have you ever asked...
why challenges in life can seem so difficult to navigate? Why you keep fighting (and loosing) the same
life battles? In these teachings we will seek to stay in the Freedom we have in Christ
during those times that often seem to defeat us.
Galatians 5:1 is an often quoted and powerful verse describing what Christ has done for mankind. Its first sentence declares the freedom we have from the slavery of sin. Christ set us free.
If you’re like me, though I have been set free, I find my life often drifting away from that freedom and into old patterns of life. I become burdened again by what Christ freed me from. I am not talking about loosing my salvation. Scripture is clear that I can never be separated from the love salvation Christ purchased for me. (Romans 8:38-39)
Yet, the second sentence of Galatians 5:1 indicates that we can become
burdened (notice, not owned) by “a yoke of slavery.”
What does that mean? how does that look?
I will use a word picture to demonstrate:
Once a house has been purchased, the owner owns it. Yet, those who don’t own it can live in different areas of the house. A mouse may live in the pantry. A spider may dwell behind the bookshelf. An aunt may
sublease the basement and live there.
So it is spiritually. God has purchased us for His own. But, we can rent out the basement to a smelly hellion of greed and thus the whole house is burdened by its odor. Unforgiveness may be given a place to hang out in the living room and that room becomes burdened by its darkness. Shame may be invited into the
playroom and that room will no longer be fun.
staying in freedom
“Staying in Freedom” is the title given to groups of men and women who meet together to learn how to live in the second sentence of Galatians 5:1. The curriculum used is called More Than You Can Handle. The material is augmented at morethanyoucanhandle.com. At this web page videos are found to introduce each of the book’s chapters.
The site also has resources to help guide leaders in their role.
May God bless you as you move in Staying In Freedom.
Doug Moore