of goodness. This is NOT a Biblical way to view the cosmos. God is LORD, VICTOR, and ALL IN ALL. The only reason the battle with evil has gone on this long is because God loves us and wants to work with us to make us more like Him and He wants to give people more time to come to Him, so He delays the End.


MY LIFE FOR THEE! {Christmas Evans]

Mr. Christmas Evans [he was born on Christmas day.] now entered into a solemn covenant with God, made, as he says, "under a deep sense of the evil of his heart, and in dependence upon the infinite grace and merit of the Redeemer." [1 John 1:6-10] Some of this renewed determination can be seen in the following statements.

1. "I give my soul and body unto Thee, Jesus, the true God, and everlasting life - deliver me from sin, and from eternal death, and bring me into life everlasting. Amen."

2. "I call the day, the sun, the earth, the trees, the stones, the bed, the table, and the books, to witness that I come unto Thee, Redeemer of sinners, that I may obtain rest for my soul from the thunders of guilt and the dread of eternity."

3. "I do, through confidence in Thy power, earnestly entreat Thee to take the work into Thine own hand, and give me a circumcised heart, that I may love Thee, and create in me a right spirit, that I may seek Thy glory. Grant me that principle which Thou will own in the day of judgment, that I may not then assume palefacedness, and find myself a hypocrite. Grant me this, for the sake of Thy Most Precious Blood. Amen."

4. "I entreat Thee, Jesus, the Son of God, in power, grant me, for the sake of Thy agonizing death, a covenant-interest in Thy blood, which cleanseth; in Thy righteousness, which justifieth; and in Thy redemption, which delivereth. I entreat an interest in Thy blood, for Thy BLOOD'S sake, and a part in Thee, for Thy Name's sake, which Thou has given among men. Amen." [Christmas Evans]

"We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as His children, including the new bodies He has promised us." Romans 8:23 The Book Version