7-5-2014

 Good Morning All,

      Galatians 5:1; “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

      Yesterday was the day that we remembered our independence from England and the freedom that we enjoy.  It might be a good time to think about what is probably the darkest of human invention and institution- slavery.  Slavery, in many ways, represents the depths of depravity.  It reveals the emptiness and hollowness of our nature.  It reveal to us the most broken of all the brokenness that exists.

    Slavery completely destroyed any type of relationship.  Husband and wife, parent and child, grandparent and child, neighbors, friends, whole villages were ripped apart.  As the captives were shackled, herded and led away, it was all at the whim of the captor.  Some went to one city while some went to other regions.  The wants, desires, dreams, and hope of the slave were never part of the decision.

    This is why the Bible compares our sinful existence to slavery as in “slaves to sin”.  Sin has no conscience; it only serves to harm.  The devil uses it to demean us and to reduce us to nothing.  Sin deprives us of hopes and dreams, destroys desires and crushes hope.  All of us have been damaged by sin, some, perhaps you, may feel completely crushed.  You may have felt the coldness of the steel on your neck, wrists and ankles, the sting of the whip, the weight of carrying all those chains as you are marched away from all you treasure and all you have ever known.

    Some of us know the destruction done to families because of alcohol or drug abuse.  It can even occur because of illness, mental, physical or emotional.  It can be from a decision that, once made, is never undone.  The decision to abort, assault, rape, kill can never be undone and with it, we carry the burden and are slaves to sin. 

    Even these, Christ has paid for, has redeemed you and has forgiven you.  He extends his hands of love to you to destroy those shackles that the devil wants you to feel locked in and hopeless.  Yet Christ has freed you from the burden of that sin.  He bore that sin, that sin that you carry so deep and are so fearful of acknowledging or admitting.  He removed that sin and removed that whip that beats you down.  You have hope and you have it now.  God destroys the shackles and wants you to throw them off and go forth with the certainty of his love and your salvation.

    Whatever you have done, there is someone who has done something worse who lives in God’s heavenly glory.  Whatever the sin, whatever the pain, God has removed it and freed you from the burden of that sin: you do not have to submit to it again.  It does not have to control you; you are truly free from the pain.

Gracious Savior, you have redeemed us from the pain and control of sin.  Instill in us the faith to trust that you forgive all sins.  Give us the confidence to trust that you heal all pain.  Clear our hearts of this self-imposed pain.  Bring us safely home.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret