Freedom

Recently, I have had several discussions with my grandson who will be 18 years old on the 27th of this month. Of course, he is absolutely thrilled. He can't wait for the freedoms that being 18 will bring him. He is under the impression that "nobody will be able to tell him what to do". Oh, how I wish I could get him to understand that all through his life there will be people telling him what to do and he will have to comply if he wants to keep a job, have a roof over his head, food to eat and clothes to wear.

As important as that piece of information is to his life, most importantly he needs to learn that in order to be truly free he must totally submit himself to his Lord and give up all of the freedoms and rights he has to Him. This concept is one that is very hard to accept for anyone but particularly for those who are young. Almost everything that surrounds our young people today encourages them to put themselves first. They are told in beer commercials to "Grab all the gusto", McDonalds says that "You deserve a break today" and even the Army tells all our young people to enlist and to "Be all you can be".

Before I get criticized for putting down self-esteem, please know that I am a great proponent of feeling good about ourselves. God tells us to love each other as we love ourselves so He must have intended for us to have a good opinion of ourselves. My concern is that our young people are being told to always put themselves above others, to not take into consideration how their actions might affect those around them and that they should strive to be number one and if they aren't, they are worthless. Instead, our kids should learn that if they want to be number one they must first put themselves last.

Remember in the tenth chapter of Mark, when James and John asked Jesus to, "Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand and one on thy left hand, in thy glory."(v.37) Jesus' response to all of His apostles was, "...but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister; And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (v. 43-45)

If Jesus, the son of God, came to this earth to serve and to die for my sins, what right have I to demand that I have my "rights" and that I be "numero uno" all the time. If for no other reason than I am humbled by this fact, I need to be a servant every day of my life.

In our world today, it is sometimes hard to be a servant. To help us in this endeavor and to assist us in finding true freedom, Kat, at Heart2Heart, has started a new blog. It is based on the principal of performing ACTS OF RANDOM KINDNESS. Her new blog is A.R.K. for God and will be well worth your time.

Have a super Lord's day and be sure to look into God's word to find out His plan for you.

God Bless,
Mimmy


Freedom in Christ
Read: Revelation 22:17

We live in a land that is wondrously free
From tyrannical rule and control.
We call it the land of the free and the brave,
Its virtues we greatly extol.

We think of ourselves as free as the doves
To do what we will with our lives.
We choose where we live, we chose where we work,
We all choose our husbands or wives.

We choose what we watch on our color TVs,
We choose who our friends are to be.
We choose what we wear, we choose what we eat,
We choose the next movie we’ll see.

However we’re ruled by one of two kings.
Either Satan or God has command.
The choices we make as we live on this earth
Determine where we take our stand.

If we choose to serve Satan and follow his lead
We’ll be bound for all eternity,
To a place where freedom is forever gone,
Where anguish and crying we’ll see.

If we choose God and the path he has drawn
We’ll be free for all eternity.
We’ll have freedom to drink of the water of life,
Freedom to sit at Christ’s knee.

As we make all of our choices each day
Let’s make the ones that truly save.
Then someday we’ll live with our Father above
In His land of the free and the brave.

Joyce K. Smith
June, 2001