Start With The Word of God

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10 & 11.

Do you struggle with reading God’s Word? Take some time right now to examine why that might be. Does it have to do with time? Does it have to do with not knowing where to begin? Does the prospect of opening the Bible give you the feeling that you are starting something that is too big to finish?

As pastor Chuck Swindoll often tells his congregation: Relax. These are all normal feelings that are shared by practically every person who has endeavored to study God’s Word. The fact is that it is a huge undertaking, with cosmic importance to you and those around you. But it doesn’t have to be a huge problem for you, and it doesn’t have to equal the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Start by reading a book of the Bible that interests you. Scared of Revelation? You don’t have to start there, nor do you have to start with prophets or the Psalms. If you are a student of history try the book of Acts. It reads like an informal history of the early church, with incredible detail as researched by the author, Luke. Or are you searching for guidance and foresight on a specific topic? Look at Proverbs which gives the reader the straight dope on hundreds of specific practical issues directly from the wisest man there ever was, King Solomon.

Are you partial to the workings of war and politics? Like a good Tom Clancy novel? Check out First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings to know the history and politics behind King David’s reign and his successors.

The point is, don’t let the prospect of learning God’s Word scare you. Any little fragment of His Word will act like water to your soul, and you will find yourself growing in spite of yourself. God loves you and He wants you to know Him. He has provided the most important, most powerful tool in the universe in His Word. Take the time to become acquainted with it.

True Freedom In Chist

There are some Christians who equate the Freedom that we have in Christ with the idea of “having no rules”. I heard a sermon on Sunday that expressed that we are free from rules, and that we should do all we can to experience the joy and the fullness of living in Christ without rules. But does freedom from sin really mean that there are no rules for the believer?

In truth, part of the wonder of being a child of God is that we are free in Him. God does fill us with His grace and love and mercy. But biblical freedom is something different than the experiential freedom that some teach today. And it is important to draw this distinction between true freedom and experience, even at the risk of sounding legalistic, because I believe one side will draw you closer and deepen your relationship with Christ, and the other will turn your focus inward and pull you away from what Christ has in store for you.

True freedom in Christ is the freedom to obey His commands and follow in His footsteps. Before we were adopted as sons of the Living God we were slaves to our own sin. Worse yet, we were dead in these sins and separated from God. But because of His unfathomable grace Jesus broke those chains of bondage. He paid the price that was put upon our heads because of sin, and he regenerated our spirits and made us new. Our God actually resides in us in the form of the Holy Spirit, and is constantly watching, constantly guiding us as we live our lives.

The goal of His guidance is to make us more like Himself by nudging us to seek a lasting, meaningful, and real relationship with Him. Our God knows us and wants to be known by us. Because of Christ’s death on the cross all links to our former ways of living have been broken and we have been freed from spiritual death forever. We are free from the components of the law, and best of all we are washed and are now worthy (by proxy) to stand in the presence of God Himself.

Freedom is not in the clothes your wear or the music you appreciate. The exercise of true freedom is worshiping the God who cared enough to send His Son to die in our places. To love and obey His ordinances, realizing that He gives us rules to guide us through life, and in fact His way is life to any man who chooses to follow. True freedom is the freedom not to be enslaved to your former lusts and desires. It is the freedom to say no to sin, and yes to God.