Liberty

"I'm so glad those two are married to each other."

"Why's that?"

"This way they only make each other miserable, otherwise they would make two other people miserable also."

"I guess that's one way to look at it..." I say thoughtfully.

How much of our lives are spent in the state of 'might have beens'? Ever talk to someone who says, If I had only married someone else...If I had waited to get married...If I had prepared for a better job...If I had looked before I leaped I wouldn't have gotten into this business/financial mess...If only....

We make too many decisions quickly and with out forethought. To be a true christian is to be called to a higher plane of living than that of the people around us, people of the world.

Galatians 5:1 For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.

Paul is talking about being free from the Law of Moses, but there is a principle here also. We are bought by Christ, we belong to him, and need to not be brought into bondage to anything...only to follow Christ.

"Jesus changed our beer, liquor, and cigarettes into this," my friend says as we look around her living room. She and her husband have just bought a nice living room set to go into their comfortable living room.

I remember pictures of their living room back in the days when the people around town thought of them as 'not very nice' folks. When they still spent their evenings drinking and carousing, and their twelve year old daughter would have to drive them home because they couldn't drive home.

"I wouldn't even be alive today, if it hadn't been for Jesus," another friend tells me.

It is hard for me to say where I would be, but I know it wouldn't be a good place.

"If you preach the gospel, it will change people. If you convert people to Christ you don't have to tell them to put on clothes, they just know," one missionary says.

But is that what it is about? Hmm...well it used to be. What we seem to have nowadays is unconverted christians. How did that work? Well, it won't work real well, but it's one of Satan's ways of tricking folks into thinking they're all right. --'who are you to tell me I'm not okay? I like me just the way I am, thank you. And God ought to be pleased with me too...why, I'm doing HIM a favor by praising Him with my mouth.

Psalms 50:7-12 "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify unto thee: I am God, even thy God. 8) I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt-offerings are continually before me. 9) I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goats out of thy folds. 10) For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11) I know all the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. 12) If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof."

We should praise God in humility, in wonder, in awe; why do folks think they are doing God a favor?

Matthew 15:7&8 Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, 8) This people honoreth me with their lips; But their heart is far from me.

Let's do a mental exercise. First let's take all of the christians out of the world (even though in our present state we are far from perfect we are still the 'light of the world'. (Matthew 5:14)
Second let's take all of the influence of Christianity out of the world (there is a lot of 'influence' that Christianity has had: Ye are the salt of the earth: Matthew 5:13) God has given us a beautiful world to live in. Everything God has made is pure and perfect. So, third, let's take out all of the pleasant beautiful things God has made/given to us. What's left?

I think they call that the beginning of hell.

People look around and they think, "Why...I don't need God, I'm doing fine by myself." And I say to that..."Really now? Exactly where do you think you'd be with out God? And just where do you think you will be...without God? And do you really think that's where you want to be...for eternity...without God?"

Acts 14:17 And yet He left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.

We look at the goodness, the blessings, the things that God gives us--for His witness--and we don't stop to realize--when Jesus comes again, and we are judged, the place where the wicked go...will not have God. So on that side of eternity:

Matthew 13:36-43 "Then he left the multitudes, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37) And he answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38) and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39) and the enemy that sowed them is the devil: and the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are angels. 40) As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. 41) The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, 42) and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 43) Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears, let him hear."

1) tares=sons of the evil one; thrown into fire, 2) angels shall gather out of the kingdom (not out of the world) all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity--and they shall be--What!? (cast them into the furnace of fire!) From where? (out of his kingdom?) 3) And the righteous shall shine forth....
What an interesting parable, but one that should cause us who call ourselves by the name of Christ to pray and examine ourselves, humbly and fearfully.

I want to go to heaven...yes, for the rewards, and yes, because I don't want to go to hell (because of the punishment). My momma didn't raise no stupid child. The reward is too great to miss, the punishment too awful to contemplate. And I want everyone else to go also. My friends, my family, people I do know, people I don't know. I don't even want my enemies to go to hell, but we must remember--no one will wander into heaven unaware. Heaven is a prepared place, and it is prepared for people who have prepared to be there.

1Peter 4:17 For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?

James 1:25 But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing.

James 2:12 So speak ye, and so do, as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!