What is freedom? Where do I find it? Everyone in one way or another is asking this question. Christ came to "set us free;" & "whom the son has set free is free indeed." However, God's definition of freedom & ours aren't the same. As we frantically try to control our lives we realize, or at least other people do, that we are out of control. What is freedom? Freedom comes from giving control of your entire being to God. What he says is right is right. What he says is wrong is wrong. His values are THE values you live your life by. As an American my definition of Freedom is: Doing what I want to do when I want to do it. This isn't God's heart or definition of freedom & only leads to confusion. Only submission to God through Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit leads to REAL freedom! Please read the Epistles with special care to the word: Slave. It is a favorite title for those who knew Christ. It's not very popular today either in title or in standing.
Bondage to Christ leads to freedom; freedom as you define it, & therefore live it, leads to bondage.
He came to set us free because we are bound. The blind cannot lead the blind. The blind cannot walk without assistance. We are blind & when you realize that you are blind he gives you sight. He came to save us because we are out of control; bound by sin & death.
Bondage to Christ leads to freedom; freedom as you define it, & therefore live it, leads to bondage.
4 comments:
I remember first coming across the phrase, "discipline equals freedom," in Richard Foster. It confused the heck out of me at first, but it makes perfect sense. It was simply the cultural value you highlight that prevented me from seeing the truth...
You have the freedom to run for 26 miles, hard, without stopping. I don't have that freedom. The difference? Discipline!
I don't have the freedom to beautifully play the violin, or to create a beautiful painting.
At the end of the day, our culture has left us, for all of our grasping at what we think is freedom (but is only rebellion), without the freedom to have a joy-filled marriage, unable to raise healthy and loving children, without the freedom to live with purpose and hope, without even the freedom to pay our mortgages...
We call it freedom, Paul calls it slavery.
Thanks Steve, that's great stuff.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/08/atheist-delusions-3.html
Check this out...
That's an interesting article.
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