How to Use Freedom in Christ?

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The United States Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

The country remembers and reflects upon those, who like the Christian Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., use their freedom to peaceably advance greater civil rights & freedom’s for all.

What is the proper way to use the freedom from sin that Jesus Christ grants to those who pursue them with all their heart, mind, body, and soul?

The proper way to use freedom, is to use it to be more free in helping one’s neighbor through life’s challenges.

How has this been practiced in communities?

This proper use of freedom has contributed to healing and advancement of societies, as people used their freedom to provide …

• hospitals & medical centers to care for the sick,
• homes care for orphans,
• schools to educate the next generations,
• legislation to ensure medicine is safe & effective,
• groups to support abuse victims,
• support groups to aid alcoholics successfully embrace sobriety,
• assistance rebuilding after disasters,
• food & clothing for those in need,
• outreach to those in prisons,
• care for those facing challenges in marriages,
• support for those living through divorces,
• law enforcement tools to find evidence to acquit the falsely accused,
• and a justice system to convict people who commit murderers, thieves, human trafficking, and who are corrupt and accept bribes.
  

Reflection:

How are you using your freedom from sin in Christ to care for your neighbor and neighborhood?

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Submission to Authority:

For those who also wish to reflect upon civil disobedience and obedience to authorities, you are welcome to watch or listen to the Mars Hill Church Trial Series Episode on Submission to Authority at http://marshill.com/media/trial/submission-to-authority. This episode also specifically mentions the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. too.

Bible Reference:

Galatians 5:13-15 (ESV): 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Related articles:

• Prayer for the Day: Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (prayerscapes.wordpress.com)
• Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
• Happy MLK Day! (fansinaflashbulb.wordpress.com)
• 12 Most Empowering Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes By Peggy Fitzpatrick (12most.com)
• celebrating martin luther king, jr…and acknowledging the Giver of such dreams… (eugenecho.com)
• When Judged by the Content of His Character By: Dr. Jimmy T. (Gunny) LaBaume (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
• Martin Luther King said … (converstations.com)
• Martin Luther King Jr. and Tax (taxprof.typepad.com)
• Alpha Mind: Martin Luther King Jr. (alphabody320.wordpress.com)

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Life’s Top Mission

Challenging Misconceptions:
How are you doing on this life’s top mission and purpose to find, follow, and live in and live out an enduring faith in God?

People were made in God’s image to have the opportunity to become increasingly like God, who is known through Jesus the Son of God, who is God, and reveals God.

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God is knowable, yet unknown by many.
God is truth, but often obscured by so-called facts.
God is love, though misunderstood due to worldly misguided love.
God is wise, despite lofty specks of dust unwisely perceiving foolishness.
God is righteous, even as accused of  unrighteousness by people who do evil.

Have you found God despite the war of ideas to designed to obscure truth?
Have you located love of God, though life fosters hatred and misplaced love?
Have you uncovered the ultimate wisdom, despite lesser wisdom’s appeal?
Have you sought Jesus’ righteousness, even as one’s own ways seem right?
Have you pursued knowing the knowable God, and yet must continue chasing?

Have you allowed your own strongholds against God to be liberated by the only Savior able to liberate one’s soul?

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV):

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience,  when your obedience is complete.

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Fragrance of Christ

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Many wear fragrances everyday such as deodorant, scented clothes, perfumes, and colognes, or exude the a-la-natural fragrance. Let’s likewise make a habit of sprinkling on Christ’s fragrance daily, to be encouraging to those who follow the Lord, through our knowledge and living and spreading of the way.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (ESV):

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

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God Permits, God Desires

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What is best for us is not what God permits but rather what God desires. God permits our fall, but desires our salvation. God permits our sin, but desires our righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ. God permits our stubbornness, yet desires our repentance. God permits out hate, yet desires our love. God permits our foolishness, yet desires wise and loving decisions. God permits us to act in ways deserving judgment and justice, yet God prefers us to pick the path of mercy and forgiveness available through his resurrected Son.

Mark 10:2-9 (ESV):

2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

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Pointed Ponder: Foundational Doctrines to Maturity

Once one accepts and follows the foundational teachings about Jesus Christ the Son of God, what constitutes moving onto maturity?

Hebrews 6:1-3

6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.

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Pointed Ponder: Our Responsibility to Truth

Our responsibility is to be open to the truth, follow the truth, continue in the truth, and encourage each other in the truth, in Christ.

Hebrews 3:12-15

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

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Pointed Ponder: Raising Children to Life

Just as the Lord Jesus Christ raised children from the dead when he walked the Earth, the Lord worked through Elijah the Prophet to miraculously bring the widow’s child back to life long ago.

1 Kings 17:20-22

20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

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Pointed Ponder: Roadway Christ

After God’s word is revealed, recognized, and received through teaching and reasoning, deepening roots support faith’s sustained growth, where remaining in righteous walkways leads to reaping and rejoicing with thanksgiving.

Colossians 2:6-7

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

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Pointed Ponder: Future Bride

Like a man wooing a woman, Christ has been courting his future bride, having made the first caring gestures of love too, even laying down his life for her. As when a man and his fiancé dance, the future bride does her steps, enjoying the time with her husband to be.

Ephesians 5:31-32

31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

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Pointed Ponder: Faith that Counts

What kind of faith in Christ Jesus counts?

Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

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Pointed Ponder: Jesus Admits is Messiah

Did Jesus plainly admit to being the Messiah? Yes

John 4:25-26

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

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Pointed Ponder: God’s Generosity

God is generous, even setting aside rewards for those who provide a mere cup of water to his disciples because they belong to Jesus.

Mark 9:41

41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

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Pointed Ponder: Christ by Love and Theology

Pointed Ponder: Christ by Love and Theology

How can Christian Churches and education institutions facilitate teaching Christ out of love and good will, rather than theology only?

1 Philippians 1:15

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put herefor the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

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Christ in Symbols

The Word Christ in Symbols reminds us of the works Jesus Christ performed for his people.

Symbol	Letter	Represents
Crescent Moon	“C”	Just as the physical moon shaped like a “C” in the sky reflects the light of the sun, Christian followers of Jesus Christ are called to reflect the light of the Son of God.  The crescent moon reminds us that God calls all people in day and night to come to know his Son.
Throne Chair	“h”	The throne chair shaped like the “h”, reminds us that Jesus Christ stepped down from heaven to come to Earth, later to reclaim his righteous royal spot in the resurrection.
Virgin Mary with Child	“r”	The portrait of the Virgin Mary holding her baby in an “r” pose, reminds us Jesus Christ came in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary.
Goblet & Bread & Star	“i”	The dot on the “i” reminds us the Star of Bethlehem points to Jesus Christ’s manger birth, and the Son of God came to redeem his people, both Jews and Gentiles. The wine goblet shaped like letter “i” adjacent to bread reminds us Jesus Christ offered his blood and body for our sins, which we remember in the Holy Communion sacrament.
Snake on Pole	“s”	The snake shaped like an “s” on a pole reminds us of healing that occurred when God’s people looked on the snake Moses put on the pole to heal all who looked upon it. Likewise, all who set their sights on Jesus Christ according to God’s Biblical Covenant promises will be redeemed for eternity, and their souls healed from worldly wounds.
Christ on Cross	“t”	The cross shaped like a “t” reminds us Jesus Christ paid the full penalty for our sins submitting himself to die on the cross willingly, as predicted in advance by scriptures and fulfilled thousands of years ago. Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Word of God shines the Lord’s light onto the World.

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