Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

The load we are experiencing right now is quite heavy with the move to the RV, VMS training, getting the house ready for sale, commuting 2 hours a day, trying to do partnership development and the list goes on.  Once a person decides to go into the ministry, in our case into full-time missions, exemption from trials and tribulations is far from the truth.  As a matter of fact, I could make a great argument that they indeed increase.

Earlier this week, I wrote about how easy it is to forget that people are more important than anything temporal.  What God showed me this morning as I spent time with Him was that the same temporal distractions can cause me to forget about something more important than people… HIM!  We’ve dedicated all of our resources to prepare to go to the mission field and in doing so, I have forgotten that at the core of it all it is not even about the people to whom we will minister.  At the core of what we are doing is God and Him alone.  But, the busyness and strain of our preparation has caused me to allow bondage in my life to those very things, thus distancing me from the One it is all about.  So, what am I to do?

Enter a beautiful ingredient of salvation: FREEDOM.  The things I do have nothing to do with God’s forgiveness of me and my place prepared in eternity with Him.  ONLY what HE did has secured that place and that same act also set me free while I spend my days on earth.  Galatians 5.1 says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”  Lying within that liberty of Christ is the ability, strength, wisdom, everything we need to not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.  In our salvation is our freedom from bondage of striving for our own righteousness.  That can make such a difference in how my day is spent.

What really hit through the time this morning is something even better out of this verse.  God’s holiness requires perfection, The Law.  The Fall prevents any of us from being able to accomplish this regardless of how we try, thus severing our relationship and closeness with God.  We are in bondage to the perfect standard of which we cannot even fulfill.  BUT, the “liberty by which Christ has made us free” isn’t just a path out from under the law or just an escape route out of being hellbound.  That liberty puts us back into communion with God.  We can talk directly to the One who was there before time.  He created time, space, us, trees, love, relationships, family, compassion, faith… the list is deeper than the ocean.  We can spend time ONE-ON-ONE with HIM!  Not like submitting a request and hoping customer service will get back to you.  Not like dialing the number of a friend hoping they are there to pick up.  Not like sending an important e-mail and waiting anxiously for a reply.  Not like asking for forgiveness of a wrong and wondering if it will come.  Our avenue to Him is instant, live, real… as real as anything can get and it is accessing the source of ALL wisdom, might and love.  That is Who we have access to as the Redeemed.  That is Who the liberty put us back in touch with and we can spend any amount of time we want to with Him whenever we want to! 

 The liberty by which Christ has made us free!  WOW!