The Most Heinous Slavery Ever Known To Man

The most heinous slavery ever known to man is not the human trafficking of young girls, the enslavement of Christians by Muslims, the enslavement of Africans by Westerners, the enslavement of American Indians by those of other tribes, or any of a number of other periods when one peoples enslaved another people.  Read on and you will find out the enslavement that underlies all others and thus is the most heinous unknown to most men.

Perhaps you have notice that people will sacrifice much in order to achieve freedom and stability.  It may be in some kind of transaction, it might be in relationships, it could be in some emotional issue, it might be in a health issue, it could be in any of a number of other venues in life that people seek freedom and stability.  Some have even referred to it as closure.  This is such an important issue that many will even suffer the loss of materials goods, physical capability, position, etc. in order to find the peace of freedom and stability.

The reason may well be found in the word tension.  In fluid and changing situations there is a loss of control and an attendant loss of freedom and stability.  That need for stability creates a certain tension and often that tension is found to be difficult if not intolerable.   Of course knowing that to be so, there are those who for some pathological reason or another, go about seeking to disrupt and control others by creating and fostering tensions in the various relationships venues of their lives.

Yet there can be a solution to the instability and tension and it is all found in two questions or conditions.  First is the question of the trustworthiness of the person with whom one is in relationship.  The second is in the type of relationship one has with that person.  Of course the most trustworthy relationship is a genuine relationship and such a relationship can be no more genuine than when it is with Jesus Christ as Lord.  Be aware that there are a number of facsimiles but only one genuine.

Then assuming it is a genuine relationship, the question then is what is the quality of that relationship?  For it to work properly, the relationship must be one of implicit trust. 

The epitome of a trust relationship is to give another complete control of one’s life, material goods, relationships, and even the internal faculties, to include beliefs, attitudes, and thought processes. 

 The only place that such a relationship can be found to be completely and totally trustworthy is in one’s relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is as the one who comes to Him humbles himself, surrenders to Him as Lord.  The actual word is for Lord in the Scriptures means master or one who has supreme or ultimate authority.  Now to name Jesus Christ as Master means to acknowledge Him as an owner and, well you guessed it that makes the genuine, real deal, follower of Jesus that which He owns.  Said another way the follower becomes His slave—the slave that He bought with the sacrifice of His own life.  Thus we have the reason for His sacrificial death on the Cross.

Is this a mystery or what?  Just to think that Jesus, who is described as God living among us in our humanity, gave His life in order to buy us back from our own enslavement to sinfulness and evil.  Such is beyond our comprehension.  Some would argue what me enslaved?  Yes, for our measure is against a culture that is enslaved and thus it is normal and therefore other than the condition is unknown to us.

So here is the genuine pathway through instability and tension.  It comes when we do not own ourselves but are owned by the benevolent Master—the one who cared so very much for each of us  with a genuine love--a selfless love that He left His place of royalty and came to earth, became a man, lived among people like us, and then gave His life to pay for our sins and failures.  In doing that He redeemed (bought back from slavery to sin) each who would name Him as Slave Master and commit to be His slave.

So what is the most heinous slavery?  It is the slavery that underlies all that is evil, all that we see that is wrong with culture, religion, relationships, etc.  This enslavement to sinfulness is indeed unknown to most for man is so surrounded by sinfulness that it is the norm, not the exception.  It is the slavery that enslaves those who have not found the freedom that is available to the one who has become a slave of Jesus Christ.

"A New Year Bring New Chances"

"Lets take a chance and..."

Ever said that or been with someone or a group who decided to take a chance.  What is chance?  Certainly it is not the guarantee that success is around the corner of decision!  It is taking the opportunity for success.  It is measuring the possibilities and deciding such risk as is involved is worth it and then moving in some direction or another.

What keeps us from taking a chance?  For some I suppose it is fear.  For some it is comfort.  For some it is irresponsibility.  Irresponsibility?  That is right.  A story...

Imagine that there was a garden of the most delightful fruits and vegetables that one might imagine.  Though untended there were no weeds and the soil was so rich that plants effortlessly grew, and the fruit and vegetables were abundant.  There was a natural spring of the purest water which kept the soil moist.  There was so much produce that it would feed the dozens and dozens of families that had need.  In addition there would be so much left over, it could be sold and the monies earned could then be used to meet other needs.  

Then imagine that next door to this garden lived a miser.  He would go and harvest for his own needs but gave no thought to others.  You see the thing needed to share the produce was someone to arrange for those with needs to come and harvest the produce.  It needed someone to arrange for those who could harvest to provide the bounty to those in need, who could not do so themselves.

Yet the miser was only concerned with himself and so he built a fence around the garden and hoarded what was there.   

Now imagine that another man lives on the other side of the garden and he does all of the things just mentioned.  He take some for himself.  However, here he differs from the miser.  This man is possessed of a soft heart.   He arranges for the needy to come and harvest for themselves and others who cannot do so.  He arranges for the extra to be sold in order to meet other kinds of needs.  He begins a business and supports not only his own family but causes important to the community.

The question..."Which man would you like to be?"  Before you answer consider that years later both men are on their death bed.  One will die fulfilled and feel like life was well lived surrounded by family and friends from the community.  The other will die empty, unfulfilled, bitter, and alone.

Now change the story so that instead of a garden you have giftings, skills, ideas, and abilities.  What do you suppose would happen if in just one small area of your life you decided to share these things with others.  To give of yourself?

Maybe you are gifted in finances.

What if you took a chance on an IPO (Initial public offering of stock in a company that is going to be public)?  What if you invested in an income property?  What if you helped someone who is in a problem situation which they did not create?

Maybe you are gifted in business.

What if you took a chance, decided where need exists that opportunity exists, and began a small business?  What if you helped someone else begin a small business?

Maybe you like to learn and then teach others.

What if you took a chance and went back to school?  What if you found a struggling student and helped them achieve academic success?

Maybe you have time and material good so that you could give time to others.

What if you found a new place of service?  What if you became a volunteer at your place of worship?  Maybe you could serve at the USO, a veteran's home, the Boy Scouts, or some other place of service?  

Maybe you are well off and have more than you could ever possibly need.

What if you decided to give away more of your material goods this year?  Maybe start a charitable trust?  Maybe you could began a foundation to reach out to some need or another?  

Maybe you are....

What if you...?

About now could you be asking why?  Let me share anecdotally.

In the course of my life I've known two people who were wealthy beyond what anyone even close friends knew.  They both had inherited almost all of their material goods.  Though they did not know each other and were separated by time and miles, they both shared a common attitude and two common experiences.

The attitude was insecurity as to their financial future.  Neither could spend all of the interest their money earned  but neither would for fear that they would be left destitute.  They had placed their trust in finances instead of the Faith they both claimed.  I remember presenting a need to one of them, a need that would not have made a small dent in his wealth only to be met with a verbal if not violent response.

The common experiences?  Both of them had people unrelated by marriage or blood who sought to separate them from their wealth.  In one case it seems to me that the person died in need for the unscrupulous did succeed.  If such was not so, at their demise it was.  In the other case we (my wife and I) were able to intervene and with the help of a high powered attorney saved the considerable wealth from an unscrupulous individual who had already made some inroads.

The other common experience they both shared was that they died.  Neither took one dime of his or her wealth with them.

What is the point?  May you find this to be the year in which you take a chance in one or more of the areas listed above.

"The Truth That Leads To Contrition"

There is a truth that leads to contrition.  There also is a truth that does not.

Imagine that a person is driving and without paying attention drives over the speed limit.  Maybe this has happened to you.  Then it happens, a quick look in the rear view mirror reveals that a police officer is following and he initiates a traffic stop.   He approaches your window and says something like the speed limit is 35 miles per hour and you were observed going 45 miles per hour.

When he tells you that you were breaking the law by speeding you have a choice to make.  The choice is in how you react.  Generally and with most people such an experience will bring forth a sense of contrition.  Another way to put it is that such an experience softens the heart.

The other choice is to respond with a hard heart.  The first kind of reaction is that of receiving the words of the officer.  The second is to reject the words of the officer,  put forth some kind of an excuse, or even argument with the police officer.

Now change the story to the person who while reading the Scriptures, listening to a sermon or a sermon in song, or simply pondering the things of God comes face to face with his failure to live by God's standards--God's truth.

Faced with genuine truth will either bring about conviction which then results in a broken and contrite heart or a heart that hardens against the truth.  The humble and contrite heart receives God's truth and remains soft before it.  On the other hand the hard hearted--the stony hearted person will on some level reject it.

Rejection takes several forms to include seeking to not be responsible with an excuse or two, seeking to rationalize one's way out of responsibility, shifting blame, denying the truth, and so on.  It does nothing more than deceive the hard hearted and such deception further hardens the heart.  There comes a point when the heart becomes so hardened that it neither hears, is convicted, nor cares that it does not conform to genuine truth.

Said again, facing truth will either soften our hearts or harden them.  That is the serious state in which we find many people today, they have traded away the genuine eternal truths of God for those things that are comfortable, acceptable, and temporal.  The consciousness they have of God is not a consciousness of God for it is only of a god that they have created.  Such temporal values masquerade as truth and it is with great danger that some have constructed a whole reality based upon a foundation that at best is subject to failure.

Truth, that is genuine truth can, if allowed soften the human heart.

If allowed it can call us to account, to realize our own failings and sinfulness, call us to conviction, and challenge us to a higher level of behavior that is the living out of our faith.  

If our hearts are soften, we are more likely to hear the voice of the Heavenly Father, more likely to take to heart the written Word of God, more likely to have a God consciousness, to feel the conviction of and communion with the Holy Spirit, and more likely to be in a position to have our hearts further softened, etc. 

If our hearts are soften by genuine truth, it adds a God dimension to life and such a view of life if allowed to germinate and grow, day by day and in greater measure give spiritual understandings to physical realities.  

Such an humble and contrite heart is key and essential for Christian growth.

There is much to be said for the one who seeks genuine and Godly truth in order to be brought to a place of contrition that results in a soft and humble heart.