Stand Fast part 1
Not too long ago I did a Rant series about standing. Standing on the Rock that is Jesus. Standing on (and in) love, so that we might not be shaken. For the next few days I want to focus on a different aspect of standing. It comes from Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." Freedom. Liberty. These things are supremely important. Remember Mel Gibson in Braveheart? "They can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom!" Live free or die. And let me say this, in the context of not being entangled again with a yoke of bondage... that bondage is sin. That bondage is death. And if Paul is writing to warn against being entangled AGAIN in that bondage... we need to understand that once we were blind, but now we can see. Once we were dead, but now we have been brought to life. Don't go back. That's the message here. Look at Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptaable, and perfect, will of God." To be clear: There are not three wills of God. He has one will. And that one will is good and acceptable and perfect. His will is for you to know His love and love with that love. To receive and release the gift He has given you. That's His will. That's the desire of HIS heart. And that love is what gives us the liberty to live. Because to live IS to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing! Standing fast in the liberty of life and love means... living by loving! And it's that simple to stay out of the bondage of sin and death. (Notice I didn't say it's that "easy." Because temptations wouldn't be temptations if they didn't tempt you.) This life is all about love. This life is letting God love you and loving Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. So rather than getting twisted around and mixed up in anything and everything else... what we ought to do is simply set our affection on things above and not on things on the earth. Focus on what really matters. Don't use our liberty as an excuse. "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." Liberty is not freedom TO sin, it is freedom FROM sin. It is freedom TO love! When you're trapped in bondage, you can't do the things you really want to do. Paul wrote about that too, speaking about being under the Law. Speaking about only doing the things he hated and never doing the things he loved. That's not freedom. Knowing what you truly want to do--love and be loved--and then doing that... that's freedom. That's life. That's what we were created to do. It took God a long time to teach the people of Israel how to live, after bringing them out of some 400 years of slavery. Because we, as people, settle. We just accept things. Get used to things. We just shrug our shoulders and say, "It is what it is." And we miss out on what is available to us. We think life is all about working hard (and I'm not saying you don't have to work hard in your life. I'm saying you don't have to, and can't, earn your Spiritual bread by the sweat of your brow). Really life is all about giving maximum effort from a posture of rest. Doing what we do because it is in our hearts to do it. Letting God, Jesus, love, do what He is of a mind to do in us, and through us, and as us. Standing fast in our freedom. Our liberty. Our love!