7-4-2016

     Good Morning All!!   

           Galatians 5:13; “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”

    Freedom; this is how we have believed, as a nation, for 240 years.  We have fought wars for this; we have even fought each other for this.  We argue and debate this but we all cling to it.  It is only 55 words but most people believe that we should fight to secure these rights and no one should ever be deprived of them.  Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; it is the dream of every American and the reason so many people around the world dream of coming here to live; freedom is a heady and hope-filled expression.

    Yet you and I, as Christians, know an even greater freedom.  We know the freedom of Christ.  We know that when the Son sets us free we are free indeed.  This freedom can never be taken away.  Yet what does it mean to be free in Christ?

    It is not a license for lawlessness like many want to assume.  Lawlessness simply leads you back to the devil’s snare of sin.  Lawlessness leads us back to the depraved self-centeredness of sin.  We only look to our own wants, desires, our own greed and gain.  We trample and beat down those around us to take what we want, when we want.  This is not freedom, it is sin and once again it makes us slaves to sin.

    Rather, Christian freedom is about being a new creation.  The Apostle Paul reveals how grace frees the Christian from law, not that we might sin, but that we might discover a new power for righteous living through faith and the Holy Spirit.  Freedom means that we are free from the yoke of slavery and the sting of the Law.  We are free to walk in God’s Spirit bringing love and healing to this world.  While the Declaration of Independence gives us the dream of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness;” God’s free gift of salvation gives us the freedom to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God that we might richly and joyously serve our God in love not in law.  That we may see our fellow man, not as an enemy but as a brother; not as a tool for our selfish gain but as a fellow redeemed child of God.  Let this freedom ring; the Son has set us free to live in his perfect love and union.

Gracious Father, you have freed us from the devil’s chains.  Lead us by your Spirit to walk in your ways of holiness.  Lead us to love with our whole heart and not hold back.  Guide us to your humble walk that we may always know your peace.  Direct us on our way.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret