"Enslaved by Freedom!"

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to plenty and certainly no stranger to want.  He writes a piece that suggests how one should live out his faith. It is in these various circumstances that he finds contentment.  Such contentment then gives him freedom.  He writes,

"Not that I speak of want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need..  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11-13).

There is one thing that this man understood and it was and continues to be what allows the Christian to enjoy contentment and comfort in the most dire of circumstances.  It is this "God is God and I am not!"

How can this be?  It is all in building a trust relationship with the Heavenly Father.  Paul understood that point quite clearly and in fact such trust underpins much of what he writes about.  He understood that in that trust relationship he was a slave to Jesus--he had freely made the choice to be in a slave-master relationship with God!.  Here is this very trained and accomplished man with accolades beyond number who counts it all as "refuse" and assumes the position of a slave.

While many have chosen to employ the word servant in order to attempt to take the sting out of the original word, however translated or mistranslated it is, in the original the word is "slave." The interesting point is that everyone is a slave to someone or something.  One cannot be a slave unless one has a Master.  Such being so, one must choose carefully one's master whether it be Jesus Christ, the insatiable self, or the evil one.

So it was that the Apostle, vested with great power and authority in the first century church, still understood that he was but a slave--a love slave under the tutelage and direction of his Master, the Lord, Jesus Christ.  It is from that perspective that he sets the example not just for Christians of his day but for every Christian who has named Jesus as his Master!

People of that day unlike we in the west today, would understand the meaning of this since a high percentage of the Roman economy and culture was based in the owning of slaves.  Within that population there were those who chose to be permanently attached to their master and as such never sought freedom.  They freely gave themselves most often it was to a benevolent master.  What a picture of the Christian's relationship with Christ.

Therefore, once one is born again it is into the relationship with Jesus Christ.  As noted then one is to becomes a slave with Christ as the benevolent Master.  So it is that one would sell himself into slavery with Christ thus we might well say, Jesus is Lord and Master, I am not!

Jesus Christ does not demand that anyone enter this relationship.  In fact, if it is not a relationship entered freely and without reservation, no Christian relationship exists.  But here is the key.  If one chooses to be a slave of Christ, he then chooses a life style of obedient service.  Some years ago the USAF had three core values.  "Service before self,  Integrity, and Excellence in all we do."  What great core values for the slave of the Lord.


However, if one does not become a slave of Christ, Jesus it is very likely that he will become a slave of another.  It begins with being enslaved to self and self gratification.  Even those who are altruistic in effort when quarried will often respond with "Serving makes me feel so good."

However noble its beginnings, without Christ such slavery spirals downward into bondage and other forms of incorrect enslavement.  These are not without spiritual elements and thus one become enslaved to the Kingdom of Darkness and to its malevolent master, Satan.

In other words, one is either knowingly a slave of the benevolent Christ or one tacitly is enslaved to self leading to one's enslavement by the malevolent evil one.  Either way such slavery shapes one's life-style.  Such brings changes in thinking--both content and process.  Changes in thinking then brings about changes in attitudes.  Relationships are scaled up or down according to whose slave one might be.  The list goes on and on as to the effects upon the slave.

The notion that to come to faith in Christ and to enter such relationships as He has designed is to lose one's freedom is in fact not true.  It is the one who demands his own way and then becomes enslaved to that way that loses his freedom.  Said another way, in giving one's self to Christ Jesus and then living out life in the power of His resurrection grants true freedom--freedom from bondage, oppression, etc.  Freedom to contentment, faith, trust, and confidence in God.  It is these latter things that once established in one's life grant freedom no matter the circumstances in which one finds himself.

"Do I Really Want The Pain Go Away?"

Dismissing the Discomfort

Maybe you have noticed as I have, that there is a rejection of and even a rebellion against that which is  painful.  Such attitudes have progressed or we might even say regressed until there is rejection of and rebellion against that which is even mildly disagreeable to us.  How often have you heard someone in a mildly objectionable circumstance make the statement that they deserve better.

Yet in considering those situations and circumstances most people with any self awareness at all understand that when difficulty comes, their emotional reaction fits somewhere between mildly disagreeable to deep agony.  Certainly there are a number of words that one might employ to describe his emotional reaction.

Another element is that different people respond to the same circumstances with different emotional reactions.  In other words ones' capacity to deal with difficulty is very individual and thus what one person might view as mildly unpleasant, another might view as extremely offensive.

Why is this rejection and even rebellion so?  Would it not be easier to just move to contrite acceptance.  Consider the following as a possible answer to that question!  

Consider as well that such a desire for restoration creates a tension with the world in which one lives as one seeks to negate the effects of living in and among fallen people, in fallen bodies, in a fallen world order, and in a fallen environment.  This falleness is is not as God intended in the original creation.

Since mankind is created in the image of the Divine, there is within each of us a spark of the Divine--a vestige  though marred by self and sin of the "created in God's image" part of man.  Within that spark are a number of the higher values of man such as creative expression, justice, etc.  There also is the desire for restoration.


It then follows that as we are in a straightened circumstances, that we should be stressed.  However, there is more and it is that we who live with the Divine in view before us, should  stress these things!  That is we should be a stress to those elements of life that create or should we say occasion our reactions on the mildly disagreeable to deep agony emotional reaction scale.

Said another way, just as God's provision of a way for man to be restored to Himself so too within mankind in general and within each man there is that penchant for restoration.  For example, suppose sees another person who has lost the capacity to walk.  Further the first person knows of a medical miracle worker who can restore the capacity to walk.  Most people even though risking scorn, would tell the person in hopes that the stranger who they might never see again would be restored as opposed to simply accepting the situation.


So it is when we are emotionally embroiled in the discomforts and inconveniences of the unpalatable situations and circumstances of life.  Such a "restorative" desire occasions action and such action in some sense seeks to redeem or buy back ourselves and others from the negative situations, circumstances, and feelings that come upon a person.  Another example would be seeking to once again be healthy following major surgery.

However, there must be a healthy caveat in this discussion and it has to do with God's intervention in the lives of  His followers for His purposes.  

Yes, we want to fix the objectionable elements of our lives.  However, it may be that God's intention is that we gracefully carry the uncomfortable elements of our lives.  You see there are some things for which we must be responsible.  On the other hand, there are other things, even if we were vested with all the responsibility in the world, we can do nothing about and those things we must make it our business to make them God's business.  

Think with me about the notion that everything that I find objectionable in life must be fixed!  What might be some of the unintended outcomes. One outcome is that we would then place unfair burdens upon the one carrying the difficulty.  Thus one might hear the following,

Why are you not healed?  Why do you keep on falling back into your sinful habits?  Why do you consistently fail in the Faith?  Why do you not have victory in this area of your life?  Why is it impossible for me to win over some other reflection of my selfishness?

I suppose you might sum up these and other life'e experiences with the thought, Life is at times very trying!

Then ask the question, What do these unfair expectations say about God? You've no doubt heard the questions as I have.

If you are God, why don't you heal or provide, or give me (or them) strength, or victory over a sinful habit, or some other thought about being an over-comer? 

I suppose you ight sum up these and other question with the thought,  God is at times very trying!


It seems to me that if God were to take away the objectionable elements of our lives it would also mean that He would then be removing some key elements of our relationship with Him.  For example,

To remove all that is unpleasant and trying would be to remove the necessity for trust in the Lord.  It also would mean that the necessity for grace is now gone.  What would such a thing say about the opportunities to grow through developing a forgiving heart?

Admittedly there are more questions than answers in the above.  However, there are two things that we do know.  First and of prime importance is this.  When our days of trouble are ended we who follow Christ, will know perfect and complete victory. Those nagging vestiges of our sinful flesh will be left behind.   Second, though we are to be responsible, show initiative, live out ethical qualities, still in all, we are but reader-observers of our day.  The true author who is writing the eternal Kingdom of Heaven story is the only one who knows the great purpose in all that is discussed above.

Though it is of little comfort in the midst of trial, temptation, failure, and frustration, it is not that it is our story but it is His story and we get to be a small part of that narrative.  At least for the days we are given on this earth.  Could it be that the pains and discomforts of this life are a part of His story.  Is that not the point of "...all things work together for good for them who are called for the purposes of God?"

“Looking In All The Wrong Places”

The question in the subject line of the email caught my eye, “Looking for answers, hope, and encouragement?”  A moment before I had been reading an observation that the medical model of illness and the legal model of sin were inadequate to respond to man’s needs. 

Despite all of man’s accomplishments, still the questions are vastly greater in number than the answers, hopeless often out-darkens hope, and courage has been dissected out of encouragement.  The specifics might change but the difficulties remain.  It is as another (H.G Wells) noted, man is played out.  A prudent look at man and mankind will suggest that there is an end, a limit, a point of the exhaustion of man and mankind’s time, talent, and treasure. Such is the plight of one who lives in a closed system!

However, there is another view that though discredited by many has withstood time and thus demonstrates its veracity.  Unlike much science, sociology, psychology, religion, anthropology, etc., it has time after time demonstrated its authenticity. 

It is this.  Man and mankind do not live in a closed system but a system in which, as one termed it there is a Divine gas station attendant who is always at work putting energy into the system!  Now ask, who or what is it that answers the unanswerable questions of science?

Curious isn’t it when the non-religious skeptic is asked those questions his answer often introduces time into the question.  When true science stressed the unsustainability of evolutionary theory, time was introduced.  When man, possessed of the notion of a closed system, does not have an answer he add the time element—given enough time man will find and provide the answers.

Now for the simple question.  Would it not be easier to leave God in the picture rather than doing the secular dance around all that points to His existence and involvement in the affairs of man and the affairs of life in general? 

Indeed when I open the system to an all powerful, all knowing, all loving, ever present God I open the possibilities for answers in the confusion of life.  Hope in the darkness is now possible.  The courage of encouragement may be mine when all that is around me is failing. 

When I accept that God is trustworthy then life becomes a matter of building my belief upon and my confidence in His care—even when such is beyond my capacity to understand and explain.  Such is completely possible in the midst of a very confusing world but only as I completely abandon myself to Him.  It is then that I find that which we all desire in the deeper place, peace, contentment, and fulfillment.