Freedom in the Kingdom of Heaven
Jesus has come to give all of humanity freedom. As Americans, don't we already have freedom? In fact, doesn't the new testament of the Bible teach things like; being a slave to Christ, to serve God, and to die to ourselves? Once again it seems like Jesus has taught us a whole different way to understand something, freedom.
In his masterful work, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to think like Jesus, Brennan Manning writes these words on the subject.
"Often our preoccupation with the three most basic human desires - security, pleasure, and power - is the cloak that covers transparency. The endless struggle for enough money, good feelings, and prestige yields a rich harvest of worry, frustration, suspicion, anger, jealousy, anxiety, fear, and resentment. These powerful, emotionally-backed desires cause 99 percent of the self-inflicted and unnecessary suffering in our lives."
I think it's simple. If I make decisions like most people I will make the decision based on my desire for security, pleasure, and power. By doing that I will find my life as a huge mess and I will not want to live it. I will have to live it because it's the only one I have. If I lose my life in Christ I will make decisions through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and find my life as a tremendous blessing and a wonderful creation. A creation not made by me, but by God. With my freedom, I chose to stop letting the world influence me and I chose to be influenced only by the God of all love. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit has led me to ever-increasing freedom from worry, self-doubt, and all the other things that used to dominate my life.
In his masterful work, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to think like Jesus, Brennan Manning writes these words on the subject.
"Often our preoccupation with the three most basic human desires - security, pleasure, and power - is the cloak that covers transparency. The endless struggle for enough money, good feelings, and prestige yields a rich harvest of worry, frustration, suspicion, anger, jealousy, anxiety, fear, and resentment. These powerful, emotionally-backed desires cause 99 percent of the self-inflicted and unnecessary suffering in our lives."
I think it's simple. If I make decisions like most people I will make the decision based on my desire for security, pleasure, and power. By doing that I will find my life as a huge mess and I will not want to live it. I will have to live it because it's the only one I have. If I lose my life in Christ I will make decisions through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and find my life as a tremendous blessing and a wonderful creation. A creation not made by me, but by God. With my freedom, I chose to stop letting the world influence me and I chose to be influenced only by the God of all love. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit has led me to ever-increasing freedom from worry, self-doubt, and all the other things that used to dominate my life.
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