Freedom / Encouragement

Galatians 5:1-18

The Message (MSG)

The Life of Freedom

5 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

^2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

^4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

^7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.

^11-12 As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!

^13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

^16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

Encouragement does not cost a person a single thing.  There is  a reason that during a race people are clapping and cheering and excited - IT HELPS!!!

People can do crazy awesome stuff with encouragement.

I love what has happened in our community with adoption of Redeemer House kiddos.  

It is God at work - it is wild and it is love in action. 

These kids were all in Redeemer House Orphanage in Uganda, and now they all have families of their own and they still have their Redeemer House family.

What has happened is nothing short of a MIRACLE.

We were the first to adopt from Redeemer House. 

But not one family has followed in our footsteps or had the same experience.

Every single family has had their own experience with different circumstances. Every case every family every child is unique.  

In other words we haven't done ONE BLASTED thing to help or push or work these adoptions through....

We have PRAYED and ENCOURAGED and those 2 things are just a privilege. 

God through these families have done ALL THE DOIN'.

Whenever someone asks me about adoption I say, "DO IT"!!!! 

 They will always say...we can't afford it, we are too old, we don't have time...we are too this, or we are too that....

BLAH.DE.FREAKIN.BLAH

I know EVERY PERSON that has it on their heart to adopt or do anything else to love on others....CAN!!! 

 Every time it is true.

Not because of what I say but because God is FAITHFUL and all we have to do is encourage - and pray and leave it to GOD.

He has a pretty awesome way with His kids.  He knows each of us and he can work with us if we are willing to let HIM.

So what is our part in all this???

I get to go to airport homecomings and see families bring home kids.  I get to cheer and praise the Lord and be a part of something AWESOME!!!

It's kinda like being in the delivery room and NOT going through the labor...but witnessing the miracle!!!!

IT'S AWESOME!!!

Romans 15:5-7

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁵ May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, ⁶ that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷ Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.