| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net So what did this Independence Day give us Independence from? Tyranny? Oppression? Slavery? Persecution? The short answer is yes, and without getting to political, let’s turn the Spiritual Switch: When Mosses led the captives out of Egypt, he was leading them out of tyranny, oppression, slavery and persecution. That whole segment of history is a picture of your life if you are “in Christ”. They were slaves crying out for deliverance from a situation or circumstance; God heard their cries, and provided a remedy. Then, when they were to cross into the promised land, they balked, which brought on the wilderness wandering – (forty years worth). That’s where we are in Christ Jesus. We were Slaves to sin and self, walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” Eph. 2:2 And so we cried out for deliverance from our situation or circumstance.The remedy? “But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up to-gether, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” – Eph. 2:4-9. Often you will hear folks talk about death in terms of “crossing over the river”; a reference to the river Jordan, or the last border to The Promised Land. You see, we haven’t crossed over yet into heaven, but are in the “wilderness wandering” stage of our lives. Nugget: From the verses above, do you see that just as the Israelites had nothing to do with their deliverance, you and I have nothing to do with our salvation. It isn’t about what we have done, what someone did to us or for us, what we joined, what we sacrificed, but only about Him - “and this not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” He gets the glory. He gets all the credit, and rightly so. If you have accepted His gift of salvation, repented (turned from self toward God) and made Him Lord of your life, you have been delivered from Tyranny, Oppression, and Slavery, but the persecution goes on (that’s good news and we’ll talk about that next week). God bless. |
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