Bondage of sin loses its appeal…

Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord. “Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord. “Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’ therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries. “For thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.” ( )

When interpreting Scripture, it is important to consider the style used by each writer. Ezekiel wrote poetically and in figurative and symbolic language. This helps me understand this prophetic passage describing future events that have no record of ever happening. What if he is seeing Egypt as the old life of bondage and describing what will happen to that in the will of God?

Egypt ruled the people of God in a harsh way and that slavery was not the life He intended for them. However, being set free to worship their Creator was not always their response. The people set free often went back to that bondage through self-rule rather than obedience. Instead of destroying them, His plan is to destroy that realm and allow them to live in prosperity in this world with Egypt and all it represents. In Christ, that old life is a lowly force that no longer held them in bondage.

I might be stretching the image yet it is true. One day, when I see Jesus face-to-face I will be like Him — no longer trying to rule my own life or even be tempted to do that. The bondage of sin is defeated at the cross, and the result of God dealing with it means being set free from its power.

Jesus, while research does not back up this interpretation of the prophet’s words, experience does. Just thinking about all You have done and all that You are doing in my life produces a sense of lightness and joy. I do not live in that place of bondage to sin any longer because You made living there so small that its power to rule me is receding and losing its appeal. Thank You for all that You do to give me an abundant life.

 

True Freedom

 

Freedom means different things to different people. We listen to stories of refugees and realize oppression and bondage takes many forms, most of which we have never experienced.

Yesterday, one friend shared that the country she was born in forbid any criticism of government leaders. Those who did and were reported would likely not be seen again. When she moved to Great Britain and heard people speak badly about the Queen, she intensely worried for their safety.

Sometimes slavery is being forced to serve other people. Sometimes it is slavery to bad habits or a way of life. Always it is slavery to that power that holds people from being all that they could be — slavery to sin. When Jesus came, He said:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They (religious leaders) answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31–36)

I’m thinking of what can enslave me in terms of my current life in my part of the world. One is fear, fear of future events, and current threats in political decisions. We just had an election in which the winner has a vague history in ruling a country and the opposition leader lost in his riding and must resign. Talk and promises can sound good, but fear of what happens next could put many in bondage to their fears.

Another threat is aging. A former friend died this month at 103. I can hear her laugh. Will I live that long? Be healthy? I realize that God could call me home anytime. I could be in bondage to concerns about who will be the first in our household to die and how will the remaining person manage? If it is me, will I need to move again? Many questions, but the future is never known or made certain.

I could also be a slave to my I-wants. A big one is wanting to see ALL my family knowing and walking with Jesus. Some do. Some are far from it. Praying daily for them, yet this burden could ruin my freedom to think or do much else.

I could also be a slave to ignorance. We listen to people rant about something they read on social media but didn’t check it out — a total pack of lies. I hear others go on about their problems yet never seem to look for solutions. They enjoy being in the dark? They like to occupy their minds with stuff that is not true? I don’t understand this, but realize I could also be a slave to lies.

Yet Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” The key? “If you abide in my Word… and you will know the truth…” Knowing and believing what God says and sticking to it (abiding) is the key to freedom, freedom from fear, life’s concerns, selfish ideas and habits, and even ignorance. It means reading it, not just as an exercise, but in search for truth that produces trust and takes away fear. Truth that makes me know the folly of worry, the futility of my wants in comparison to the wonderful will of God, and truth that breaks the power of ignorance.

PRAY: Oh Lord Jesus, I am so glad that You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life that is offered to me as a gift because of Your amazing grace and mercy. I can be confident, not fearful or worried as I read it, joyful and assured of Your wisdom and care. This isn’t just about me either, but about the state of the world near and far. You are God and those who try to be will eventually discover that they are not. Amen.

Truth in bad dreams?

 

My nighttime dreams are vivid and often humorous. Yet sometimes they are dark and confusing, even seeming like attempts to divert me from trusting the Lord. Last night, my dreams were filled with selfish actions, several odd funerals, and the confusion of being lost in a building and not able to find what I was looking for. I woke up feeling numb and distracted.

Christians who are filled with God’s Spirit feel love, joy and peace, so instead of dwelling on the dream and trying to rewrite it to make sense, I began saying and singing the truth about Jesus and what He has done for me. After that, I read this, the first line in my devotional book: “Our liberty must come from an understanding of the mind and thoughts of God toward us.”

The author continued to focus on who I am in Jesus and what He has called me to be. I am not in bondage to the dictates of my old life, nor the ‘rules’ of being a servant, nor the power of dreams. I am a child of God and being transformed into the image of Christ. The Bible tells me that as I live and walk in the Spirit, “against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:23). This means putting away all rules driven by self-effort and trusting the Lord to make of me what He wants of me. I’m to confess known sin and humbly recognize that just as I could not save myself, I also cannot be sanctified and set myself apart to serve Him alone, not even in my dreams.

However, as I follow Jesus and see amazing answers to prayer and am excited about His work in me and in others, the conflict begins. I’m not to trust the world’s ideas, nor the lies of Satan, but I’m also not to trust myself. Those dreams hit me with, “If you had a real faith, you would not have dreams like that.”

However, Jesus is my Savior from every sin, and every weakness, even from an imperfect faith, and I can do nothing else but trust it all to Him. For example, I’m learning more about prayer for others. A major lesson is to leave out my personal ideas of what is needed and start telling God what to do. As one writer says, my approach to God is possible because of what Jesus did, not about what I think:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19–22)

Walking in faith means praying in faith, but if my faith is in my I-wants or my I-thinks, then I my faith is in myself and not in the wisdom or the power of God — the kind of praying that the Lord answers, the kind of praying that comes from experiencing my own weakness and from having awful dreams that show me how useless and foolish I am at the core of my being.

PRAY: This is Your Word for me today, Lord. I must trust You like a lost and confused child in utter ignorance, weakness, foolishness, and blindness with nothing that I can do but throw myself on You to meet the needs You place before me. You are the Savior of the lost, and I am lost without you. Keep me trusting you moment by moment! As the devotional writer says, if I look at my feelings, or at my experiences, and at what seem to be the practical results of my trusting, I could despair. But when I look only at You and Your faithfulness to lead me — in darkness or in light because Your blood was shed to redeem me and it is sufficient to cleanse and sanctify even me. Help me remember that effective intercession means substituting my ideas with Your desires for our godliness. It is so easy to pray in sympathy for human discomfort than praying for Your will to be done — in my own life and in the lives of others. Thank You for revealing truth even in bad dreams.

Free to Choose?

 

In discussions about busyness, my husband often says we are busy by choice. Thinking about the many interruptions that I do not choose, he makes me realize how often I must say NO and keep my calendar the way it is, or YES and become busier than I want to be.

It is the same with freedom. In a discussion about living in truth or living in errors promoted by false teachers, the Bible says, “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” (2 Peter 2:19) In other words, we pick our slave-driver. Will it be such things as false teaching from the world, selfishness in the flesh, or the lies of the devil? Or will it be the freedom of serving Jesus Christ?

I know some think that serving Christ is also bondage, but only because they have mistaken the choices. For example, the Christians in Galatia began their spiritual life with faith. However, instead of living by faith and walking in the Spirit, they tried to become what they thought God wanted them to be by being “made perfect by the flesh” and began a descent from a life of faith to living by rules and laws. They needed to hear again these truths:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

The reasons for falling back into law are simple. One is a failure to build faith. Faith grows as we hear and obey God. He tells us to be “like newborn infants, longing for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2) and to not forsake fellowship with other believers. But it isn’t that simple. The flesh or old nature is crucified with Christ yet tries to tell us how to live and that we cannot be happy unless our ego is fed, our pride rewarded, blah, blah, blah. This noise is enhanced by false teaching:

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— (Galatians 2:4)

There are many biblical warnings, all of them saying that such slavery happens by choice:

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:3–6)
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. (Galatians 5:13)
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. (1 Peter 2:16)

When my old nature wants to run my life, the Bible is filled with warnings about the consequences and how that choice is sin. It says, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)

Another driving force for living by rules is that nattering voice that says “you will never be good enough” along with the fear of death and standing before God without any claim at all. To this, God says:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

It boils down to choices. Some people say God give us the freedom to choose, but without Jesus in our lives, we are incapable of choosing godliness. That freedom only comes to those who have faith in Him. Then I can choose to live for Him out of love, or to live by rules thinking that will please Him, but that is not what He died to give me.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

PRAY: Jesus, Your grace is utterly amazing. Living it out is a challenge only because it offers a freedom that is about obedience motivated by love. There is nothing for me in obedience for doing Your will brings glory to You. However, You have already given me everything I need. May my life honor You because You have honored and blessed me with the ability to choose freedom.

Step into Freedom

 

The Twelve-Step program used by AA and NA are not just for alcoholics and substance abuse. They are principles based on biblical truths that enable anyone to overcome any sin. Too often critics will consider these twelve actions to be pat answers or too simple or just for the desperate, but they make plain the actions needed by those struggling against sin and a selfish lifestyle.

The first one is honesty. For those who go to AA, it is about an honest admission of being powerless to control a drinking problem. For everyone, it is an honest admission of being powerless over the power of any sin, over the desire to run my own life and ignore or reject what God wants for me.

MacArthur has focused on the character and benefits of God’s Word, and points to the bottom line: it is the way that He trains us to be righteous, to live the way He intended. This will involve doing good as well as being good, actions as well as attitudes.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

A twelve-step person told us that the hardest part is admitting their own rottenness. For this, the Holy Spirit gives us a hand-up by convicting us of sin and encouraging confession. God’s involvement is like that of a parent who disciplines an erring child. This is painful but necessary and an act of love on His part.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5–11)

Just as He disciplines, God also feeds me. My part is to go to Him with my hunger, acknowledging that Scripture is my spiritual nourishment. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) and Peter added that I need to “put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:1–3)

James added the same thing: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21) and MacArthur notes that trying to feast on Scripture without confessing sin is like attempting to eat a meal while wearing a muzzle.

It is true that the Word of God will keep me from sin, or sin will keep me from opening God’s Book. I need to keep short accounts and not lose my appetite so that He can speak to me, refresh me, and remind me of all that He is and does.

PRAY: Lord, I’ve faced temptation already today, but remembered truth from Your Word and walked away. You are an awesome, gracious and loving God who wants the best for me. Thank You for nourishing my spirit and giving me an appetite for more!

PONDER: These two passages give me two thoughts:

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. (Philippians 3:1)

It should never be a bother to remind others of spiritual truth. It is for their protection and success.

Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. (2 Peter 1:12–15)

It is good to be reminded of things I already know so that I can recall them when the need arises. Do not ever excuse learning with, “Oh, I already know that” but meditate on repeated lessons; the repetition indicates that they are important now and in the future.