Monday, December 12, 2016
526 - The Gift of Freedom, Part 3
Spirituality Column No. 526
December 13, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
A. Shackled to Jesus by your sin?
B. Spiritually free from your sin through Jesus?
C. Free to do whatever you want because Jesus loves you anyway?
D. Expecting a physical, material, monetary or social status reward?
The correct answer here – I hope it’s obvious – is “B.”
Christians go to church for a lot of different reasons. Some go (A) because of their sin, shame and guilt, which makes church a hospital or jail; something most people want to get out of. Some (C) take a chunk of scripture about “love” – e.g. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,” etc., and mistake their own worldly appetites for God’s divine word and build a church full of popular culture but absent biblical responsibility. The (D) self-directed prosperity Gospel says “Get a blessing” vs. “Be a blessing.”
Most people have some idea that “God exists.” It takes some prayer, Bible reading, coaching, diligence and discernment to truly understand what God said, what Jesus promised and what the Holy Spirit offers. It also takes some time, patience and being challenged to discover what it all means. Freedom is the result of getting it right; bondage is the result of getting it wrong.
When I think back on the times in my adult life when I have cried – I mean really let loose – the only ones I remember were from sadness, fear or relief. My parents died, my dog was hit by a car. I lost a job, a career, a home. My cancer surgery (long before I knew Jesus) was successful. Nowadays when I pray out loud, especially a prayer of thanks or love, tears easily flow and my voice not infrequently collapses. All the while I feel the great relief of witnessing God’s work, love and presence.
And I feel entirely free.
Satan is the great deceiver, liar and tempter, and there is no truth in him. Yet his best trick is convincing humans that their own freedom is in creating a distance from God and in blurring God’s holy word into unholy, prideful blobs of false promises, false hopes, false doctrine and false, temporal “truth,” all adding up to false freedom.
Bondage is believing a truth that God didn’t ordain.
Satan makes real-deal truth hard to find, but Christ’s real-deal freedom is hard to beat. Satan stands in front of both truth and freedom with camouflage, argument, enticements, accusations and condemnation; fiercely shooting false but deadly arrows of cultural preferences, popular opinion, political dogmas and self-glorifying religion. The errant, freedom-killing focus, always is “me.” Freedom’s true focus, always, is God’s love.
Kingdom freedom (B) is God’s glory; hell’s bondage is Satan’s only promise.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the relief – the freedom – of knowing Jesus is being able to ignore Satan’s lies.
December 13, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
The Gift of Freedom, Part 3
By Bob Walters
Say you go to church, believe
in God, trust Jesus and accept the Holy Spirit.
Are you…
A. Shackled to Jesus by your sin?
B. Spiritually free from your sin through Jesus?
C. Free to do whatever you want because Jesus loves you anyway?
D. Expecting a physical, material, monetary or social status reward?
The correct answer here – I hope it’s obvious – is “B.”
Christians go to church for a lot of different reasons. Some go (A) because of their sin, shame and guilt, which makes church a hospital or jail; something most people want to get out of. Some (C) take a chunk of scripture about “love” – e.g. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,” etc., and mistake their own worldly appetites for God’s divine word and build a church full of popular culture but absent biblical responsibility. The (D) self-directed prosperity Gospel says “Get a blessing” vs. “Be a blessing.”
Most people have some idea that “God exists.” It takes some prayer, Bible reading, coaching, diligence and discernment to truly understand what God said, what Jesus promised and what the Holy Spirit offers. It also takes some time, patience and being challenged to discover what it all means. Freedom is the result of getting it right; bondage is the result of getting it wrong.
When I think back on the times in my adult life when I have cried – I mean really let loose – the only ones I remember were from sadness, fear or relief. My parents died, my dog was hit by a car. I lost a job, a career, a home. My cancer surgery (long before I knew Jesus) was successful. Nowadays when I pray out loud, especially a prayer of thanks or love, tears easily flow and my voice not infrequently collapses. All the while I feel the great relief of witnessing God’s work, love and presence.
And I feel entirely free.
Satan is the great deceiver, liar and tempter, and there is no truth in him. Yet his best trick is convincing humans that their own freedom is in creating a distance from God and in blurring God’s holy word into unholy, prideful blobs of false promises, false hopes, false doctrine and false, temporal “truth,” all adding up to false freedom.
Bondage is believing a truth that God didn’t ordain.
Satan makes real-deal truth hard to find, but Christ’s real-deal freedom is hard to beat. Satan stands in front of both truth and freedom with camouflage, argument, enticements, accusations and condemnation; fiercely shooting false but deadly arrows of cultural preferences, popular opinion, political dogmas and self-glorifying religion. The errant, freedom-killing focus, always is “me.” Freedom’s true focus, always, is God’s love.
Kingdom freedom (B) is God’s glory; hell’s bondage is Satan’s only promise.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the relief – the freedom – of knowing Jesus is being able to ignore Satan’s lies.
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