This is a post in relation to the July 2014 Synchroblog prompt on the topic of Liberty. The Synchroblog is a wonderful Christian fellowship of bloggers dedicated to Christ, get involved if you can!
Liberty is the topic, a word that has shown up again and again in my life as a Christian.
Galatians 5:13 (ESV) says "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."
Christianity at times must be explained in a precise way, even slight modifications in doctrine and the message is suddenly scrambled and lost. Putting adherence to the laws of the Bible before Christ can cause just that problem. Then the message of Christianity is slavery to law. That is not the message!
The message of Christianity is one of liberty!
While the sexual revolution, a joint on weekends, a few beers here and there, they seemed like liberation. They seem like reasonable rebellion. But they were slavery dressed up as freedom.
Christianity to me means liberation from slavery. I was a slave to my own rebellious nature. I had to chase after what my mind wanted, day in and day out. I had to drive to the store to get more pills, I had to search day and night, scour the carpet for pennies to purchase a bit of alcohol.
Jesus Christ was a liberator to me, coming to a man being dragged by a Goliath. I had a chain around my neck. One I had tried to break on my own power, again and again. Jesus did the impossible when he cut the chain and freed me.
And I was shocked, and shock has become gratitude in my life.
That's the personal level. The community level is that I love being free, and living free. I don't easily submit to a 9 to 5 routine, and Christ offers liberation from serving the man at the cash register. Jesus put me in a ministry at the Salvation Army of Wausau that I'm very grateful for. Because very simply, what I do there matters. It matters in a way that so many things in this world never will. It matters in eternity.
And the political level is that I love liberty. I'm a libertarian in political beliefs. I worked on the Ron Paul 2012 primary campaign. I believe in small government, strict adherence to the Constitution, and personal liberty to choose my own destiny.
In the academic area I attend Liberty University. It seemed like a nod to my libertarian political beliefs, after my salvation date, suddenly I was attending Liberty University, wearing the blue t-shirt with red letters marked "LIBERTY." Because Jesus Christ is my liberator, and now he has sent me to an institution to be trained to liberate others, by guiding them to the liberator, Jesus Christ.
For that I am eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father.
Romans 8:1-2 (ESV)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Isaiah 61:1 (ESV) The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound
Link List:
- Jerry Wirtley – Liberty …
- Bobbi Ann Allen – My Allegiance Has Changed
- Justin Steckbauer – The Topic Of Liberty
- MinnowSpeaks – The Talk
- Jeremy Myers – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?
- Carol Kuniholm – Liberty and Constraint
- K.W. Leslie – Why I Don’t Go To Church: No Freedom
- Jesus Without Baggage – Where The Spirit of The Lord Is, There Is Liberty
- Glenn Hager – Rebel
- James Carter – The Law of Liberty
- Mallory Pickering – Don’t Give Up
- Leah Chang – Free To Be
