Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom! No more in chains do I repine... (1 picture + 1 experience with the Lord today)

Tonight is one of those very rare nights when I got home after the home meeting BEFORE 11.30pm! This is very rare indeed, since most times the home meeting goes on and we enjoy the Lord and being together up until close to midnight! Since most saints don't work the next day, most young people have no school on Saturday, and most students have no classes next morning, everyone chills and enjoys. And indeed, even tonight, what an enjoyment and what a good fellowship we had! To see how Psalm 51 is being applied today and how we as believers in the Lord can repent and confess our sins... It's one thing when you read about it in the Bible, and it's a totally different thing when you hear this from 13-year olds, 15-year olds, or even 18-year olds... Wow...

1 Picture for today - Even the Police needs AA

This picture was taken recently as I was walking home one night - it looks like even the police needs AA, that is, it needs to be towed away. I'm not sure whether they parked illegally ;) or maybe their engine just died - whatever happened, there were 2-3 policemen there and a car who took the police car away. Pretty cool, and also pretty mysterious... [I'll leave it like that!]

1 Experience with the Lord today - Glorious Freedom, wonderful Freedom, no more in chains do I repine!

This line is taken from a hymn we love so much, where the chorus says, Glorious Freedom, / Wonderful Freedom, / No more in chains of sins I repine. / Jesus the glorious Emancipator / Now and forever He shall be mine! This song mainly refers to the freedom which we get by believing into the Lord. He delivers us from Satan, from ourselves, from any bondage, from pride, sinful ambition, evil temper, anger, love of money, envy, strife, carnal affections, hatred, vain ambitions, worldly desires, fear and its torments, care and its pain, etc. Basically, once we come to the Lord, we are being set free!

We may say like the Jews in the Lord's time, But we are slaves of no one: God is our Father (John 8:33)! Well, I can tell you right now, we are being daily enslaved and oppressed. Especially when you get into a debt of money to someone or to the bank, you get enslaved. Also, there's all kinds of chores and regular things we owe to do towards others. Sometimes we make mistakes - for which we need to pay either with our time or with something else. All these things put a burden on us, they enslave us. We need to work in order to support ourselves, to sustain a certain life-style - this can enslave us.

And then there's the ambition and the desire to get something or be someone. There's the pride which rises up in us and we cultivate by going to schools, having achievements, accomplishing what we set out to do, getting some degrees, being praised by others because of some attainments we have or any other thing about us, etc. If there's not a career thing, then the cares of this age, the cares for this life, our family needs, the people we need to care for... the things at work, the people around us, etc - it's almost as if everything around us was designed by someone to occupy our time, take our time away from us, ensare us, enslave us, and bring us into bondage. We say we are free, but we are under much burden and in bondage to many things...

What about the entertainment and the media today? What about the new shiny and amazing gadgets? The new games, the new apps, the new music, the new movies, the new this or that.... The news, the pictures, the things happening - all these are "our food" so many times, and at the same time they are enslaving us, causing us to desire after them and not be happy until we get more.... There are things OUTSIDE of us that work together to wear us out and enslave us, and there are many things / thoughts / feelings WITHIN us that cause us to be burdened and enslaved....

BUT there's a GLORIOUS FREEDOM that we can experience! This freedom is not only initially when we touch the Lord, but it can be experienced and it SHOULD be experienced by all the believers in Christ every day! We can turn to the Lord - we can just open up to Him! He came that we may be free indeed - and in His word we are being delivered. We need to read His Word, enjoy Him in the Bible, and allow the Word of God to deliver us. There's a freeing-from-bondage effect in our praying over the Word of God and in spending time with the Lord personally. The other things are still there, all around us, waiting for us - but we take time to spend with the Lord... and we are INWARDLY FREED!

I think that this is our experience every day - maybe not the above mentioned items, but for each one of us there are some things, some matters, some situations, that enslave us, put us down, and we have to "take care of them" and be under them. And you know what? God doesn't want us to escape those things necessarily - He wants us that right there, in these things and in these situations, we would open to Him. We need to turn to the Lord and take Him in as the fresh breath of spiritual air. Pray over His Word - with your heart being turned to the Lord, and You Will Be Freed! We can and we should experience the glorious freedom TODAY and EVERY DAY!