Dear Family of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Brothers and Sisters, you are FREE in our LORD! AMEN! What is holding you back?I pray for complete release of any bondage you have in your life! AMEN! May you realize and live in the favor of God! Complete living in the Kingdom! I’M ALMOST THERE MYSELF!
What is bondage?
Bondage implies slavery or slavish thinking. A cursory reading of these passages might lead you to assume, as many do, that Paul considered commandment keeping to be bondage.
Bondage truly does relate to slavery. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines douleia, the word translatedbondage, as “to make a slave of” or metaphorically to “make myself a bondman.” But is keeping God’s commandments slavery? Is this the bondage to which Paul was referring?
As we determine the answers to these questions, we must be wise and discerning students of God’s Word, “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). We must remember that the Bible interprets itself. When properly understood, no part of it contradicts any other part. Christ stated in John 10:35, “The Scripture cannot be broken.”
The Galatian congregation included people from varied backgrounds, including some who formerly observed pagan gentile faiths and some who formerly observed the Old Testament statutes as if they were the way to salvation. Both groups had spiritual baggage—spiritual misunderstandings—to shed. This is borne out by a careful reading of the entire book, as well as the historical background provided by commentaries.
Elements of the world
Writing to this diverse group, Paul spoke of everyone being “in bondage under the elements of the world” (Galatians 4:3) until God delivers us from those enslaving thoughts and actions through Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. Is it accurate to interpret “elements of the world” to mean the law of God?
No! Paul never referred to the commandments as “elements of the world.” Nor did God inspire any other writer of Scripture to refer to His laws in this way. Said another way, nowhere does the Bible call God’s law, or the laws God gave through Moses, “worldly.”
Instead, biblical references to “the world” mean the system governed and influenced by Satan. We need look no further than within this same letter to see what Paul meant: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
What made me even grow closer to the Lord yesterday was this:
Thank you all for your love and prayers. We are thanking the Lord that Sharon’s retnia is not torn it is the Vitreal that is torn, it pulled on the retnia when it tore Wednesday and caused the episode. We have to keep an eye on it and go for check ups now and then. We believe the Lord will heal this! AMEN! PTL! Thank you all for your love and prayers! Please pray for me, as I leave this morning for Longmont, Colorado for Ron Bernard’s funeral. Sharon will be staying home with Buffy and Reno! We sure do love you all in the name of Jesus!
As I sat in the waiting room as they examined Sharon’s eye, twice yesterday, the Lord gave me a great calmness, He told me NO SURGERY for Sharon! I almost fell asleep in the waiting room! Sharon did not want me in the room for the second examination, get a load of this, she says sometimes I TALK TOO MUCH! LOL LOL, The Truth is told!!!!!
As I sat there in the waiting area yesterday, so many people with eye problems. I thought of the eye’s, how vulnerable they are, how vulnerable we all are. Life to me is all about my relationship with God Sharon, kid’s, doggies, friends and the work assigned me by Lord Jesus Christ. Bondage holds us all back in our growth in our Lord. You know what you are tied to that is not Godly, you try to fit it into your Christian life, but does it?
A very wise friend years ago told me if you want a reality check on life, visit a nursing home, hospital, funeral home. yesterday was one of those days.
Then this morning my buddy David Waterman posted this:
David Waterman
Sat in the ER all afternoon at UNMH. Wishing I could take the pain hurt and discomfort my wife has had to go through. Would gladly carry it for her if I could so she wouldn’t know such hurt anymore. I watched nurses and staff there struggle to care for a flood of patients. Nurses have to be made of special stuff as they deal with all the wounded, frustrated, angry and sometimes very uncooperative patients. I have never been to an ER that did not renew my intense hatred for drug dealing, drunk driving, and all the other very selfish things done for pure selfishness that spreads such suffering in the world. Patti needs to rest more and she will take time to heal. But for those who lost loved ones or are permanently disabled due to drunk driving or DUI accidents there is often no healing. Can’t bring back the dead. We need to be as involved and indignant at drunk driving as we are at a school shooting. Because the carnage on our streets and roads goes on and on and on……
Well said my friend!
I have had enought of all the bad news this week…….click here for a great story about working hard and being nice, IT STILL PAYS OFF: http://www.fggam.org/hard-work-and-being-nice-still-counts-in-more-ways-than-one/
From time to time we have talked about the Favor of God.It is avaible to all! For example I tell my friend Grace, she has the favor of God and keep walking in it, don’t turn to the right or the left, keep walking in the favor of God. Do not be distracted by the “NOTHING NOISE of the World. Oh my, yesterday a lot of “NOTHING NOISE” was thrown at me and Sharon, but we kept focused on the eye’s of Jesus Christ and His way.
Please read this on the favor of God then comeback and read this other posting below.
click here: http://www.fggam.org/defining-the-favor-of-god/
This is one of my favorite devotionals on the Favor of God. The Favor of God is misunderstood by many, it is not magic, it is of God. This was written by the late David Wilkerson.
By David Wilkerson
May 10, 1993
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The book of Haggai is a marvelous lesson on how to get and keep the blessing and favor of the Lord. In utter simplicity the prophet Haggai outlines how God’s children can live and walk under God’s continual blessing and favor.
Yet Haggai also shows the causes and reasons why people lose God’s blessing – and what they must do to come back into His favor! This is true for nations, families, individuals.
The wonderful truth is, God blesses those who walk in faithfulness – He shows favor to those who favor Him. I don’t know about you, but I love to be around people who have the favor of God! There is something of the exuberance of Christ about them. And they have a settled peace. You don’t have to worry from one day to the next whether they’re up or down, because there is a steadiness about their walk with God.
One of the greatest sorrows a pastor has to bear, however, is to witness the awful changes that take place in Christians who go sour. These are believers who at one time were on fire for God, dedicated and zealous for His work. They were happy, blessed, growing in faith, maturing spiritually.
Then one day you began to sense that something had gone wrong. A frown had replaced their smile. Suddenly they’d stopped growing. Spiritual decay had set in!
This happens to married couples! Perhaps it is true of your marriage. Only a year or so ago, you both seemed so happy. There was a spark in your eyes, and you were sweethearts. Everywhere you turned God was blessing you. People around you thought nothing could ever come between you. You both enjoyed the fullness of God’s favor.
But now something is wrong. In a matter of just months, you both are walking in sorrow! You can’t agree on anything – there is constant misunderstanding between you. Your love for each other and for God’s work is waning. His blessing and favor on your marriage has been withdrawn!
This also happens to individual Christians! I have been greatly blessed by the faithfulness and zeal of many individual Christians, many of whom are single. They’re so full of joy, excited about the Word of God, always putting the Lord’s work first, When I see them I say to myself, “There goes one who will never quit and never grow stale. He [or she] is determined to go all the way with the Lord!”
Yet, sadly, some of these zealous believers begin to change. They start missing meetings, whereas they used to come to every service. And a sad, dour look has swept over their countenance, The blessing of God is no longer there – you can almost see it draining out of them!
Now when I see them, I wonder, “Lord – what happened? How could they just drift away? How did such coldness get into their spirit? How could they forget the secret of having Your blessing and favor upon them?”
The same thing happens to nations! From the day God commanded His blessings upon Israel, down to modern-day America – nations that once lived under bountiful goodness soon forget God! They forget why He blessed them – and they become His enemies, going from favor to awful judgments!
No nation was ever so blessed as Israel. God told them, “I picked you out of all the peoples of the nations – and I carried you in My arms! I found you, bathed and clothed you. But then you turned sour on Me! You turned against Me, committing spiritual adultery!”
Like Israel, America has lost God’s blessing and favor! At one time this nation was greatly blessed. Our forefathers were, for the most part, godly men. And up to just a few years ago, America blessed the whole world as the number-one lender nation. Not anymore! We are now the number-one debtor nation, owing more money than the rest of the world combined! We’re so deep in debt we’ll never get out!
What has happened to America? It has lost its soul, its blessing, its favor with God! No longer are we one nation under Him – because He has turned us over to our sins. We have become godless – and now we are under His divine discipline!
How do nations, families, individuals lose the blessing and favor of God? What causes this fall into ruin and shame? Haggai lists three reasons for this:
