When we came to Christ, not only were we saved by His sacrifice on the cross, but we were set free from the bondage of sin, death, and the chains of the world that bound us to eternal separation from God. We can live free in Christ as slaves of His righteousness and glory to rise up from the ashes of death to eternal life with Him in Heaven, as God’s adopted sons and daughters to live under His glory forever and ever.

We did nothing for this except to accept the free gift of Grace from what Jesus offered us. We didn’t earn it, for we are blemished with rebellion to God, prone to sin, destined for hell, and before we came to Christ, were separated from God and His perfect and sinless Self. We could not purchase our salvation, nor could any of our earthly works give us a pass into the House of God or to stand blameless in His presence.

Now that we are with Christ in our hearts, minds, and souls, we are free to worship Him without fear or blame. We can be joyous and not be fearful of our future destiny after our time in this world. We are touched with the Grace that gives us this joy, surrounded by the love of God, wrapped in His arms of immeasurable care and comfort, so we don’t need to worry about today or tomorrow or what man can do to us. We made the most awesome decision to answer the call of Christ in our lives.

We are free from this awful world. We need not heed the callings or the temptations the world tosses at our feet. We are now free to dwell and bask in the presence of our God, to be filled with joy and love, not with fear or hate. We are set apart from the world, set apart by our Lord and Savior to endear Him during our time here and in eternity.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

Hold fast to the freedom we have in Christ. If our guards are let down, the wiles of the Devil can tempt us to do the things we don’t want to do. Our nature is to rebel against God, to seek selfishly our own desires and satisfy our lusts. We are to stand fast in Christ and turn from evil thoughts and lusts that can put us back into the bondage of sin until we repent of our failings in our relationship with Christ.

Christ made us free so we can freely worship and serve Him during our time in this world. His sacrifice and our representative as our High Priest solidified and sealed us as His people, members of His Holy Church. We cannot take this lightly. We need to praise and worship Him, as the Christ that gave Himself for us so we would be blemish-free in the eyes of our Judge.

We are free from Satan and the snare he wants us to be enjoined in. Satan hates us; and as the prince of this world, he wants to take us down with him. We broke free from Satan when we came to Christ. Christ purchased us through His life given on the cross. We don’t have to listen to Satan nor adhere to his temptations.

We are free from the bindings of the world. The world offers nothing compared to what Christ has given us. In the world, we are not free, we are tied down and with Satan who gives counterfeit freedom through lies and subterfuge. The world is only temporary; we are endless with Christ as our Lord and Savior, free from what the world portends to offer us in terms of happiness and life. We have a more fulfilling and joyful life with Christ as our Head, and the world cannot give that same fulfillment.

We need Christ for our true freedom. The world offers counterfeit freedom to us. The world adheres to the belief that life can be full of joy and happiness through what it offers, but does it really? The world cannot give us eternity in Heaven, but only eternity in the pit of hell to be separated from the love and comfort of God.

When we are free in Christ, we are not alone. We no longer have a cloud of uncertainty floating above us or feel alone in the vast world. Christ provides assurance to us of our future with Him, giving us the joy we have that those of the world don’t have as they live in confusion and fear of what each day and tomorrow may have in store for them.

When we are free in Christ, our hearts are full. No longer do we hold a heart of emptiness or with that void we all felt before coming to Christ. Our hearts are full of Him and the love He has given us; we can give to others what Christ has given to us, a satisfaction that nothing in the world can fill us with. Our hearts are caught in the net of Christ, to be ever full and enlarged with His graciousness of Grace, never to be empty again or void of care and love.

We are free in Christ; we can live boldly. Man can only take our lives, not our eternity. We can stand tall and bold in the face of adversity, not bending for the ways of the world or to the wiles and hate of Christ from the world. We are not duped by Satan but can stand firmly against what he tries to influence us with, by setting ourselves apart from Satan and the world.

To be free in Christ is a glorious and wonderous thing. By being free and set free by Christ, we will spend eternity with Him as our Lord and Savior, worshipping Him and our Father in Heaven forever.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

In the grand scheme of eternity, we, as humans, are just a vapor in the wind. We may feel time drags by and that we will live a long and healthy life in this world, but in reality, and regardless of, our time is short, just a wisp of air in a timeless universe.

We may try to fool ourselves, but we are in this world for a very short time, here and gone in a blink of an eye, bound to leave this world through death or the rapture in an instant, when we think of eternity and our time in this world.

We all yearn to be home with our Father and Jesus, but in our everyday lives, time seems to move slowly. Yet, when we look back on our lives, the reality is that time has quickly conquered us, and we begin to realize as we age that our lives are very short and, in fact, time has been wasted on needless thoughts, worries, and activities.

We look at time as a burden as we rue lost time and complain that we need more time to do and complete the things that we want to do, and do for the Lord. We sit in today and proclaim that we will do this or that… maybe tomorrow… or down the road, only to be overtaken by time and missed opportunities to serve our Lord and Savior.

What we do with our short time on this world matters – it really does. We waste valuable time doing things that are truly not important in our short time on earth. We empty out the hourglass, chasing down what we think is important in our personal lives or waste it with irrelevant activities such as watching television, stressing out over things we can’t control, and satisfying self-gratifying desires that are contrary to the Will of God and through the ignored unction’s we receive from the Holy Spirit.

What is important and a priority in our lives will be what we spend our time doing. If we are not faith-centered, valuable time is lost. Oh, you may say you have to compartmentalize activities with God and without Him for the things we do, such as work, or home life, or spending time with worldly friends, but it shouldn’t.  When we are faith-centered and God-focused, all our time can be for the betterment of our sanctification.

We cannot exclude the Triune God in the separate functions we do each day. We cannot leave Them out in our lives until Sunday morning. They must always be involved in all aspects of our lives. There is no time in our existence that does not need our Father, Christ, or the Holy Spirit.  Each and every moment of our waking time should be with Them at the forefront of our motives and actions.

To close the door on our faith in any aspect of our lives and time on earth leads to sin. When not faith-centric all day, each day, we open ourselves to the wiles of the Devil to pry into our lives and take the precious time we do have away from our love of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  If you are doing something that you believe They are not involved in, or should be involved in, then it is time to turn from that and do something else.

When we sin and continue in sin, we are taking time away from our relationship with God who wants us to rely on and love Him so we can be of service to Him in our short time here in this world. We don’t know when our time is up here in the world, so we need to make the most of it, not for self, but for our Father in Heaven.

I’ve never met someone who didn’t think they weren’t going to live a long and fulfilling life. I’ve never met someone who told me they planned on getting incurable cancer, a heart attack, or die in a car accident today, or ever, that would shorten their time here. But it happens; therefore, we must take heed of what we do with time in our lives.

We don’t know what the rest of each day has for us. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring either.  I’m not being a pessimist, but only being realistic. We get into routines in life and assume that life will roll on day after day without a glitch or bump in the road. From experience, we all know this is not true, but we live this way anyway. We forget we are just a vapor in the wind.

We, as believers, know that in terms of eternity, our lives are short. The people of the world don’t have that same perspective. They say time is on their side, but is it? They make plans for a future that may not come to fruition. They go each day about their business not worrying about time or how little time there is left in this world.

The world ambles around aimlessly each day without the realization that their lives can end at any moment. They are blind to what we as believers know – time is short, especially in these end times. The world believes that time is their friend when, in reality, time is a crutch in their wandering lives.

Satan wants people to waste time. He wants people to live for tomorrow, even though tomorrow is not a guarantee. He perpetuates this idea that it is all about the future – retirement, growing old, vacations, and such. He has the unsaved believe that time spent on self is time well spent. This is a lie, because we are not timeless on this earth, and worldly people are destined to die and spend eternity outside the comforting arms of our Father in Heaven if they don’t change and turn from this lie.

Does this mean we shouldn’t hope for a long life or plan for future events? No, not at all, but it is about the attitude you have towards time that matters. If our priorities are for worldly ends, a reevaluation needs to be done. If the means to the end is God-focused, then we are on the right track.

We, as saved sinners and believers of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, know we can’t stop time, but also that time is not under our control. We need not worry about tomorrow or stress-out about what the future can bring us, for we know what our destiny is, regardless of if our time runs out tomorrow or next week, in 10 years, or beyond.

We should have hope for tomorrow, yes, but that hope needs to be Kingdom-centric, not worldly-centric. Spiritually, our hope is in the Lord, not the world.  Our time spent here on earth needs to be well spent on the things of God and doing His will in our lives. To live otherwise begs the question of what you are living for.

johnflysaught@gmail.com