FREE!

Galatians 5:13

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

If you’re anything like me you love that word, but it’s meaning can be rather confusing. The first rule of economics tells us that there is no free lunch, that it’s either already been paid for or the bill is yet to come. Knowing this, we’re more likely to be skeptical of things that are free, and even less trusting of the phrase “At no cost to you” I guess it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I said ring, perhaps I meant hook…

The difference between the two is subtle, “free” denotes  something we aren’t beholding to anyone for, that we might indulge ourselves in without impropriety, without feeling encumbered by any sort of obligation. That being thankful for is merely good manners on our part, not a requirement.

Whereas, “at no cost to you” suggests something else that most people aren’t as comfortable with. Just knowing that there was a cost to someone at some point registers with most people as something that’s “owed”. Even if it’s merely some due consideration such as being thankful, it’s seen as being a liability or as undesirable.

As I was thinking about what these words mean I wondered if there was a worthwhile comparison involving these two definitions and some of the ways in which the gospel is presented to people.  Peoples misconceptions concerning Gods free gift of salvation can be a stumbling block,  as an ambassador of Christ I feel it’s useful to understand them. I’ve always believed that if the gospel was presented to people from the perspective of grace they’d have no reason not to accept Christ!  Unfortunately, most of what I’ve heard seems to come across kind of like this,

“You’re a hopeless sinner on your way to hell! Accept Christ’s free gift of salvation, and then spend the rest of your life trying to be good enough to keep it”.

Yes! You are a hopeless sinner and Yes! salvation is a free gift, but once you accept it you’re NOT on the “Holiness” hook,

holiness isn’t the way to Jesus, instead it’s Jesus who is our way to holiness!

Yes, God wants us to be Holy, but it doesn’t count for anything if we’re just doing it to save ourselves! I think He wants us to be holy out of our love for Him, not to be coerced or guilted into it or be told that our salvation depends on it. That doesn’t sound like grace, which is the UN-merited favor of God, that sounds more like a doctrine of works or the “at no cost to you” type of free.

2 Timothy 1:9

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

The point I’m going for is that man has great difficulty accepting that salvation is a free gift, or in understanding what love really is. Perhaps because all he’s  known or experienced is the “strings attached” type,  it could be that the obligated version of “free” may be all he understands.  I feel like that’s pretty common in this world, but this is the greatest example of real love!  Even though man may be much more familiar with the worlds lesser examples of love or more comfortable with seeing himself as being “worthy” of salvation, that’s not the real gospel message. Many Christian’s also prefer variations of that perspective because they feel it somehow puts them above other people in Gods eye’s which is of course “dead wrong”, many non-Christian people want nothing to do with “it” or them for much the same reason!

My favorite saying related to this topic is,

We’re not saved BY works, But instead FOR works!

Love is always a choice! Serving the Lord is my greatest joy! Living a God honoring life is something I attempt to do out of my own freewill because of my love for God and other people, in response to a love that was first shown to me! It’s not out of any sense of obligation, my salvation is a done deal! Therefore there’s nothing to “earn” or no ongoing dues that I must pay, I believe that I was blood bought, not blood “pawned”! The only thing I owe is to tell others what Christ has done for me and that is absolutely no problem!  Some of what is preached by “Christians” is intended to stir up guilt and condemnation in people which tends to have the  effect of turning them into unhappy, self righteous, “religious” people!

I’m so not into that…and I can understand why the world isn’t either!

Why? Because it’s a game you’ll never win, forever comparing yourself to others caught in some sort of tail chasing spiral that either falsely puffs you up or brings you down…fun huh?

I’ve heard this preached many times,

“We could double the attendance here in a month, all we’ve got to do is tell people they can do whatever they want and still go to heaven”

Why not say that? It’s a bit of a challenge as I see it!

Go ahead and put that on the sign in front of your church and when the people show up we’ll tell them about the love of Jesus and how He chose to die for all of our sin’s. We’ll show them a little piece of that love in the Christian fellowship we’ll extend to them. We’ll be patient and supportive while the Holy Spirit works in their heart and their walls of resistance are broken down by the great love of Jesus!  And when that time comes and their ready to accept what Christ did on the cross as being for them and recognize it as being the only way to wipe away their sins we’ll pray with them that Jesus would come into their heart and be Lord of their lives! Then, If they’ve truly had a born again experience I think you’d be safe to tell them,

” Go ahead and do whatever you want! Do whatever your new best friend the Holy Spirit will abide!”

Why? Because they’ve been set FREE!

From my perspective either you believe that greater is He that is in me, or that greater is he who’s in the world…That there’s power in the blood of Christ to save us and keep us, and to forgive us, no matter what we’ve done or what we will do, or you don’t! I believe that coming to know Christ is a life changing experience, and even though there are times that we’re all going to fall short of the mark I’d put my faith the power of the Holy Spirit over that of the world anytime!

1 Corinthians 7:22

For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant.

I know that some of what I’ve written here could be easily misinterpreted. So just for the record let me state that in no way am I advocating using grace as a license for immorality or sin, neither am I saying that I don’t thoughtfully consider or that I take for granted the great price that Christ paid on the cross for my salvation.  Doctrines of works and of grace can both be taken to flawed extremes.  Personally, I feel as though I want to do my best in this life, to always choose love. But I know that I fail at it and that if it weren’t for the Gods grace I wouldn’t have any hope at all! I believe that because God is all knowing and loves us so much He made it very simple and totally free for us to be saved!

Thank You Father God!

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Gods In It…(Pt.1)

Note to readers: This blog is a narrative of an as of yet still unfolding story which is my life. I’ve never done a three part piece but due to the complexity and length of the story I felt it was necessary. I do hope that you enjoy it…

Do you see the working of the Holy Spirit in your life on a regular basis? As human’s we’re entitled to see the events and circumstances of our lives in any way we choose according to our own beliefs. It’s the central feature of our free will to acknowledge something or nothing supernatural as playing a part in our lives. Many people believe in only what they can see, in the works of men or in their own abilities, some in luck and coincidence, still others see everything as having an intelligent plan behind it, they believe that everything happens for a reason, that there are no accidents and everything happens “on purpose”. I think this synopsis covers most of the bases, personally I believe that because God loves me He is vitally and passionately interested in every detail of my life! I can look back upon the years of my life and see His hand on me, places where He guided me, counseled me, and delivered me from and through so many things. I can also very easily see His love for me through His care and provision in my life. One thing I’ve noticed about how God seems to work is that when He does something it’s never about just one person. Whatever He does always affects many people who are related through circumstances in a positive way.

Gin rummy is a card game where you collect cards that have some sequential relationship to each other and then lay them down for points. The ultimate goal is to match up every card you have into a set of some type leaving you card-less and thus achieving  “Gin”!

My card game began back in February of ’06 early one morning when I fell on my slightly damp and slippery rough sawed oak front steps and completely tore my rotator cuff. After my surgery I was off of work for about 6mo’s. During that summer my wife also unfortunately lost her job as a nurse because of a procedural error she was blamed for which resulted in her nursing license being suspended. In August I went back to work and was digging myself out of the deep hole I was in when I was told my child support would be going from the 400.00 a month plus 150.00 towards arrears that I was regularly paying to a new total of 700.00 a month because of some medical bills I’d never seen but that I was now liable for. Also, it was decided by the government that I and my daughter needed to be automatically enrolled in the health care plan offered by my employer which cost me over 300.00 more a month, she already had insurance but hey, more is better right?

(as an aside,they also passed another law that had a dramatic and effect on my situation)

In order to try and cope with this financial tsunami I decided that the only thing for me to do was to try and get a better paying  job.  After completing an over the phone interview, J.B. Hunt told me that I was hired and that I should go to St. Louis, Mo. and report to orientation classes which I did.  ( I’m not sure how it has to do with the overall story but I feel as though I need to mention that my father passed away in July of this year which was immediately prior to my trip to St.Louis) Three days into it they told me that they can’t hire me because I have a preventable accident on my record. I was involved in an accident while driving an 18 wheeler in ’05 but I wasn’t cited for it by the investigating DOT officer’s.  After I quit working for them the company turned the accident in to the driver advocacy council (DAC) as being my fault which essentially black-balled me from getting any driving job. I came home in disgust, and a gentleman whom I had talked to previously about logging my property called me up out of the blue and said he could get right on it! I made a couple thousand dollars that I used to try and start up a home based internet business with a friend of mine which promptly failed. Everything I became involved with failed pretty much right away, nothing I tried worked out!  I remember at one point I was desperately trying to sell firewood, it was a Sunday and I had a load sold that was about three quarter’s finished. I decided that I wouldn’t finish the load because it was Sunday and I wanted to observe the sabbath. That night it rained hard and the next day when I tried to get my truck out it sank down to the axles in mud! That truck sat there for probably 3 months before my stepson brought out his skidder and winched it out.

I was getting discouraged…