Two freedoms

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought. (Charles Kingsley)

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.

 (Proverbs 29:18)

Two freedoms - one false, the other living and thriving. Which would you choose? So many people choose the false sense of freedom, believing that being able to do as one pleases, unfettered by any form of rule to live by is some sort of 'heaven on earth'. I would suggest to us that 'heaven on earth' is not as good as life gets, though. Earthly gladness or glee is just that - earthly, fleeting, and eventually will pass away. The freedom to do as we ought, as laid out for us in the set of 'rules' we call the living word of God, now that is true freedom. Some see 'rules' as fettering, but God sees them as protection for a soul that may not know how to choose wisely all the time!

One of the biggest struggles we may find in society today is a certain lack of 'common sense' that leads to all manner of misguided actions. Whenever man's mind and heart guide the actions apart from the wisdom God gives through his word and his Spirit, there will be more than a little confusion and frustration. Our own wisdom is good to a point, but at some point, we will need God's wisdom in order to truly understand the true freedom he brings to those who invite him into their lives. To merely invite one in does not give them the run of the place, does it? We must do more than invite Christ into our lives - we must give him the run of our hearts, minds, and spirit. Otherwise, we will run wild, doing whatever we want, whenever it feels right, without regard to what it may do to others.

We will never know the liberty of living 'within the lines' until we finally step fully inside those lines. This may seem counter-intuitive, but you can trust that I have lived both outside and inside those lines of God's 'rules'. I have lived right smack in the middle, and way too close to the edge at times. The closer I get to the middle, the more I find peace, true contentment, and a 'settled spirit' that helps me make wise choices in life. The closer I move to the edges, the more there is a lack of contentment and an 'unease' over where I am at that moment. You may be way too close to the edge today or find yourself having stepped totally outside of the lines he has prepared for us to live within. It isn't too late to find your way back inside those lines! You choose the 'freedom' you will enjoy. Just sayin!

Personal Scripture

My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He always did what was right, so he is able to defend us before God the Father. Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away too. If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we know him. If we say we know God but do not obey his commands, we are lying. The truth is not in us. But when we obey God’s teaching, his love is truly working in us. This is how we know that we are living in him. (I John 2:1-5)

A long time ago, I had a pastor who told us it was okay to substitute our own names into scripture. For example, I could read this passage as, "My dear Lauretta, I write this letter to you...", making it come alive to me personally. When I began to realize scripture was written for ME, I began to find it both comforting and a little convicting. At times, it opened up doors for my healing and peace. At others, it brought me to my knees in repentance. Either way, scripture did its work IN me because it was written FOR me. It is written for all of us - you included!

Written that I may not sin - when I see it as a personal letter to me, I begin to appreciate how much care God takes to help ME live right. It isn't just the early church that received this letter to live in such a way that they didn't sin, but it was for each of us personally. The message is clear - God wants us to stop accepting sin in our lives as 'normal' or 'expected'. He wants us to forsake the selfishness of sin and settle into the selflessness of living for and with Christ. In turn, he gives us the means by which to do exactly that!

Sin doesn't need to hold us back - it can be taken away and we can find a new purpose in life - obedience to God. We might find it a little intimidating to hear some of these passages put in the personal tense, but if we truly want to be free of our sin, we need a 'personal God' who meets us right where we are. If anyone sins - it is pretty much a 'given' that we ALL fit that bill. We have Jesus to help us with being free of that sin - not just forgiven, but free from it. Too many times we fail to equate forgiveness with freedom. Jesus replaces that sin with his righteousness. We replace the desires to sin by getting truth INTO our lives.

Jesus deals with our sin, but we learn to deal with the temptation to 'sin again' by getting God's truth into us. The scripture doesn't have to be hard for us to understand, especially when we allow it to become 'personal' to us. Just sayin!

Be Free

Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve. I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more. You will grow as believers because you know God and you know Jesus, our Lord. God is very powerful because he is God. He has used that power to help us. He has given us everything that we need to live in a good way. We can do things that make God happy. This is possible because now we know him. God has chosen us to be his people because he is very great and very good. Because of this, God has promised that he will do very great and valuable things for us. As a result, you can do what is right, like God does. The people who belong to this world want to do bad things. Those bad things make them become worse and worse. But God gives you the power to be free from all that. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

The power to be free from all that - those words speak volumes, don't they? We lived as slaves to sin, but now we live as free men and women, in submissive service to the one who has redeemed us. It seems like a bit of a conundrum to some - slaves before we say yes to Christ, but servants after we say yes to Christ. What is the difference? In the first case, as slaves to sin, we have no say in how we live or what we serve. As servants to Christ, we submit willingly, as free men and women - free to choose to serve rather than in bondage of service. 

How is this possible? We are given everything that we need to live in a good manner, no longer serving the sin nature within or the pull of temptation that attempts to lure us back into bondage. If we have been given everything we need, why do some still struggle so much? Perhaps it is because we haven't really let go of the chains that once held us captive! We are freed from those chains, but we hold onto them - fearful to break the connection we have with our past lives. The thing we fear most will always hold us captive. We must let go of that fear and let God give us his peace - the peace that will allow us to drop those chains and finally walk free.

God has used his power to help us - giving us more and more peace in our minds. The further we walk away from those chains of bondage, the more peace we will receive. The steps we take to be free 'from' sin are never wasted steps. We cannot redeem ourselves - Christ does that for us. We DO take steps away from those things that held us captive, though. We remove ourselves from the vicinity of sin and form a new community of 'free men and women' living this life together. As we come together in community with other believers, we discover the strength of God exists in many varying ways in each life he has touched. His strength and ability are limitless. We learn of his goodness and grace in community - the community of the 'free'. Just sayin!

A temporary escape

I look up to the hills, but where will my help really come from? My help will come from the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. He will not let you fall. (Psalm 121:1-3)

I have spent many hours looking for some form of help simply because I got myself into predicaments that were of my own making - my own stubbornness, pride, fear, or anger getting me all muddled up in some situation I didn't really want to be involved in. It happens to the best of us, my friends. We say something without thinking it through and then wonder why we are 'reaping' such a backlash. We get involved in issues not our own, then wonder why things get out of control. The more we want to be in control of our lives, the more we can expect to encounter these kinds of troubles. The more we desire to allow God's control over our lives, the more likely we will be to avoid such conflicts and concerns. There is but one place to look to when we are in need of help (even when we are in the muddle because of our own making), and that is to him.

Our help isn't man-made. It is God-prepared, God-implemented, and God-delivered. We might think we can 'help' our way out of a particular challenge in life, but if we are to be honest here, we don't have any idea how to 'manage' the challenge, much less redeem ourselves! God's assurance to us is that difficulties may come (even those of our own making), but he will not let us fall. That means we may encounter a bit of a rocky course for a bit, but we won't allow us to end up in a place we don't belong. When we fall, we are where we don't belong! God doesn't want us to end up being pulled into compromise, much less full-on sinful acts. When we are in need of his help to avoid sin, do you think he just lets us fall since we were tempted? Absolutely not! He does wait for us to ask for his help, though!

Let's remember what God says here - we are to look to him for help - not the protection of any other source. In the times this was written, attacking armies would put the cities they were attacking into a 'flight' or 'fight' mode. Those who would not stand to fight would flee to the hills, hiding in caves or other outcroppings that would offer them temporary escape. God says we aren't to look to the 'hills' to find our help - simply because they offer us only TEMPORARY escape. God's plan is that we look to him when tempted - because his plan is to deliver us fully from that temptation! Just sayin!

We've got that in common!

If we say that we share in life with God and keep on living in the dark, we are lying and are not living by the truth. But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away. If we say that we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn’t in our hearts. But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away. (I John 1:5-9)

Sharing is a concept parents teach their kiddos from an early age. Sharing is really the action of each taking part in the use or enjoyment of what one of the parties in the group has. In some cultures, all things are put into common storage and then are distributed from the common resources to meet the needs of everyone in the community. We may consider "sharing" as what we do when we have a little of what someone else doesn't have, giving it to them so they can get use of it or enjoy it as much as we have. Either way, the idea of "common use" or "common benefit" from what one has to share is to be considered as something we should engage in. 

We come into the light Jesus that brings into an otherwise pretty dark existence. If you ever stop long enough to consider what it was like before you experienced Christ's light in your life, you probably stand amazed at all the ways he has "enhanced" your life in ways you never thought possible. His light did more than just brighten our darkness - it dispelled it from areas of our life we didn't even know there was darkness within! What we didn't possess, Christ brought - light and life. This life we now live is possible because of what Christ brings and "shares" in our life. The resource of his life is something we partake of not through any effort of our own, but all because of his effort. It is like the one who hunts or grows grain for the entire tribe in order that the entire community will partake of it. All did not work for it, but all enjoy it as it has been provided so there may be "common enjoyment" of it. We do not work for what we enjoy so much in this life with Jesus - it is given freely so all may come into common enjoyment of it.

We not only have new life in common, but we also have this "washing away of our sins" in common. We find ourselves grace-filled because of the actions of another on our behalf. As a child, mom had to wash me in the tub - simply because I could not see where I needed to be washed, nor did I realize the benefit of being in the tub. I was content to live in my dirty state - but she knew how much better I'd feel after the bath. I think Jesus kind of works that way in our lives at first - washing over us with his grace time and time again - not because we know where we need it to flow, but because he does! Grace has a way of creeping into the crevices of our lives - even where we don't realize we need it to go! Grace actually knows no bounds. It isn't shy about going into "dark places" in our lives - washing away the things which gathered there that no longer belong hidden. Grace doesn't uncover what is hidden to expose it so we will experience pain, but because we all have one thing in common as it comes to our sin - we need to be free of it and we cannot do it alone.

Grace can be trusted - even when the confession is hard. God affords to us from his vast resources in renewed grace for all past sins, present sins, and future sins. The truth is - we will continue to sin, maybe not in the same ways as we did 'before Christ', but until the day we find ourselves walking in his presence, we will still struggle with temptation and require grace to both overcome it and walk away from it. Grace isn't exactly light, but it is an adjunct to light. God's presence is the light we receive - his grace is the enabling force which helps us to walk in this light and to enjoy the freedom light brings. If you have ever stumbled a little in the dark of night, you know how "halting" your walk is when you don't know exactly what is in the room in respect to where you are. God's light is what removes the darkness, but his grace is what enables us to walk freely. We may not all speak the same language or go to the same church. We may not all dress alike, or even have the same interests in life. One thing is for sure - we all have sin in common and we all need to experience the freedom of his love, light, and grace. Just sayin!

No longer...

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. (Romans 8:1-3)

If you have ever stopped to wonder why Jesus had to take on the form of a man, there's your answer. He came to this earth in a body 'like the body we sinners have', so that he could be the sacrifice for our sins. In all he did in that one action, he provided an END to sin's control in our lives - so we are no longer controlled by our sin nature - we have been given a new one - Christ's.

Paul has just explained that he desires to do what is right - what the commandments declare he should do and how he should behave. Yet, in spite of his extreme desire to live 'right', he makes wrong choices time and time again. Why? The sin nature within is at war with the Spirit of God who indwells his spirit. It wants to continue to choose to do unwise things. Until we grasp fully that we are freed from its power, we will continue to condemn ourselves for those wrong actions that stem from our sin nature.

There is NO condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Read it again and then do it again. You aren't condemned because you mess up from time to time because you belong to Christ and his life-giving Spirit has freed and is freeing you from the power of sin. It is a finished and a continual action. That seems a bit like a contradiction - finished and continual. Yet, God's work of renewal is available to us with each new day. We don't have to continue with the wrong choice or live under the guilt or shame of it. We give it Christ, allow his Spirit to cleanse us, and move on.

In that body...an end to sin's control was accomplished. Christ's sacrifice did it all. Lean into that truth and allow his Spirit to wash over your mind, emotions, and inner spirit. He does not condemn you; sin has no control (even though it still has an appeal from time to time); and you are a new creation because of his loving act on your behalf. Just sayin!

Bedraggled and Maimed

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)

When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down. There is much said in those words, isn't there? 

When he had - it is a finished work, nothing else is required, the job is done. Cleansed us from our sins - it was not his sins that took him to the cross, but ours. The mission was complete when he lifted his eyes to heaven and breathed his last breath on that cross. He sat down - in a place of honor, authority, and oversight. He continues to watch over all of mankind, having completed it all on our behalf, waiting for us to join him there through faith in his finished work. He sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. That 'sustaining power' is what we can count on when we say 'yes' to Jesus. Not just the power to take in our next breath, but the power to live as overcomers to sin in our lives. We no longer are subjects of our sin but have the authority of Christ in our lives to live as overcomers. 

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose. (Hebrews 2:1-4)

Because Christ finished the work of salvation, we must press in. Never drift away from what is right, true, and honorable. We cannot ignore his work on our behalf - a work confirmed over and over again as one life after another is transformed by his great power. We cannot deny what we can see in the way of a changed life, but we frequently argue about doctrine we don't understand. Jesus never asked us to adhere to a 'doctrine' - he asked us to press into a relationship with him - to live so close to his presence that we become one with him. If we want to live as overcomers, we must first decide to invite Jesus into our lives. Then we must press closer and closer to him, the one who has all authority and power to create anew what sin has left bedraggled and maimed. Just sayin!

No pulpit pounding here

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galations 5:13)

Do you indulge yourself once in a while? It may not take much indulgence to actually meet our needs, but when we do indulge we need to make sure it is for the right reasons.
By definition, to indulge is to allow yourself to follow your own will. Herein is the problem - most of the time our "will" isn't very reliable! We give into our own will and find we are traveling down a path we'd just have soon avoided. When we "indulge", we yield to something which demands to be satisfied. In the end, we may be satisfying a much needed thing, but we must weigh our "urges" up front to ensure we are yielding to the RIGHT things.

We are called to live "free" lives - not governed any longer by each and every urge of our old nature. You know the nature I mean - that one which caused us to always demand our own way, doing things which fulfill all our own desires, but often neglects to see the desires of any higher authority in our life or count the cost of those desires up front. Maybe this is why we need this frequent reminder to live free, but to not use that freedom to indulge our fleshly desires. In essence any time we respond to the desire to do things independent of Christ's counsel in our lives, we are taking our freedom to an extreme that he never intended.

If we bite and devour each other, we are not using our freedom in the correct manner. I think this may be the one way we use our "freedom" to the extreme - we think we can look down on the actions of another (almost in judgment) because we think we have a better vantage point or something they don't quite have to the same degree. Freedom in Christ is never intended to divide, but unite. Whenever we use our freedom in a manner which sets us out as "elite" or "better than" we are operating in the realm of the flesh and have reverted to acting in a way which is unbecoming a follower of Christ. We don't need to condone sin in our midst, but we also don't need to nit-pick the beliefs of another which may not be as well developed or slightly different from our own.

We must maintain biblical truth - this is paramount to being a follower in Christ. Yet, when we become so focused on the "letter of the law" that we don't see the person struggling to make sense of the law for themselves, we miss the intent of grace in the first place. Maybe this is why churches seek to set out a "seeker friendly" framework by which they operate these days. We have moved away from suit and tie, panty hose and dresses, choir robes and pulpits. It is not such a bad thing! What we have done is opened the doors to those who don't feel comfortable in suits, panty hose, or with pulpit pounding! Not a bad thing, in my book. As long as we never compromise the elemental truths of scripture to become "seeker friendly", we are not violating any principles as Christ would have taught them. In fact, he commends us being able to become all things for all men. Just sayin!

Who is actually carrying that now?

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29)

How many times do we carry burdens way too heavy and beyond our means of ever 'unloading' on our own? Examine what Jesus said - come, take, learn, and find rest. There is an 'unloading' that occurs when we come to Jesus with those things we are carrying, but first we have to come! To take we must lay down. If we are to put more 'in', we must let 'out' what is nothing more than a 'burden' we carry. A burden is anything that is borne with difficulty - there is a sense of obligation to hold onto it, nurse it along, and keep it 'well situated' in a position where it can be 'managed'. What are we 'bearing' with difficulty today? Is it really our 'burden' to carry? Should we continue to 'manage' it, barely inching along under its weight? If we ever want to be free from it, we better stop nursing it along!

In accounting terms, a burden is anything that is considered to be 'overhead' - in other words, it is 'over our heads' all the time unless we 'pay it off' entirely. For most of us, the burdens we carry today are nothing we can 'pay off' on our own. They are emotional and spiritual - things we cannot change without the help of another. We might want to be free, but we cannot figure out a way to 'unburden' the load without another's help. The truth is likely that the burden we carry today is never going to be 'gone' entirely without God's helps to 'unload' what we have packed away so carefully and tightly into the spaces of our mind and heart. It remains 'overhead' in our lives, with us constantly trying to find some means of 'paying some debt off' so we can finally be free of the 'overhead'.

To be free, we take. Seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it? A yoke means we pull together - no longer attempting to bear the burden alone. We let go of our independent struggle and bind our lives together with Christ, allowing him to shoulder the burden right there alongside of us. One day, when we least expect it, we come to discover he wears the 'lead' yoke - we no longer carry that burden - he does. Rest comes over our weary emotions, settling deep within our overworked minds. The more we let him lead, the lighter the burden becomes, until one day, we no longer feel the weight of that burden any longer. Perhaps the greatest way to 'unburden' is to 'yoke up' with Christ. Just sayin!

A curb appeal

Now we see how God does make us acceptable to him. The Law and the Prophets tell how we become acceptable, and it isn’t by obeying the Law of Moses. God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life’s blood, so that by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)

I live in a neighborhood with regular trash pick-ups. Each week we put out the black can for our regular household trash and the blue can for everything we will recycle. One day a month, we put out all our "bulk" trash, such as large limbs from the trees, broken furniture, or scraps from building projects. I have faith the trucks will be around each week and on that one week each month when they will come with the tractor with the scooper-jaws to pick up all the bulk stuff. What is the difference between what I do with the various components of trash from my home vs. what God does in my life with the things which are really kind of "rubbish-like"? Simply put, he does the work of removing the rubbish, recycling what can be made new again, and creating a place which brings honor to him. He asks us to submit to his "terms" of removal, though! Just like I have to submit to the "terms" of removal my local government established related to my household trash/rubbish, I have to submit to God's plan for removing the things from my life which no longer belong.

That plan is simply Christ Jesus. All the Law ever did was point out the blood sacrifice required to remove our sin. It pointed out the futility of trying to do things on our own terms - because we'd have to do them again and again. I have to take out the trash each week at my house - because this is the means by which I can rid my household of the smelly stuff! I could not just "say" I am "law-abiding" and never move the black can to the curb. In time, it would simply smell worse and worse as it fermented in the hot sun. I could opt to take it out on my own terms - like every other week or maybe even once a month. In the meantime, I deal with all that trash. The garbage truck comes by faithfully each week, but it bypasses my home. The garbage man might "want" to deal with my trash, but until I give him access to it, he cannot take it away to the dump! Until we give Christ access to the rubbish of our lives, we are managing our "rubbish"! I don't know about you, but I don't do a good job with this on my own! All the Law pointed out for the Israelites back in the time of Moses was how God wanted to be the one to remove the sin from their lives. He didn't ever expect them to be the ones to actually do it themselves!

Each Tuesday night the cans are moved to the curb. Why? We have faith the rumbling trash compacting truck will make its way through our neighborhood, "consuming" all the stuff contained in those cans and leaving us with "room" to leave more next week. God does the work of "removing" the rubbish in our lives in stages - once at the point of our saying yes to Jesus, then as faithfully as he will always be, he keeps on coming around to leave us with "room" for the next batch of stuff we will lay at his feet! God isn't a glorified trash-man, but you get the idea - he is at the ready to remove what doesn't belong in our lives anymore. Sin needs to be removed far away from us - to a place where it can meet its final doom! His actions on our behalf remain ever so faithful - yet there are some actions on our behalf which allow him to do what only he can do. Just as we have to put the black and blue cans on the curb each week, so we have to faithfully do our part in bringing to God what only he can deal with through the Blood of Jesus. Rather than attempting to deal with what will eventually become an overwhelming pile of mess in our lives, isn't it much better to finally get it to the curb so Jesus can take it away? Just askin!

Now, that bespeaks love!

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! (Hebrews 12:2)

The twelfth chapter of Hebrews begins with the words, "...we must rid ourselves of everything that slows us down..."  Do you have things which slow you down in life? We sometimes have very "regular" things in life which slow us down - sometimes external to us, like another person, sometimes kind of internal, like raw emotions or fear. There is nothing which quite slows us down as much as the weight of sin in our lives, though. No person or other weight quite exerts the same pressure sin does - pulling us down, loading us with guilt, and holding us in miry links to our past. Maybe this is why the rest of the verse we started with today goes on to say, "...especially the sin that just won't let go..." Sin has a way of holding us back - not letting us out of the clasp of its grip. This kind of puts a different spin on our sin, doesn't it? It isn't just us moving toward it and giving into that temptation, it is that sin holding onto us like it would be losing its best friend if it let go! It is hard to walk away from something that has a grasp on us - especially when there is ANY kind of emotional tie between the two!

There is a race laid out for us - one which we must actually engage in if we are to ever get beyond the starting blocks. Somewhere along the way, we tire, feel the pull of fatigue, and want to just give up. The effort comes not in starting, but in finishing. The emotional warfare is hard. Breaking free is one thing; living free is another. We live free by changing our focus. The one crossing the finish line isn't the one who just toddles along aimlessly - it is the one who keeps their focus on the prize ahead. It may amuse some of us to see how we move toward sin at break-neck speed, but then tend to have the speed of the tortoise when it comes to turning away from it! It doesn't surprise or amuse God, though. He knows the hold our past has on us, and he isn't surprised by how much pull it exerts on us to get us to quit once we have started this race toward a new life in his freedom. You would think one taste of freedom would make us really ravenous for more and more freedom, but as is often the case with anything held in captivity for a long period of time, when freedom comes, we just don't know what to do with it!

Keep our eyes on Jesus so that we stand the best chance of breaking free from what has held us captive. We come to understand freedom only when we are being led into it! Christ leads us into freedom and then he helps us walk in freedom until we become familiar with it - at first liberating, then a little uncomfortable because we don't fully understand what to do with this new-found freedom. It gives us liberty and we don't know how to handle liberty sometimes. Maybe we take it to excess, or just don't use it at all. He is there to help us know moderation, develop a "tolerance" to freedom, and to remind us repeatedly to forget what is behind. It is Christ who helps us run the race at break-neck speed toward the right goal - who helps us develop the snail's pace to return to the things we left behind! Christ endured the cross - not because he had to - but because he wanted to on behalf of each one of us. He had us in his mind as he took those final steps toward Calvary those many years ago. He has us each in his mind today as we take the tiniest of steps toward the freedom he calls us into. He endured what we could not - he provides what we cannot. He knew his effort on our behalf would be his greatest reward - for our freedom came at a huge cost - his life. His life for ours. Now that bespeaks love! Just sayin!

An open invitation

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” (John 8:12)

If you were in a dark room and someone offered to turn on a light for you, would you just continue to stumble along, feeling your way around obstacles, risking bumping into things as you did? It is likely that you'd accept the invitation to have light brought into the room because you don't like stumbling aimlessly! Obstacles abound in life - many of them of our own making. Why would we choose to just stumble around in the dark, running into those obstacles repeatedly, when we are offered light to help us avoid them completely?

Jesus offers us light - light that dispels all manner of evil in our lives, pointing out obstacles and stumbling points so we don't run into them needlessly. Yet so many refuse to allow the light in. It seems to me that we get a little too used to this idea of 'feeling our way along' in life, not really wanting to give up our 'control' over our steps - even if there are unseen obstacles in our path. It is that stubborn rebellion that keeps us going around in circles, never really making much progress. Light has been offered, but we find the offer 'isn't the right time', or 'it might not be as good as I want'. 

The one who accepts the invitation to come into light and move away from darkness isn't assured there will be no obstacles at all, but at least we have an awareness of their existence and God's help to avoid them completely! Following someone in the dark is kind of like the blind leading the blind. Jesus never offered to lead us in darkness - he only offered to lead us in light. We might not think it is the right time to be 'led', but if we want true freedom, we follow! This might seem a little like a contradiction to some - follow to know freedom instead of just going whatever way we please.

The invitation is open. You can either accept it or continue to stumble around in your own darkness. The risk of following isn't nearly as great as that of stumbling around in the dark! Just sayin!

Freedom is never partial

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. (John 8:31-36)

Remain faithful to his teachings - then you will know the truth that truly sets you free. We might say freedom is just a bit conditional - it requires faithfulness to the teachings of Christ. Sometimes we trust in all kinds of 'other things' to help us 'live free', but religious pursuit without right relationship with God is just a pursuit without a proper aim. What things are you a slave to today? What beliefs hold you back from really pursuing God as you should? When we begin to explore the answers to those two things, we might just begin to see how 'bound' we really are - like slaves.

Truth has a way of setting us free, but we must desire freedom. For a very long time, I struggled with very negative thoughts about myself. I didn't see myself as 'worth much', so I never really thought others could see me any differently. Somewhere in my early twenties, God showed me the truth - that I was lovely in his eyes, and that my 'value' or 'worth' was not anything close to what I had set myself up to believe. In fact, it was much greater than I had told myself repeatedly all those years. The moment I began to trust God to reveal my 'true value', the journey toward really being free happened. 

Some of us latch onto things others have declared to us to be 'truth', but we never 'test the truth' to see if it really matches what God says about the matter. We just go on believing a lie because we don't put forth the effort to discover the truth. Jesus told his followers they had to 'remain faithful' to his teachings. That meant they had to apply themselves to not only hearing them but getting them into their hearts and minds so they could affect the way they lived. Truth should affect choices - it also affects perceptions. What we perceive about ourselves, and others is oftentimes incorrect. We need that 'perception' to be set right.

When we begin to embrace what God says about us, we begin a journey from slavery into freedom. It is not a freedom to do as we please, but to begin to do what pleases him. In so doing, we find ourselves not 'doing' because we are told to do something, but 'doing' because we genuinely know that in 'doing' we find absolute freedom and purpose. The slave 'does' because he is told to, but the free man 'does' because he wants to. Begin to get God's word into your mind and see if it doesn't begin to affect your heart. Once it does, your actions will be transformed. We are set free to live free - not partially, but totally. Just sayin!

A load of guilt

Have you ever been in a spot where someone is trying to find a way to accuse you of something - doing nothing wrong, you are under attack and your reputation is taking one hit after another? Jesus healed the sick - that's not wrong. He fed the hungry - not wrong again. He reached out to the rejected, poor, and those society rejected - still not wrong. Yet, no matter how much 'good' he did, the religious leaders sought to find something - anything - they could 'use against him'. Why? He threatened them by his goodness, gentleness, gracefulness, and his claims to be God's Son. Threatened by truth - isn't that just like us to find something wrong with truth? No matter what, Jesus isn't going to compromise who he is or what he does. We can fight against truth all we want, but the more we fight against it, the harder it will be to resist it! 

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”  They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:3-11)

Demand an answer and you will get one - but it may not be the one you really wanted to hear! Imagine the disappointment and sheer embarrassment of standing up to Jesus, trying hard as you might to 'trip him up' with something you think you know better than him - then looking the fool for even trying it! That is what happened to these religious leaders that day - they put themselves out there, fell flat on their face, then had to walk away with their tails between their legs. It always amazes me how God uses truth to dispel fiction, grace to cause shame to flee, and hope to diminish our greatest fears. 

He with no sin - you may throw the first stone. Jesus knew very well that he was the ONLY ONE in the crowd that day without sin - only he could condemn this woman. No one ever considered he'd come back with that answer - so imagine THEIR shame when they had to walk away one by one! They had sought to shame her publicly, shame Jesus publicly, and find reason to imprison or kill him, but they left with nothing more than their own load of guilt to bear. I would imagine Jesus knew how much their 'load' would be as he spoke those words, but I also know that he made a way for each of them to leave that load right there, embrace him, and enter into the fullness of his grace. They just chose not to.

"Where are your accusers?" Many might stand against the truth, but none will be able to destroy it, for Jesus cannot be overtaken by anyone or anything. When we feel accused, shame mounting on every side, there is one place of hope that rises above the threats of our accuser - the feet of Jesus. She knew much sin, but she was about to know more peace and hope than she ever believed possible. "Go and sin no more" are key words - grace always being the starting point for us to live a new life. Grace never gives permission to sin again and again, it bids us to learn to live anew. Just sayin!

Refashioned Lives

Always be glad because of the Lord! I will say it again: Be glad. Always be gentle with others. The Lord will soon be here. Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel. (Philippians 4:5-7 CEV)

Gladness comes when we take pleasure in something. I like to find the perfect photo - the bee on the flower, leaf floating on water or maybe even the look of having caught a first fish on the face of a young child. It brings me pleasure to catch "just the right" moment. Gladness is a sense of heart where one experiences joy or pleasure. Gladness and happiness are very similar emotions - both based on finding pleasure in something or someone. Pleasure is really the capacity to enjoy what it is you have found. Our passage suggests a reason for gladness - because of the Lord! Simply put - we are possessed by him and he is re-purposing our lives. This should bring us great pleasure, for it brings him ultimate pleasure. 

His whole life has been dedicated to the purpose of finding lost lives, those cast off into the landfill of sin, and plucking that life from the place of rubble and rubbish. In taking up that life, he begins the work of re-crafting that life from one image to another. Jesus takes our lives and refashions them to resemble something other than what they once were. In so doing, beauty is produced - beauty that fills his ears, eyes and heart with praise! Jesus reminds us we are designed to be gentle giants. In essence, we know greatness simply because greatness dwells within us in the presence of Jesus. Although his presence brings access to great "power" within, he reminds us to be gentle with each other. Why? Love is his mode of operation - not the sword! Disciples are known by their love, not by the sword they carry!

We are to become stewards of prayer. A steward manages another person's property, acting as the "agent" of the other person. In reality, we are stewards of all Jesus gives us in his re-purposing of our lives. In turn, he calls us to lift both our own needs, and those of others in prayer - in reverent trust of the one who has re-created us for his purposes. We "steward" a life given back to us at the point of salvation - no longer demanding control, but realizing the one who owns our lives now has the right to ask us to live it for his glory and honor. In turn, he reminds us to stop worrying about things and people - instead, we are to bring them before him in prayer - as stewards of his grace, love, and mercy.

We are called to give thanks. When something is refashioned into something of usefulness, what is produced is a thing of purpose and beauty. We may not realize the original any longer because the "re-purposed" has more beauty than the original! Jesus makes our life which was once so confined to produce something of a beautiful melody for him in the form of thanksgiving, praise, and worship. We are called to think and feel differently. "Re-purposed" lives don't think the same way they once did. In fact, there is an exchange of thinking which occurs when we give our lives over to Jesus. Our thoughts begin to center on him, and in so doing, our emotions begin to be ordered into a new way of responding. Inner peace is a result of the melody of his grace and love played sweetly from the inner core of our being.

We may not see much we are glad for today simply because all we can see is the rubbish pile we have made of our lives. Herein is the beginning of our life's story - the damaged becomes new again - not in its former state, but in a new and glorious re-created, re-purposed life. A life fashioned by the hands of Jesus - to be used for his glory and honor. Nothing quite brings gladness in the same degree. Just sayin!

Sin-Bogged Shoes

You have changed my sorrow into dancing. You have taken away my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. You wanted me to praise you and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever! (Psalm 30:11-12 ERV)

Some days I just don't feel like dancing, how about you? There are just times when the weight of all that I am feeling 'plants my feet' in one spot and I just muddle through. The more I muddle in the muddle, the more weight I feel. If you have ever walked through a particularly muddy section of land, you would likely have noted how quickly the mud attaches itself to your shoes. Before long, those lightweight shoes begin to feel like lead boots! Sin is kind of like that - we muddle through it and wallow around in it long enough and we will find we get 'weighed down' by the 'attached dirt'. The more we try to move, the harder it becomes to actually take big steps in the right direction. 

God's greatest joy is when one of his children actually look down at those mud-bogged feet and then turn their eyes to him, asking for his help to be freed from the 'bog' of sin. Too many times we think we must 'muddle through' on our own, but if we want to be free, we might need to leave those 'sin-bogged shoes' right there in the bog! God is more than capable of lifting us out of the bog, but he doesn't want us to take those sin-bogged shoes with us! They only serve to hold us back from the freedom he wants so badly for each of us to enjoy. Maybe that is why repentance includes being 'redressed' through God's grace.

Redressed by grace means we shed the sackcloth - the torn, dirty garments of our old nature - allowing his Word to wash us clean, then taking the 'fresh clothes' he offers. Joy, peace, hope, love - garments he gives us through grace. Remember the story of the wineskins? Jesus said we don't 'patch' the old wineskins with new patches - we replace the wineskins or risk the new wine being lost when the patches don't hold! Too many times we ask God to do a 'patch job' in our lives, not really wanting to shed the old and take on the new. Truth be told, we are trying to control how God gives us his grace. We want it on our terms, holding onto the old baggage, while attempting to take on the new nature.

I cannot tell you how much God's silence in those moments of me holding onto what he tells me to leave behind have affected me through the years. That silence 'speaks volumes', doesn't it? It is as though God is just waiting for us to realize walking around in those 'sin-bogged shoes' won't cut it anymore. He waits and he watches, allowing us to get a bit more mud on those already bogged soles. Not because he wants to, but because he wants us to want to be rid of whatever weighs us down, free to take on the beauty and joy he provides when we finally do. Just sayin!

Foresight or Hindsight?

The Lord sees everything, and he watches us closely. Sinners are trapped and caught by their own evil deeds. They get lost and die because of their foolishness and lack of self-control. (Proverbs 5:21-23)

As a child, I'd try to blame someone else for the "wrongs" I had done. If it was me who snatched a cookie out of the cookie jar before dinner and left a trail of crumbs right up to where I was sitting playing, I would try to deny it was me! I also remember the time mom came home to find my mouth black and my breath smelling heavily of anise only to hear me deny repeatedly that I had been into my grandmother's licorice candy! I denied because I knew the admittance of guilt would bring punishment - but denial doesn't EVER guarantee escape! It only shifts the blame or focus for a moment, but not for the "savvy" parent. The parent who loves and knows their child will not be caught off-guard by the child's adamant denials! In fact, they will pursue the denial until the child squirms a little and finally admits to the "crime"! Why? They love us too much to let us get away with the "sin"! God loves us in the same way - pursuing us until we admit we are trapped by our sin and cannot find a way out.

God sees everything. My own guilt "found me out" most of the time. In the most literal sense, sin (or our lack of self-control) has a way of "trapping us". Guilt is like a trap - it encompasses us, making us feel like there is no way out, and then strings us up until we cry "uncle". If you are strung up long enough, you are eventually cut off from all things which are your life supply - like food, water, and exercise. In the trap, you wither and die. Guilt is so powerful because it "cuts us off" from those things we need - like fellowship, freedom to move, and nourishment. A trap is any device, strategy, trick designed specifically for catching something "unaware". Our own lack of self-control presents all the right circumstances so as to create this opportunity to be "caught unaware" - simply because we weren't paying attention to where we were heading or what we were setting ourselves up to do. We usually wake up making a fresh commitment NOT to do something that almost always ends up in us making some foolish decisions and pursuing something we should have left untouched.

This "self-control" problem is not new! When God created man in his own image, he also created this ability for self-control deep within man. In the same manner, he created us with the ability of choice. If man chooses wisely, exercising a little self-control (restraint), then man doesn't deal with the other thing God created - his emotions (guilt). If man chooses unwisely, allowing all restraint to fly out the window, then he will also deal with the conflict of emotions which come as a result of having pursued something he intended to avoid in the first place! We are not designed to be solely reliant upon our self-control! Too many times we live very defeated and guilt-ridden lives simply because we think we have to avoid sin completely by our own doing. God also created us with this "space" within each of us that is the place we call "spirit" - the place he is designed to inhabit. If we allow this space to be filled with the Spirit of God, then we find we have help to avoid the traps! The sad thing is that we sometimes set the traps we fall into, while at other times they are set for us. We cannot always be aware of the ones being set for us, but we can be keenly aware of the ones we are setting for ourselves. The Spirit of God within can trigger our awareness - we just have to ask him to do so and then be willing to listen when he does!

It is important to have a living and vital relationship with God - so we can call upon him, learn from him, and be guided by his "fore-knowledge" of what lies ahead. The closer we are to him, the easier it is to avoid the traps! The more we avoid the traps, the less guilt we have to deal with. The less guilt we have, the freer we will be in our worship and adoration of our Lord. That is what God intends for his kids! Just sayin!

What if?

Seek God while he’s here to be found, pray to him while he’s close at hand. Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking. Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness. (Isaiah 55:6)

"When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice." (William James) We are all broken people - all of us have our weaknesses and we all make mistakes. We all need to make the one supreme choice - will we serve self or Jesus? Seek God while he's here to be found - while he is close at hand, cry out. If we want healing in this world, we all need to abandon our desire to live by our own set of rules. Seek - go in search of; question so as to obtain; go to that place where you can meet a holy God. Where is that place? At the feet of Jesus. There is no other way to God except through trust in the one and only Son of God - Jesus.

Lavish with forgiveness - think about the immense love of God and you will be brought to your knees time and time again. His love is unending and undeserved. It seeks even when we don't. His power is greater than any of what we deem to be our enemies. His grace is deeper than any depth of the pit we can dig for ourselves in pursuit of selfish ambition. Our deepest pain is not beyond his healing touch. But...we must seek him - seek his grace, be open to his healing, and be willing to be lifted from that pit. When something is 'lavished', it is given in great amounts - without limit. God's forgiveness is without limits - it is given and given and given again. The seeker finds unrelenting grace at the foot of the cross.

You have a choice to make - accept the love and grace of God or reject it - you must choose wisely. To walk away from the lavish grace and love of God is kind of foolish, isn't it? Given without measure to those who don't even know how desperately they are in need of it. Making a choice is simple, but we complicate it with our 'what if' scenarios. What if God asks me to leave...? What if he asks me to give up...? What if God says I need to...? What if the path takes me a different way than...? What if...the two most dangerous words in our vocabulary that we could utter when faced with the choice to say 'yes' to Jesus. I have one more 'what if' I'd like you to consider today: What if you don't say "yes"? Just askin?

Freedom Robbers

I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don’t feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. (2 Corinthians 7:8-10)

Any great pain or sorrow that weighs us down and almost keeps us from moving is not meant to keep us down, it is meant to drive us to God. Elements of physical suffering, or some mental anguish might have us under its control right now. Some call this "trouble", while others use a more sophisticated term like "affliction" or "tribulation". It is simply junk we don't want to have to deal with, but somehow it always manages to find us. A plane billowing black smoke, pilot frantically attempting to send out a distress call indicating his location as he plummets to the earth - trouble, affliction, tribulation. The call is something of a plea for someone to notice he is "going down" in hopes he might be rescued at some point if he survives the horrific event. I think there are times we view distress almost in a similar way - as if we were "going down" - so we cry out, hoping someone, anyone will notice us and come to our rescue. Distress might even be "self-inflicted" - like when we make a really bad decision and then feel ourselves plummeting out of control, heading toward a crash. Any unseen force in their lives might cause us distress - like when you just feel pressure but cannot put your finger on where it is coming from, when it started, or how to make it end. The "other person" caused distress could be the entire source of the pressure or affliction we might be enduring. Either way, it appears distress is common among men and women alike, so isn't it about time we learn how to deal with it?

The opposite of distress is peace, assurance, and freedom. We have to learn what steals away our peace, brings us to the place of doubt, and captures us in its clutches so tightly. While trying to identify the cause of distress, we just have to look at these three things - peace disturbers, assurance robbers, and captors of our freedom. Peace is more than just the absence of disturbance! Some of us need a little disturbance once in a while to actually get us moving in the right direction once again. Think of the last time you lazily drifted into the lane next to you on the freeway and heard just a little toot of a horn from a passing motorist in the opposite lane. What did that horn toot provide? It disturbed your peace just enough to put you back on course in your lane again. Not all disturbance is a bad thing. Even the calmest, stillest running brook is moving! If it wasn't, it would be pond-like and scummy. The movement keeps it fresh. Peace really is a state of no longer being at a place of "strife" in your life. In other words, you deal with the antagonists to your peace! Doing this means we have to stop long enough to actually figure out what is impacting our peace - even if it is something we might be doing to ourselves! Remember - it doesn't mean we stop moving - we still need to move, but just in the right "lane"!

Assurance is just a fancy word for confidence or certainty. When the stock market begins to go haywire, housing prices plummet, people make runs on banks and stash hard earned monies into their secret hiding places in their homes just in case the banks are going to go "belly up", and the like. Why? Confidence in the system we depend upon is broken. Those who respond in panic are actually showing where it is they have placed their confidence! When confidence is misplaced, it is easy for it to be "robbed away" from us in what appears to be any kind of "distressing" or "conflicting" circumstance, isn't it? When we understand the strength of our life's foundation is Christ, we stand assured. When we haven't allowed this foundation to be built into our lives as strongly as it should be, we sometimes find ourselves a little less certain when the storms come. Captors of our freedom requires someone or something to be our captor. For a captor to actually do his job, he has to be able to over-power or out-think the one he seeks to take into captivity. It doesn't mean he has the most muscles, or the highest IQ. It means he knows how to use what it is he has at his disposal. They use their abilities to their advantage. They outsmart us by affecting our peace or mucking with our assurance. They over-power us by making us think OUR abilities are insufficient to stand up to THEIRS. Truth is - they are probably right! It isn't OUR abilities they should be faced with - it is CHRIST'S abilities WITHIN US they should have to deal with! If they come face-to-face with those abilities, they don't stand a chance of affecting our freedom in Christ!

Not sure what is bringing you a little distress today but remember what our passage declares: Distress which drives us TO God turns us around. It re-establishes our sense of peace, gives us the certainty we are on solid footing, and puts forward the power of Christ, not the mildness of our own abilities. Just sayin!

Breaking Free

Mindful Christianity recently posted: "If you continue to carry the bricks from your past, you will end up building the same house." I used to have a pastor who always said if you always do what you always have done, you will always get what you always got. Same concept - repeat the same things over and over and the results really don't vary all that much. Mix things up a bit and you will see entirely different results. Stop carrying around all those bricks from your past and you might actually see something new being built from much 'lighter' and 'durable' material!

I pulled you in from all over the world, called you in from every dark corner of the earth, telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side. I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’ Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. (Isaiah 41:10)

We may not know how we got to the place where we are today, finding ourselves with bricks and bricks weighing us down, but we do know one thing - we have to drop the bricks! God isn't going to carry us AND the bricks! If we want to be healed from all of that junk in our past, it is time for some of us to finally lay down the load of garbage we have been carrying. Ever look at the difference between your footprint in the sand when you are carrying all that stuff along the shoreline to the place you finally lay it all down, then look at the difference in the indentation of your footprint AFTER you lay it all down? There is clear evidence you laid down the load by the 'lightness' of your steps.

God knows it can take more than a bit of strength to carry that load from our past failures, but he also knows it can take equally as much strength to finally admit we don't need to carry that load anymore. For years I carried a load of guilt over some sins in my past - they weighed me down, causing me to feel loads and loads of guilt and shame. One day I heard Christ clearly tell me they were part of my past - not my present. I asked how I could ever be free from feeling the guilt and shame over those sins and do you know what he told me? Stop trying to convince yourself you HAVE to carry them. He knew I wanted to be free but didn't believe I could ever lay down the shame - I was trying to 'make amends' for things I could never 'amend'.

We all think we can amend our past just by carrying it around with us long enough for us to 'find the fix', but the truth is that we aren't ever going to do anything to amend the past. Only God can restore what we damaged, destroyed, or diminished by whatever it was we "did" in our past that led to that shame. As we confess our sins, he is 'faithful and just to forgive us' - forgiveness is more than just lip-service with Jesus. It means we get a clean slate - all things old are removed and the new is dawning. He gets a firm grip on us and helps us break free of those guilty, shameful 'bricks' once we are willing to lay them down. Just sayin!