John 8:36

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed ~ John 8:36

 

When the word “serve” or “servant” come to most people’s minds, they think of someone who is bound to another against their will. Some of us are enslaved to the things of this world, whether that is to drugs, or alcohol, or to violence. Some are slaves to their work, or their pocketbook and bank account. Some of those enslavements are by choice, but others by improper need. The servanthood thereby becomes a chain which binds that one to that activity, and joy, peace, and hope are lost. In Christ, however, service is an experience of freedom. There are two reasons for this: one is that He grants to us a new and liberating knowledge. “If you abide in My word…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Second is that He can permanently reconcile us to our environment. He does this by bringing the truth into our heart. Revelation brings new claims upon us, and new responsibilities, but instead of these being new obligations, we find they are in fact already existing realities. Without Christ how do we answer the questions of what is life, or my meaning, and what is death? What is sin? What am I? Where are those I have loved and lost? I am in bondage until I can answer those questions. How can we have peace and liberty when we are lost in doubtful circumstances? I was talking to a gentleman in our area yesterday, and he was or had been a believer, but he was lost in his circumstances. He felt God was to blame, and so he was a prisoner in his aloneness and his sense of loss. Yet the one thing he had had, the Lord God, he had abandoned, leaving his soul, his life, bereft of hope. In these times it is only Christ who can respond, yet Christ was left behind, and this man turned inward instead of upward. Freedom, even from his pain, freedom from your pain, is not found by looking within and at what was, but by looking toward the Son to seek new direction and meaning for life. God awaits this mans return, just as He waits for your return. If you want freedom, come to the One who will set you free! Give it all to Him!

Pastor Julia

image: Fa Barboza


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