Freedom - part 2

This concept of freedom in Christ is hard to grasp.  It is hard to understand.  It is even harder to live.  As people we love the comfort of checklists.  My wife, early on in our marriage, tried to get me to make lists.  The problem was that I lost my list.  But lists are a great way to organize things.  They help us stay on track.  They also help us see where we aren't being effective or efficient in our lives.  The problem is that we then transfer this to our relationship with God.  If I managed my relationship with my wife and girls by a list, would that be truly considered love.  Or would it lessen my love expressions to just a "To Do" list.

Check out what Paul says about this free life in Galatians 5.16-23:

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit.  Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness.  For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.  These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day.  Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival,; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.  I could go on.

This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know.  If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

But what happens when we live God's way?  He brings gifts into our lives, must the same way that fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.  We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

 Which picture represents your life--the life lived by the flesh or the one controlled by the Spirit?  Our freedom comes not from obedience, but our obedience comes from our freedom.  We are free to live life according to whatever way we want.  Are you living life your way or God's way?

Shine like Stars?

Okay, as if I need more convincing, I am not perfect.  I know that this information may catch many of you off guard, but I'm not - even in my most righteous of moments I fall short.  This may surprise you as well, but no one is.  By now you are wondering what happened to give me this revelation.  I'm going to give you the cliff notes on last night.

I came home to my downstairs neighbors music thumping so loud that we could hear the lyrics to the songs in our apartment.  This went on for over 3 hours (6:30-9:30) with us doing everything we could to get their attention, but they wouldn't come to the door to turn it down.  Finally, at 9:30 there was a confrontation between me and the neighbor, because of my pounding on his front door as if to wake the dead.

The neighbor poked his nose out of the blinds and I asked him to please turn down the music.  He opened the front door and proceeded to tell me that he would and that they just turned it on, to which I replied, "No sir, it has been on since 6:30 and we've been knocking since 7:45PM."  He proceeded to talk about my daughters and how they make so much more noise for them.  So basically, he is stooping down to the level of a couple of elementary school age girls (6 & 9).  I didn't like how he was talking about my girls and telling me to "control them".  I don't remember what I said next, but I know that my tone was not the best and that my adrenaline was pumping so hard, because he is a big guy and I thought that it was going to break into something more than just spoken words.

When I got back upstairs the only thing that I could think about was, "Did I represent Christ or His love in that encounter, my first encounter face to face, with our neighbor?  Did how that go down help to point him toward Christ?"  This has been tugging at my heart since last night.  Check out this passage from Galatians 5.22-26 (NIV):

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I am batting 100% for not having those qualities alive in me last night.  I was way past my point of fruit of the Spirit.  Then I thought, or better rationalized, that my behavior was protecting my daughters and family.  Yeah that is what I was doing.  But really?

Paul goes on to write in Philippians 2.14-16:

Do everything without complaining or arguing, (NIV) (readily and cheerfully -- no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! MSG) so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life (Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society.  Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. MSG)

Ouch! That hurts.  So I didn't start the confrontation with him in the right manner.  How would I expect him to respond when some one is banging on his door with obvious frustration and anger?  How would I expect the conversation to go when it was started with anger on both sides?

How are you shining?  Are you shining so that people receive a breath of fresh air?  Are you holding out the word of life?  Are you providing people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God?

None of us are perfect, but all of us are forgiven. Forgiven by He who exemplifies the fruit of the Spirit.  To forgive takes more than just saying, "I'm sorry."  It takes humility and the acceptance of peoples flaws.  We are called to be Christ-like and Christ is the epitome of forgiveness.  Give those around you a glimpse of God, both in you and through you.