His Love Has Set Us Free..... Craig Denison

 

His Love Has Set Us Free

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” The greatest of all aspects of the Christian life is love. Love is to be at the foundation of all we do, all we are, and all we hold on to. If we focus on love and allow the Holy Spirit to strip everything else away, what will be left is a life of blessed simplicity rooted in face-to-face relationship with our heavenly Father. As we spend time this week looking at the simplicity of love, I pray that all the weighty, frivolous things of the world that rob you of an abundant life fall away in light of the glorious goodness of God’s unconditional and wholly available love for you.

Scripture:“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” Romans 8:1-3

Devotional:

What does it look like to be totally free in Christ Jesus? What does it look like to live in the world, but be free from the constraints, demands, burdens, and stresses of living for the world? Scripture proclaims to us a life more abundant, purposeful, and free than what I am now experiencing. The Holy Spirit quietly but clearly beckons me to choose him throughout my day that I might know what it is to live in constant communion with him. God clearly has a plan for us far greater than anything we have yet experienced. And he longs for today to be a day marked by the freedom of life that only comes through a transformational encounter with his presence, truth, and love.

God’s love has set us free from everything that would entangle us to this world. His love sets us free emotionally, spiritually, and practically. His love broke the chains of sin and depravity as Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross. His love broke through to earth as he tore the veil from top to bottom signifying the availability of his presence for all. His love broke through in each of our lives as we said yes to crowning him King and accepted his free gift of eternal relationship with him. And his love breaks through every morning as surely as the sun rises, declaring to us the availability of a day filled with his nearness and love.

Scripture says in Romans 7:4, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.” And in Galatians 5:22-23, Scripture says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” God longs for our lives to be marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit. He longs for us to bear his fruit that we might enjoy all that restored relationship with him affords us.

Romans 8:1-3 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” God’s love has set us free from “the law of sin and death” that we might live by the law of “the Spirit of life.” His love has made a way for us to be fully known and fully loved. But the choice is still ours today. Will we submit ourselves to this new law marked by the fruit of his presence, or will we choose to resubmit ourselves to the law of this world as if the death of Christ was for nothing? Choose abundant life today by opening your heart and experiencing the nearness of the Holy Spirit.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the freedom of life available to you through Christ. Allow Scripture to stir up your faith and desire to live differently today.

“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” 1 Peter 2:16

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

2. Where have you been choosing the law of the world over the law of freedom? Where have you been living for the things of the world instead of choosing life in the Spirit of God?

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” Romans 8:1-3

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you submit yourself fully to “the law of the Spirit of life.” Ask him to reveal his nearness that you might know his love today. Take time to rest in his presence and bear the fruit of communing with him.

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

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

What would it be like to live free from condemnation as Romans 8:1 tells us? What would it be like to live free from the burden of man’s opinion that we could simply enjoy how God feels about us? May the Lord help you today to experience the life that comes only by choosing freedom. May he guide you into a lifestyle of continual encounters with his love. May your days be marked by the fruit of knowing him personally. And may you exhibit to the world how wonderful it is to know and experience restored relationship with the Lord of all.

Extended Reading: Galatians 5

Tuning into God’s Voice..... By Meg Bucher

 Tuning into God’s Voice

By Meg Bucher

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: “Don’t listen to what that prophet or dreamer says! The Eternal your God is testing you to see whether you really do love Him completely, with your whole heart and soul.” - Deuteronomy 13:3 (VOICE)

I sat on the beach, digging my toes into the sand and lifting them up to watch it all fall back onto the shoreline. There’s no telling how many grains of sand have been in between those toes over the years. And there’s no way of knowing how old each grain is. Where its started. How it got there …stuck between my toes.

Residing and vacationing by the water, we’ve carried a lot of sand away from the beach over the years in shoes, wagons, buckets and mini-vans full of sandy little butts. We all carry a lot of sand away from the shore.

But one grain of sand stuck in our teeth gets our attention, doesn’t it?

That one single grain stands out from all the other grains we’ve dragged around and played in… tossed about and formed into sand castles…

God’s voice is like that grain of sand. Unmistakable and hard to shake once we’ve turn up the volume on the voice of hope and love in our lives. We may be one person in huge world, but to Him, we are that grain of sand, too. Unmistakable. The one He calls His own… His friends… the one He loves.

Today’s verse begs us to listen to that single grain of sand.

In listening to Jesus we learn what love is, and how we get to know Love.

He walked out many days on this earth in sandals …with sandy toes. He’s not as far removed from understanding us as we realize …even when we do realize who He is. To listen to Christ is to believe and follow. To believe Him is to accept Him as our personal Savior. All it takes is a simple prayer and a willing heart. That one prayer, like one grain of sand among millions, will singly change life forever. A prayer just like this…

Father, praise You for Jesus. Thank You that He came to earth and died for me. Forgive me, for I have sinned, but through Jesus I have the hope of forgiveness. Today, as I accept Jesus as the Savior of my life, I pray for Your blessing to follow Him until the day you call me home to heaven.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

My Alien Brain..... by John UpChurch

 My Alien Brain

by John UpChurch

“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” Colossians 1:21-22

The first migraine hit me in middle school. While wrapping up some pre-algebra problems, a fuzzy, white spot kept covering up the numbers. I’d blink and rub my eyes and try to work around it, but the spot hovered there for most of the class. Being the well-reasoned adolescent that I was, I naturally assumed what seemed logical: I was about to die of a massive stroke.

I obviously didn’t die. But when the spot finally did go away, I wished it had stayed.

Stomach-curling, fist-clenching, world-bending pain plopped down into my cranium and threw some sort of headache party. After an hour or so, I couldn’t take it anymore. I told the skeptical school nurse that I thought I had a “migration headache,” which didn’t ease her skepticism. Still, she let me go home.

Just to complete the headache humiliation, I got sick right outside the school (so that all the classes on that side of the building could watch), fell asleep as soon as I got home, and woke up with a throbbing head. Migraines don’t like to go without a fight. They kick and scream into that good night.

My own head revolted against me for several years after that. If I didn’t get enough sleep or got hit with too much stress, the spot would make a comeback. I did learn to lessen the pain sometimes by closing my eyes as soon as the fuzz sprang into view, but that didn’t always work.

Truthfully, the migraines were the least of my problems. My un-reconciled brain, the one that had no understanding of Christ, had revolted from God. Instead of fuzzy spots as warning signs, there were evil deeds, as Paul calls them. I played on others’ emotions to get my way, used girlfriends as my personal trophy case, spent hours and hours on the kinds of websites that wouldn’t make it through a work Internet filter, and generally wasted my gifts. The pain that resulted from those “spots” wasn’t just inwardly focused—it left quite the burning trail in its wake.

My alien brain knew nothing else then. It wanted nothing better. It was pretty much dead.

That’s exactly the reason Christ’s reconciling, restoring death still astounds me. This gray matter, so unresponsive to anything spiritual, came to life with God’s preceding grace. He kept hitting me and kept hitting me until I finally gave up, followed His Son, and stopped being an alien.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Before Christ, nothing works the way it should. Like the migraines that plagued me, our brains revolt against their Creator, and pain inevitably comes. Take some time to look back and who you were before Jesus pumped life into your body—not to turn around or go back, but to be continually blown away by how much He changed you.

Further Reading

Ephesians 2

A Prayer to Trust That God Goes Before You ..... By: Alisha Headley

 A Prayer to Trust That God Goes Before You 

By: Alisha Headley

“I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. (Isaiah 45:2)

As Christians, the word trust is thrown around all the time. If anything goes wrong, we are encouraged, with Scripture verses, to simply trust in the Lord, and everything will work itself out. Yet, things don’t always work themselves out. Trusting doesn’t always come so simple. How are we to really trust when everything around us is out of control?  

We might trust momentarily, but when things don’t change or continue to get worst, we feel that it’s time we can handle it and we step in the lead and put God to the side. 

What if we began to do the opposite? What if we took today’s verse, and trusted that he has gone before us and is leveling out what’s ahead? What if we began to step aside? Instead of getting in front of God, what if we got behind Him and let Him take control and lead the way?

Oftentimes, we get in the way of the Lord doing His job. We try to change our husband, our kids, our job, other people, or our situation when the Lord is already at work. He’s working even if we don’t see it yet. Even when the world and road ahead look dim and blocked, God is paving a clear path. He hears you. He sees you. He is sovereign. (Colossians 1:16) He is the author of this story called life and knows the beginning from the end.

As today’s verse promises, God is always one step ahead of us. He goes before us, behind us, and remains beside us. And he will never ever leave nor forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:8)

No matter the mountain we have up ahead, God is already climbing it. No matter the storm, He is already calming the wind. No matter how unknown the journey ahead, God has walked a few steps forward. No matter the impossible route, He is parting the sea. As today’s verse says, He is breaking the barriers ahead, and flattening out those things our physical eyes might not see as He goes before us.

Let’s walk in confidence today knowing that no matter what our day, month, or future looks like, we can trust that God is already one step ahead.

Let’s pray.

Dear God,

Thank you, Lord, that you have been sending us your promises from the very beginning of time. Thank you for your faithfulness, as you give the definition of faithful a true meaning. You have never and will never break a promise. Time and time again throughout all Scripture, you promise to lead us and guide us, to never leave us, nor forsake us. Thank you that you have already paved a way and wherever we are sitting in this very moment, you are near us and one step ahead of us. 

Whatever we are facing, Lord, we can trust that you know what’s next and are protecting us along the way. We ask that in those moments where doubt creeps in, that you would remind of us today’s verse. When fear creeps in of what is going to happen, remind us that you are in total control and that you have already gone before us, you’ll be with us during it, and you’ll go behind us. Thank you that you are trustworthy for these beautiful promises to help navigate us through this life. 

In your mighty name we pray,

Amen