'Freedom' Tagged Posts

'Freedom' Tagged Posts

Daily Devotions

Romans 6: 5-11…“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” vs. 11 Sometimes Paul comes across as a hectoring and scolding parent in his letters to the early believers in their little house churches. Like some pastors, he can turn the good news of the gospel into some new impossible commandment. We might even wonder why he makes the plain truth seem so complicated. But as he gives vent to his passions…

Daily Devotions

Exodus 19:2-4…“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” vs. 4 When the Israelites had made their way through the wilderness to the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses went up the mountain to consult with the Lord. When he returned to the people he reported that God had raised them up on eagles’ wings and brought them out of Egypt so that they might be a…

Daily Devotions

So, if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” vs. 36             Romans 8:34-36 Jesus had a sense that people weren’t nearly so free as they thought they were. Not all prisons have bars, and we can be captive in a whole variety of ways. He said it plainly, “Anyone who commits sin is a slave to sin,” and that includes pretty much all of us. Like Paul said some years later, “All have sinned and fall short…

Daily Devotions

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” vs. 17 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 One of the basic truths of all great world religions is that the past does not define our future, and that is most certainly true of Christianity. Paul makes that very clear in his second letter to the Corinthians when he writes that in Christ, the old has passed away and everything has become…

Daily Devotions

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?” vs. 19 1 Corinthians 6:16-20 Some of us who grew up in pietistic homes became accustomed to hearing that much of which we enjoyed doing and that seemed to be fun, was in fact horribly wrong. Our parents scrutinized what we ate or drank, how we behaved, what we read or…

Daily Devotions

‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” vs. 12         1 Corinthians 6:12-15 One of the first reactions people have to the gospel of grace is, “Wow, if all my sins have been forgiven in Christ, I am free to do whatever I please.” When Paul heard that reaction, he went apoplectic. That attitude makes a sacrilege of the gospel! It…

Daily Devotions

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” vs. 36 John 8:34-36 We love freedom! Nothing else gets our juices flowing like the prospect of being free! It’s been the rallying cry of nearly every revolution as the masses have risen up together against tyranny. Many can remember the joy of leaving the structured living of parental homes, and for the first time realizing that they could go where they pleased and come back whenever they…

Daily Devotions

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.” vs. 2 Isaiah 9:1-4 In August of 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech in front of a quarter million civil rights marchers, in which he laid out his dream of an end to racism and the beginning of freedom and equality in the United States. Today, on…

Daily Devotions

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’” vss. 31-32 John 8:31-33 When Jesus uses the word “truth” he’s talking about more than doctrines or theoretical propositions. Everything is relational with him, and here he’s promising his disciples a relationship that will put their hearts and minds at rest and also give them…