Set free

I've been thinking about freedom some lately. And I've been thinking about my friends in Cuba some lately, too.

They don't have much freedom in Cuba. Although they find creative ways to enjoy life, and their life is simpler than ours, they are somewhat like well-behaved children. They grew up under a strong-fisted government that solves all their problems while stealing all their choices. They know better than to complain or openly disobey (although there's plenty of creative massaging of rules behind the scenes.)

Of course, no government can solve all our problems.

So, what is the cost of freedom? We need to address it squarely, for we now live in a nation where officials are eager for the government to solve all our problems.

There's always a cost to their solutions and usually that cost is freedom. Is it OK to trade freedom for state care?

A celebrity has quipped that Cuba is proof that socialism works. But the homes I visited proudly displayed USA flags because they want what we have. People die trying to swim from Cuba's shores to Miami. They crave freedom.

Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia in dismay when he realized they were trading their new freedom for old bondages. We may face that decision in our own country.

Do we trust Papa Government to care for us? Or, in trusting our Heavenly Father, hold firmly to the freedom that Christ

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Gal 5:1

Fourth of July

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Gal 5:1

Freedom?

Recently our family had a discussion about freedom vs. safety. Well, actually, we were discussing the Vikings plundering land through Europe in the Middle Ages. These wild men came to a village and did hideous things: rape, pillage, plunder, murder. Then they burned whatever was left.

We talked about the fear when a village knew they were coming. Many villagers submitted to a feudal state, where they gave up their freedom to a lord who promised them protection and safety.

I asked my teenage daughter to write a short essay on this subject of freedom vs. safety. Here’s what she wrote:

“What would do when the Vikings come here?” these villagers would ask themselves. “Who will we turn to?” The offer of protection would be very appealing to these frightened people.

The cost? The loss of freedom. They would submit themselves to their lord and do whatever he wanted whenever he called. In return, they would be safe and alive after the Vikings passed.

What would we do today?

What good is freedom if we’re dead?

As I look at this story, I see a clear image of what our lives in Christ should look like. We are being invaded by an enemy we can’t fight. He is plundering our lives, taking everything he can.

“What will we do when he comes?” we ask ourselves. “Who will we turn to?”

The offer of protection that Christ gives is very appealing. The cost? The loss of freedom. We submit ourselves to our Lord and do whatever he wants whenever he calls. In return, we will be safe and alive after the enemy passes.

What do you say?

Freedom and responsibility

When I was 3 years old, a neighboring farmer lugged me home from the field where he was working with heavy equipment. I was an escapee on the prowl and my mother was aghast.

Our yard was fenced but my folks then added barbed wire at the top (I don’t think it was coiled like the prison walls but I could be wrong…). They repaired any holes under the fence. They put boards beneath the gates so I couldn’t scoot under.

There wasn’t anything at home I didn’t like but my curiosity extended beyond the fence. I craved freedom but had no sense of responsibility yet.

I finally stayed put because even my curiosity couldn’t find a way out.

I then discovered that there was plenty to do in that big yard anyway. (Ask me sometime about putting salt on the bird’s tail.)

By the time I could open the gate, I had better sense than to stand in front of a landmover and walk down the middle of the highway. When I finally earned some freedom, I had outgrown most of my foolishness (and the rest is permanently imbedded).

Freedom and responsibility must be blended until there’s no difference.

Parenting tip: it’s OK to protect until your kids grow up. The day will come when they will open the gate. Take that time to be sure they’re ready to walk out.

A new look at independence

If things are on track, I am with my family in Cuba today. We're on a two-week mission trip to Mexico and Cuba and should be arriving in Cuba today.

Until recently, cell phones and computers were illegal in Cuba. That's changing, we understand (and we'll be able to report more when we get home!). Although Cuba is apparently loosening its grip on its citizens, my appreciate for the freedom we enjoy in this country has been stirred anew. We take for granted rights that many would kill for. And many are willing to die for.

Today, we celebrate the bold stroke of a group of colonists who were willing to risk their lives and reputations to declare their independence from England.

Happy Fourth of July! Make a list of the freedoms that you enjoy daily in America.

Freedom

Memorial Day is more than hamburgers and barbecue sauce. I have two nephews in the military, one just returning from Iraq and the other still over there. I respect their sacrifice and appreciate the freedom they are fighting for. We all have family and friends who have or are making sacrifices in our name.

I ran across a beautiful blog post at The Master's Artist commemorating the sacrifice made by our military. Please take a look.

Galatians: Finally...Melons?

Melons and cucumbers look pretty good when you’re eating dust most of the time. And so the people complained. Who brought them to this place of dryness and monotony when they could have fish and garlic, onions and leeks?

The Israelites were willing to trade their freedom for the delights of food. They minimized the food God had provided and whined about what was on their plate. (Num 11:4-6)

They were willing to go back to slavery for melons and fish.

As we conclude the book of Galatians, we see Paul writing to rescue churches from similar thinking. These new Christians throughout Galatia had been given new life. No longer were they under a death sentence.

But they were listening to those who were luring them back to slavery.

Paul reminded them: you are set free. Trusting anything but Jesus’ sacrifice was a walk to Egypt’s whips and chains.

This is our last lesson on Galatians. Feel free to review the lessons, as listed in the sidebar to the right.

For now, please read Galatians 5:1-4 and think about what Paul composed to people he loved and mentored. Write in your journal the impressions you get. Have you tried to return to the land of melons and cucumbers, ignoring the slavery that’s part of it? What is God asking you to lay down in the name of freedom?

Galatians: Branded

If you’ve ever been around livestock, you’ve seen a branding. A branding iron, heated to cherry red, is pressed against the flank of the cattle, leaving a mark on the skin for life, identifying the owner of each calf.

Paul reminded the Galatians as he closed his letter that he, too, was branded. In Gal 6:17, he said that the stigma or brand-mark of Jesus was on his flesh.

The irony of that comment was that judaizers (Jews who were trying to lure the Galatian believers into obeying Jewish law over Paul’s teachings) were insisting that the Gentiles be circumcised. That was the mark on their body which identified them as set apart for God.

Paul’s brand allied him with Jesus’ crucifixion, not the old laws. He was marked for life, owned by Christ.

So he told the Galatians it was no longer necessary to be circumcised. What mattered, Paul said, was a new creation.[1] While the judaizers required circumcision to be set apart, Paul said believers were set apart as a new creation.

Today, we don’t see circumcision as a rite of being set apart for God. But we sometimes have other practices which may seem to make us worthy of walking with God. And we trust those practices rather than placing our trust solely on Jesus’ work of redemption.

While the new believers in Galatia were tempted to trust in Jewish law and traditions, Paul reminded them again that they were new creation, set apart by Christ. They had been set free, not to return to traditions, but to walk in the life Christ had given them.

Do you wear the brand-mark of Jesus?

Have you trusted anything besides Jesus’ death and resurrection to give you freedom?

How do you trust and celebrate your status as a new creation?

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[1] Gal 6:15

Galatians: Which race?

“Can I play with you?” Billy asked the group of children at the park.

“Sure! Here are the rules.” Susie spent the next five minutes going over the game kids were playing. Billy’s eyes glazed over and he wandered off to check out the circle slide.

Even children surround themselves with regulations.

But Paul had some other ideas:

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”[1]

We could summarize the book of Galatians with this verse. Paul is pleading with his readers to reject the slavery of rules and embrace the freedom Christ intended for his own.

In this chapter, Paul is working up to impassioned proclamation. In verse 5, he reminds his reader that trusting in rules separates us from Christ.

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”[2]

But we trust regulations, don’t we? We want to have a share in our own salvation, to contribute to our redemption. Somehow, regulations are easier than relationships. We want to show that we are worth saving.

Relationships mean we have to trust others while rules mean we trust the rules.

But freedom comes in relationship, not in rules. We are not worthy of saving on our own. We need relationship with Christ, not a pack of rules to provide how admirable we really are in obeying laws.

Paul begged his new Galatian churches to grip their new freedom. “You, my brothers, were called to be free.”[3]

Journal about these questions:

Read Gal. 5. How would Paul define freedom?

What did the “yoke of slavery” (v 1) look like for you?

Where are you in the “race” that Paul describes in v. 7? Are you running in freedom or trusting in rules?

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[1] Gal 5:1

[2] Gal 5:6

[3] Gal 5:13

Galatians: the child of freedom

Hagar, the servant girl of Sarah, was young and healthy. When she bore a son to Abraham, it was in the ordinary way out of human effort and plans. Sarah knew child-bearing was not a problem for the young woman.

It was impossible for Sarah to bear Isaac, but she did because God had promised she would. Sarah represented the freedom of grace while Hagar represented the slavery of human effort.

Using a familiar story, that of Hagar and Sarah, Paul tried to convince the new Galatian Christians that they had choices. Yes, they were children of Abraham, but Abraham had two sons: one born of human exertion and one born of God’s promise.

The Galatians were children of Abraham, all right, but grafted in because of God’s pledge, not their own efforts. Paul was upset that the Galatians as new believers would allow themselves to trust human endeavor rather than God’s assurance. He didn’t want them to give up the freedom of God’s grace and the blessings of his inheritance. The law was about human effort and Paul wanted the new believers to know freedom.

We sometimes stumble as the Galatians had, thinking that a set of rules might be simpler than a walk in the open air. Paul longed for freedom for the Galatians, not a return to slavery.

Read Galatians 4:21-31. Write in your journal about any impressions you have.

What benefits are there to following the way of Sarah (God’s promise)?

Is your faith based on God’s promises or on your own efforts?

What steps can you take today to walk in the way of Sarah?

Galatians: the birthright

Nick thought he was a slave at age 14, forced to work weekends and summers in his father’s small business. He learned skills he didn’t want to know, sweating when he wanted to play. He left for college glad to be free.

But a few years later, his father offered him a partnership in the business. This time it was his choice, and he returned to a position that now offered some financial security and great opportunity.

There’s a difference between a servant and son. Nick was always a son but saw himself as a teenage servant for awhile, with no choices and no opportunities.

In Galatians 4:1-20, Paul questioned why the Galatian Christians would shuck their birthright for a servant situation.

“…before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods…,”[1] Paul declared.

But now, he continued, you are choosing to go back into slavery. Those who offer only a pack of rules and traditions are luring you to become servants.

Why would these false teachers do that?

Paul explained: “They want to shut you out of the free world of God's grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.”[2]

Paul pleaded with the people to remember their position as children, not slaves. “If you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.”[3]

Consider these questions in your journal:

Have you seen situations where people return to the comfort of servanthood?

What does Paul see as the advantages of a child of God, as opposed to a servant?

Have you ever struggled with the lure of rules and traditions? What would Paul say to you?

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[1] Gal 4:8

[2] Gal 4:17

[3] Gal 4:7

Freedom Finances: car loans

We needed a station wagon. I had an S-10 pickup and he had a battered old blue van. The station wagon was the compromise vehicle and we started reviewing our resources.

After some budget work, we decided we could afford a car payment. We sold the pickup for more than its loan value (because I had borrowed as little as possible when I bought it) and sold some other unused items.

We shopped for an older vehicle, waiting to buy for a couple of months until the one in our price range came available. Thanks to a Colorado hailstorm, it came on the market with some minor craters on the roof.

After some negotiating with the salesman, we walked away with an older station wagon and no car loan. That’s when we kicked in our new plan.

We made the car payments anyway. We treated that car payment just like any other bill and paid it promptly every month. Instead of paying out 8-10% interest, we were earning 2%. That’s a 10-12% difference – not bad return on investment.

So here’s the idea for you: keep your present vehicle as long as possible. Take good care of the maintenance, which will keep it running a little longer. When it’s paid off, put the car payments into a special account every month so that when it’s time for the next car, you won’t need to borrow as much. With that kind of plan, you will be paying cash for vehicles in a few years. And paying the interest to yourself instead of to a car dealership.

Debt is a form of slavery (take a look at Neh 5:4-5 to see its effect on families) and any steps we can take to ease that load brings us the light of freedom.

Galatians: double standards

Confrontation is never fun, especially if the confrontee is a well-respected elder. But we know nothing about Paul if we don’t know that he was passionate about the word of God.

So the thought of confronting Peter the apostle didn’t set Paul back. We’ve been looking at the book of Galatians, Paul’s first letter – written to his first church plants.

The idea of diluting the gospel with Jewish traditions got Paul’s pulse pumping. He was clear on the basic truths of his new faith, and wasn’t afraid to confront even Peter, reminding him “we are justified by faith, not by observing the law.”[1]

In other words, Peter wanted to live freely, not under the law, but expected non-Jews to live like Jews, observing the law. Why? Either we are saved by the grace of Jesus or by the law. Not both.

Paul understood that if righteousness could be gotten through the law, then Christ died for no reason.

Read Galatians 2, keeping in mind the differences between Peter’s and Paul’s teachings.

By the way, this difference was soon to be resolved at the Jerusalem Council as described in Acts 15. The idea of whether new Christians had to first become Jewish before coming to Jesus was an important debate for the early church.

I hope you’re keeping a journal as you read through Galatians. Write down your answers to these questions and feel free to leave comments on them as well:

Do you live by faith or by the law?

What does that look like in our culture today? (It probably doesn’t deal with circumcision and festival observances like in the first century)

Do you know someone who is confused about the place of law in his or her life? What could you tell him or her?

List some of Paul’s arguments with Peter.

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[1] Gal 2:16

When we rule....

God loved the birds and invented trees.

Man loved the birds and invented cages.

-Jacques Deval

Praising

"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own."

G. K. Chesterton

Choices

I had already waved at our son, Nathan, who was 11 at the time and standing out in the front yard, when Becky, 6, came rushing out of the house carrying a big stick and a bread basket, nearly knocking my tools out of my hands.

“What’s all that for?” I asked.

“Oh!” The excitement lit her face. “Nathan says that you can see for 3 seconds after you get your head chopped off so we’re going to go find out.”

Ah, the rush of choice.

This, by the way, was the same energetic daughter who climbed a tree at age 2 and hung by one hand some four feet from the ground, calling for me to rescue her.

I think God made many of us parents so that we’d understand his nature slightly better.

God is no protectionist. He laid the ripe fruit in Eden and warned against it. He calls our name but never sedates our heart.

When Nathan and Becky rushed out for their guillotine experiment, I went to the kitchen to make supper. I trusted their good sense, partly because I had not rescued a little girl a few years before.

They knew the limits of choice. Freedom may look boundless, but we must learn our own limitations. My daughter did get herself down from that tree. She didn’t stop climbing trees but she learned to test the branch and gauge the height before starting. And the kids didn’t come to supper headless that night.

We understand that choice allows us to worship freely. It also teaches us to trim our sails and navigate this life in the abundance that God promises us.

Pouring out living water

The day was probably hot and dry by midday. The woman was thirsty, coming to the well to fetch water.

We know some things about her: she was a foreigner, confused about her religious beliefs even as she clung to the tradition in them, feeling shame and the disapproval of her community. Why else would she have been drawing water at noon when all the women drew water in the morning? She came to avoid the disapproving tongues.

Jesus chose to enter her domain. Most people shunned this woman. While most Jews made a special point of avoiding Samaria – going out of their way to stay out of the hated land – Jesus went out of his way to talk to this woman.

He offered her water that never ran out – the answer to her problems. But while her mind probably flew to the condemnation of her village, Jesus talked about forgiveness and restoration.

Yesterday I raised the topic of Muslim prayer in our town. Should the school board allow Muslims to leave class for regular prayer? How should the Christians respond?

Jesus didn’t boycott the Samaritan religion or condemn it. He jumped right in with both feet, meeting this woman on her turf and talking about life in terms she understood. By the time he was done, this woman and her village had found the Messiah. Revival broke out in a Samaritan town that had been infiltrated by a Jewish rabbi.

I’m still putting the pieces together but I’m looking at Jesus’ life. How would he respond to Muslims praying in a school setting? How did he respond to a Samaritan woman with a skewed religion? He loved her, talked her language, and directed her to the truth.

I think there’s something in that I need to learn.

Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

John 4:14

Which stand?

A small group of refugees have moved into our little farm town, bringing their Islamic beliefs with them. I heard just this week that they are hoping to build a mosque south of the tracks and have petitioned the school board to allow their youth to take moments out of class during the day for their regular pray times.

It’s a stretching sort of challenge and it made me think of Thomas Helwys. Thomas was a 17^th century Englishman at the forefront of the resistance that later birthed the Pilgrims and Puritans.

Thomas wrote a treatise for King James (yes, the one who commissioned the famous Bible translation) entitled A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity, which detailed his stand on religious freedom, the right of the individual (as opposed to the state) to interpret the Bible for himself, and the separation of church and state. In those days, the king saw himself as the head of the church and freely made laws affecting individual piety. Tithing and even the version of prayer book were dictated by the state.

You could go to prison for withholding from the offering plate or using the wrong hymnal.

Thomas died for religious freedom. King James offered to set him free the moment he recanted, but Thomas refused. He died in Newcastle Prison, passionate to the end for the right to worship without state control.

As I think about this Muslim group who wishes to take their religion into our school system, I am torn. Many in our community are angry – not a bad thing. In some cases, they are being forced to make a religious stand.

I know that, if the Muslims are allowed to disrupt class time for prayer time, that the Christians in our community will queue behind with requests for noontime Bible studies and permission to prayer walk the halls.

It’s an interesting can of worms. As followers of Jesus, we need to know something of our own history. Helwys and others died for religious freedom – for all religions. Helwys was wise enough to know that when we give the state permission to deny one, we have opened the floodgates for the state to regulate all.

What say you? Is our stand to deny other religions? Or to use the freedoms they demand for our own gain?

Nostalgia revisited

I’m not a real nostalgic person, although I’m re-thinking that position a little.

I learned to look ahead at my mother’s knee. She spent most of my childhood trying to forget that she’d hatched me.

Actually, that’s not true. She was a saint, persevering through those early years when I was the strong-willed child that Dr. Dobson warned – er, wrote – about. I knew at age 2 that I was more stubborn than she was. I eventually learned I was wrong but it took a while.

Once, when my three younger siblings were roaring about the house with lots of noise and flying objects, my mother sighed. “If only I’d just one….” Then she glanced at me. “But that would have been you.”

Another time, I confronted her: “If I was really that bad, why’d you have more kids?” She smiled, “I knew it couldn’t get any worse.”

When my first-born was a little tyke, I’d call her up. “Mom, she was dancing naked in a mud puddle today!” And my mother laughed and laughed. And laughed.

I thought I heard in her gasp, “Payback!” but I’m not sure about that.

I mean, I never danced naked in a mud puddle. I fed bobby pins to my baby brother instead. I asked Mom at age 7, “How come you don’t like me?” and she replied, “Oh, I like you OK. I don’t like the stuff you do.”

The reason I share this is because it’s important to my walk with Jesus. When I think I should polish up my Christian crown a little, I can look back. I didn’t start this life as a saint and it’s only by God’s incredible grace that I’m where I am.

I was in a black sludge-filled sewer pond when he reached out his hand and offered me a lift. It’s only when I remember who I was before Jesus, and who he is as my rescuer, that I’m a lot more humble and lot less about polishing any crowns.

So I’m not real nostalgic, except to remember my redemption. Then, humility is the order of the day.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 8:32