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Archive for the ‘freedom’ Category

nothing more

Posted in freedom, God, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

i want nothing more than to know God deeper.

nothing more than to be basking in his grace.

nothing more than to be gazing at his glory.

and that will all happen, relatively soon.

but i don’t want to waste my life just waiting for that to happen.

i want to beg and plead for that to define my life today and tomorrow.

and so i ask the Father fervently (Matt 7:7-8, 21:22),

and i discipline myself (Jeremiah 29:13, Ps 34:4),

and He withholds nothing good from His children (Ps 84:11, Rom 8:28, Matt 7:11).

sometimes the Lord answers prayers and draws us to Himself and conforms us more into the image of Jesus by means that we would not have thought of or implemented.

but if the end is more of Him and less of me, i can do nothing but rejoice.

if it is sickness or the death of my child or financial hardship that the Lord uses for His purposes,

hallelujah.

the world sees those things as bondage.  if the Father is using them for His glory and your sanctification, it is freedom.

health, children, and money will never satisfy;

they can never bring lasting, eternal love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

only the Spirit can.

and He longs to do this for all who are in Jesus.

so be free today, long along with the Spirit for nothing more than conformity to the image of Jesus, and give thanks to the Father for every circumstance that comes your way today knowing that He is sovereign and desires to free you from the false promises of this air and age that only lead to more bondage.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

-Jesus

how are you experiencing God’s grace in transforming you in this season of life?

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freedom

Posted in eternity, freedom, tagged on January 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »

i felt it important to define what i mean by “freedom”

especially since the title of this blog is “transparent freedom”

john piper spoke and wrote recently on the subject, and i do not know that i could improve upon his work:

You are fully free — completely free, free indeed — when you have the (1) desire, (2) the ability, (3) and the opportunity to do (4) what will make you happy in a thousand years.

Or we could say, You are fully free when you have the (1) desire, (2) the ability, and (3) the opportunity to do (4) what will leave you no regrets forever.

the rest of the post can be found here

and i encourage you to read it.

we are free in Christ.

are you leveraging that freedom if you are in Jesus?

what is freedom?

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in Christ, you are…

Posted in freedom, Jesus, tagged , , , , on November 10, 2011 | 4 Comments »

  1. Dead to sin (Rom 6:11)
  2. Spiritually alive (Rom 6:11)
  3. Forgiven (Col 2:13)
  4. Declared Righteous (1 Cor 1:30)
  5. A child of God (Rom 8:16)
  6. God’s possession (Titus 2:14)
  7. Heir of God (Rom 8:17)
  8. Blessed with all Spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3)
  9. Citizen of Heaven (Phil 3:20)
  10. Set free from power of sin (Col 2:11-15)
  11. Free from the law (Rom 8:2)
  12. Crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20)
  13. Light in the World (Matt 5:14)
  14. Victorious over Satan (Lk 10:19)
  15. Cleansed from sin (1 Jo 1:7)
  16. Declared Blameless (Phil 2:15)
  17. Set free from the desires of flesh (Gal 5:24)
  18. Secure in Christ (1 Pet 1:3-5)
  19. Granted peace (Rom 5:1)
  20. Loved by God (1 Jn 4:10)

we still live in a broken world, and thus, you will face battles today.

you will be tempted to forget.

you will struggle with spiritual amnesia.

you will be given an opportunity to prove yourself because you fear man more than God.

  • you might get cut off on the highway, and instead of dropping an expletive and grinding your teeth, if you are in Jesus, you can smile and say with confidence, “I am an heir of God”
  • you might want to take an “innocent” second look at that girl that just walked by, and instead, you can rejoice in the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead that lives in you and say, “I am set free from the desires of the flesh”
  • you might have an opportunity to appear humble by prefacing a statement with, “we need to pray for ____” and then continue to gossip in order to lift yourself high at the expense of another or justify or clarify yourself, and instead you can look like the fool and convict in the eyes of the world with humility and peace, not feel the need to justify yourself, not feel the need to make sure everybody understood exactly what you meant, and not be affected because you are “crucified with Christ (who was misunderstood to the cross)” and “light in the world”
  • you might want to feel condemned because just before you read this post, you did take a second look at that girl or you did defend yourself with unwholesome speech (and even defended it with “it’s just the truth”), and instead you can rejoice by remembering that you are “declared righteous” and “secure in Christ”
  • you might be tempted to be bitter and quick to anger with your brother or sister because of their selfishness, shortsightedness, nauseating false humility, constant gossiping, and desire to drag you into the mud, and instead, you can see them as hurting and bless them because you have been “blessed with all spiritual blessing”

i encourage you to memorize just one or two of these truths right now so that you can remind yourself, your friends, your spouse, etc. who they are in Christ when you (or they) encounter a battle today.

for those who are in Christ Jesus, this is what and who we ARE,

not what we need to work for or pay for with our good deeds or should be,

this is true of who we are.

so we just need to put on that clothing of grace and life that He purchased for us (described in at least those 20 ways above – borrowed from gospel coach training).

the pressure’s off.

because of what Christ has done, i am a “citizen of heaven” and “set free from the power of sin”…

does that mean i never struggle?

no… we’re still sinners in need of grace, but ultimately and eternally, we are righteous, justified, free to radically obey, pick up our cross, and follow Him.

we forget that we are “citizens of heaven” and “set free from the power of sin” so we live as if we are citizens of this world, submit to our flesh and call God a liar.

this is not just an intellectual exercise.

if you read those 20 things above and are not deeply moved with a desire to love God and love others by obeying God with all that you are, those things might not apply to you.

until Jesus returns or we die, we will need to remind ourselves hourly if not minutely of the gospel of Jesus … who we ARE because of what He’s done …

the pressure’s off.

freedom’s on.

that’s the gospel – that’s grace.

which truth especially hits home for you?

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a forest or a tree

Posted in discipline, freedom, God, Jesus, reflecting, tagged , , , on July 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

i went on a two-week vacation with my grandparents, parents, brothers, sister-in-laws, wife, son, niece, and nephews.

i had planned to blog about each day as i anticipated the discussion to be quite edifying.

instead i did not blog once, and i’m thankful.

some images are not meant to be captured by a camera,

and some thoughts are not meant to be detained on a blog.

i am excited to share with you all what the Lord has done in my life over the past two weeks, but it is not going to be in the same way that i have covered seasons of my life in the past (bullet points and roman numerals).

i am not going to write about the specific conversation that shaped my view of discernment from july 6, 2011, but every time i write about discernment, the fruit of that conversation will be displayed – not always necessarily in the ripe stage, but gestational highlights are also valuable.

maybe some of you will see no change in my writings, but if i can even semi-accurately portray what happened in my heart over the past two weeks … and if matt 15.18 is true, and it is, i believe most of you will.

next time you rest or read or converse with somebody or travel…maybe try not to capture every moment on a camera or notepad and instead be deeply impacted by the essence of the moment at the expense of not being able to repeat a quote word-for-word.

every word in the Word of God is pregnant with meaning, and i believe that there should be seasons in your life in which you dive deep into the meaning of every word of a particular passage of Scripture…

you will not be disappointed;

Christ will be exalted;

you will be sanctified;

God will be honored.

i also believe that sometimes it is helpful to read a passage of Scripture without trying to memorize it word for word and instead just be impacted by the big picture of the Story.

i am not here to discern what season you currently are in, but i am here to give you this passage from Colossians 1:

The Preeminence of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by[a] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation[b] under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

do you tend to miss the forest for a tree or miss a tree for the forest?  do you think it would be profitable to intentionally try to see the forest or the tree, whichever you typically miss?

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humility & fear

Posted in fear, freedom, Jesus, promise, twenty two word tuesday, tagged , , , , on June 21, 2011 | 1 Comment »

humility and fear of the Lord are inextricably related;

the proverbial results are

  1. riches
  2. honor
  3. life

why are you pursuing anything else?

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