Unshackled

Prisoner Shackles by Jonathan Dresner
flickr.com_3072374801_db98b198a7_CC BY-ND 2.0

If you're visiting from {re}fresh, welcome!

"But I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists." Jeremiah 40:4a

Tommy walked outside the iron gates a free man, carrying all he owned inside a crisp manila envelope - life simplified. Endless possibilities stretched out before him promised life renewed, but somehow life got crazy on the outside, his past hijacked him and freedom didn't seem so rich or desirable, after all (from the movie, Crazy on the Outside, 2010, starring Tim Allen).

Sometimes we're a lot like Tommy. We find ourselves suddenly unshackled - finally free from our past - and yet we bend down and pick up our own manila envelopes. We peek inside at the past, at the little life we own and suddenly our dreams and desires skew; they veer way off the freedom road.

It's an old, old story and the ending remains the same:

Only God frees

Throughout history God said, leave everything behind - all your possessions, your little life and all it's gods - and follow Me. 

Live life unshackled. 

And when we do? 

                                              God builds us up, prospers us

                                              God plants us, establishes deep roots

                                              God stays with us, protects and guides us

                                              God restores us, brings health and healing

What's inside your manila envelope? Are you willing to leave it at the curb, walk away and follow God on the freedom road? I know, it's easier hanging onto what we know rather than hoping in what we can't see. Hope goes against everything we are, but dig deep and scream, "Help!" He'll come alongside and show you the way - that's the kind of God He is. He's living and breathing and always there when we call. His greatest desire is to free us, restore us to who He created us to be. 

Father, it's so hard to leave behind what we know and walk towards hope in what we cannot see, but today we cry out, "Help!" and take that first step toward freedom - trusting you.  





Sanctification: A Process of the Heart, Not THE LIST

"But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption..." 1 Corinthians 1:30

We don't need one more thing to add to our "to do" list. We aren't looking to learn five more steps to be a better person. Life is complicated enough, busy enough, hard enough not to add more to our already full plates. So when anyone suggests we strive to become more Godly, more Christ-like we tend to shrink back and say, "Not now, Lord." Why? Because we think it will be a long list of things we are responsible for doing. We're looking to take things off our plates, not things to heap on top of what's already there.

That's exactly what I thought when God recently gave me the gift of a new word: sanctification. When God places a word in front of me multiple times, in multiple settings within a short span of time, he's asking me to pay attention. I've sat on this word for a week thinking I've got too many things on my "to do" list already but it keeps coming up in everything I read so I guess God's trying to say something.

The dictionary defines sanctification like this: to purify or free from sin; to make holy, set apart as sacred; to make productive or conducive to spiritual blessing. The first two definitions add nothing to our "to do" lists. It is a free gift, if we accept it. But the third definition leans towards a cooperative effort on our part with God.

First, it is by Christ's death we are purified, set free from sin once and for all therefore, I am made holy before God. There's nothing we can do to earn that; nothing we have to do to become sanctified except confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Christ died for my sins (Romans 10:9).

Second, Christ calls us out, sets us apart as sacred before God as the Church: "...to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (I Corinthians 1:2).

Now here comes our part...sort of..."to make productive or conducive to spiritual blessing." To receive a spiritual blessing, we must be in a state where our lives are conducive, ready to produce the good things that bring blessing. But how do we do that on our own? How do we know what the "right" things are? Is it all up to us to know, to do? Yes and no.

When Jesus was preparing to leave his disciples in charge of his ministry he said, "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26).  We are not left on our own to figure out how to make our lives more conducive, more open to God's blessing. He has sent his invisible, Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts, to lead the way.

Let's continue this conversation tomorrow...Add it to your list.