His Law in Your Heart

It seems as though there are new “laws” and rules popping up all the time. Whether it is related to online use or what is unacceptable in the driving through an area. But notice the way we look at laws, we tend to see them as restrictive and speaking as to what not to do. We may even dread the idea of having another law to keep up with and adhere. But let’s look here at what David says about the Law of the LORD.

“⁸I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

— Psalm 40:8 (ESV)

“²but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.”

— Psalm 1:2 (ESV)

I see that David is loving the Law of the LORD. He does not see any restriction and actually welcomes and cherishes the Law of the LORD by keeping it “within my heart” and meditating “day and night” on it. There is no what not to do, David sees the Law of the LORD as the what to do in giving and getting the most to and from the LORD. In fact, look at the volume of what comes from the LORD according to David.

“⁵You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are more than can be told.”

— Psalm 40:5 (ESV)

They are too many to be declared to the world.

Here is what I am seeing and learned this morning. The LORD provides all, and I mean all according to His Law. He is gracious to the point of so much abundance that we cannot let it known the full extent. I am to keep His law in my heart, not to be sure of what not to do as it is not restrictive as one might think, but to delight in the wonder and greatness of the Law that allows me to give and get the most to and from the LORD.

What is your approach to the Law of the LORD? Are you working to be sure that you are doing what is “acceptable” and seeing it as restricting? What if you meditated on the Law of the LORD and kept it in your heart to delight in it, giving and getting the most to and from Him?

Use Freedom to Serve All

I recently wrote of the freedom to serve and that was to serve God. This morning I was reminded that we serve all in addition to God. I am to serve everyone, yes everyone as I move through this world. I am even to serve those in authority, regardless of who they might be. The passage I was led to this morning is titled, “Submission to Authority”. It is not titled submission to the authority of God, just authority.

“¹⁶Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. ¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. ¹⁸Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.” — 1 Peter 2:16-18 (ESV)

I can only imagine the difficulty it was/is for those who are living under the thumb of one who treats me like an animal and thinks of me as something that is here for my own pleasure. I am not going to try and indicate that I know what it is like to be a slave, not even a little. What I am speaking of is that which I believe God has indicated through Peter here in this passage and how it aligns with the will of God and His Word.

Peter is indicating in the above that we are to be free in the LORD. We are to follow Him and just as Jesus did, we are to treat those in authority with respect and do the work assigned. For Jesus did indicate that we are to give to the authority that which we are to give to the authority.

“¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰And Jesus said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ ²¹They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” — Matthew 22:18-21 (ESV)

It is clear that where we are to serve the LORD, we are to also serve the authority here in this world.

We are free in the LORD and therefor we are certainly to be serving Him who gives us that freedom. Yet we are also to use our freedom to serve others. We are to bring the gospel to all and we do that through service and love and not through rule and fear. Service is giving of ourselves for the good of others and not for our own good.

Who are you serving in this world? Are you avoiding the service of those in authority as they, “have no power over you”? What if you just served all, even those in authority as we are commanded by God, so that through that service you are spreading the gospel?

Freedom to Serve

“¹For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” — Galatians 5:1&13 (ESV)

This morning I am brought back to a passage I have been to many times. I have a number of notes in the margin and yet, I am still getting more and more each time I come to the Word of God.

God freed us from the yoke of sin with the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross. This freedom is not from any persecution, it is freedom from death due to my sin. This freedom has provided me the opportunity to serve God without fear of what comes in this world. I have to remember to follow the freedom as it was intended and not use it for my own license to sin. I have to use this freedom to spring me into action for the Lord and not for my own gain. That action for the Lord is rooted in serving Him by way of serving others.

What are you doing with your freedom? Are you using it as some excuse to do what you want? What if you were to embrace your freedom in God and use that freedom to serve Him through your service of others?

Freedom in the Spirit

Seems like when I make the statement as in the title of this writing, “Freedom in the Spirit”, I may be saying that freedom is not tangible and really only something that we are really not able to experience. Well that is not true at all. It is the word “the” that makes it completely different and does create the tangible thing for us all to experience.

“¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” — 2 Corinthians 3:17 (ESV)

You see, here Paul is speaking of the Holy Spirit and as we know, the Lord is the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ all in one. And therefore, when we are dwelling in the Spirit and the Spirit in us, we are dwelling in the Lord and He in us. This dwelling gives us freedom from this world and all that is in it. Actually one of you following my blog gave the comment; “Being in close communion with the Trinity frees me from the lies spewed out by gov. big business and TV which promotes hatred, worry and confusion.” and I could not agree more. When we are in the Spirit, we are free from the influences of the world and are able to live a life above the world with Jesus.

I have to be careful as I do not want to mislead and indicated that I am greater than the world, that is not the case, as I live in this world just as everyone else does and am subject to what goes on in this world. What I am saying is that I do not have to worry with what goes on in this world, as I serve a higher power and when in service of God, the consequences of the world do not concern me as it is the favor of God that I am serving and not the favor of this world.

This favor of God is what gives me the freedom to live in this world and know that I am only here for a little while, passing through on my way to heaven where I will spend eternity. In heaven I will not have to concern myself with this world as I will no longer be it in and will live free to serve and glorify God even still.

Where are you looking for freedom? Are you looking to the world to provide freedom for you? What if you were to dwell in the Spirit to experience the freedom that comes with His dwelling in you?

The World is Waiting for the Freedom of Christians

I know that this is quite the statement from me. But it is not from me at all, I have gathered this from the passage I read this morning in Romans. Paul writes about future glory in Romans 8 and part of that future glory is freedom for creation.

“¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” — Romans 8:19-21 (ESV)

You see, right there in verse 19 Paul writes of the eager waiting by creation. And as you read further, you can see the waiting for the freedom that is experienced by the “children of God”.

Creation, the world itself, has been subjected to evil since Adam and Eve ate from the fruit in disobedience of God. Yes, the world is subjected to evil and has to wait for God’s redemption for the world to be relieved of the evil. That redemption of the world will be fully realized with the rapture and God’s win in the war with evil. So until that day, the world or creation will be waiting for the freedom that I have as a result of the gift of grace and salvation I have accepted from the LORD.

Yes I have freedom and yet the world does not. That is evident by simply watching the state of the world today and each day as we move forward. There is social upheaval, wars over ideologies, displays of “power” through authoritarian regimes, and just bad stuff happening all over. I have the ability to walk away from the evil and find solace in the family of God, as do the rest of my fellow Christians. The world does not have that ability and is subject to all that goes on in and around it.

The world waits on for the freedom of salvation. I can only do my part to bring the gift of the gospel and what salvation imparts to others. I present the gospel and allow others the opportunity to accept the free gift and experience the freedom that comes with it for themselves. Yet, the world must wait on the LORD to establish His freedom in the world as the world is not able to accept the freedom for itself.

What does freedom look like in you? What about your world, is freedom part of everywhere you go? What if you continued to do your part and brought the gospel to all persons and allowed them to accept, knowing that creation, or the world will not experience freedom until that day with Christ comes again?