I loved, loved that message on the Perfect Law of Liberty! It is perfect; it’s this world that’s backwards. I just want to love it more and understand it more. To have more of it in me and to encourage more of it in others when I see, because it was beyond beautiful on you Saturday night; it was life.
Thinking last night on your sermon, I’ve had these thoughts. The biggest thing to me was to think we are being judged by our response to the liberty given to us. How well did we follow the freedom Jesus showed us, or did we surrender it? Certainly if our obedience to the liberty is what Jesus is judging us by AND if we are to follow behind Him, then we should certainly BE FREE and LIVE, as Jesus himself did while he was here. However there is nothing that has stirred up more hatred and more misunderstanding than when we displayed that liberty to those who have less of it. That is really odd if you think about because they should be excited to see a brother or sister having more liberty than them, hoping that Jesus can take them there too, but it almost never happens that way because most people are holding on to something and won’t let go and don’t like it when that is shown up. They get so afraid and angry and suspicious to see somebody walking toward the liberty and loving it because it is easier to do that than to let go of those things and find a new, sweeter way of living. And if we don’t back down in the spirit, oh boy, how many names they will call us! And those spirits can really find a way to make us look bad, hard, disrespectful, and it always makes me go to God and say, “Who am I?” We do need “moral support” then, we need each other!
But the new thought in this is that: If we do not understand that for us to give in to that, and we do not LIVE, but hold back, that it is not only no good for the others involved (despite how they act) but it is really falling short of our own mark in Christ because we will be judged by that liberty. It might feel like we are making peace to just be quiet and not rock the boat by living in that liberty, or hold back praising God some, but the only real peace is to go with the feelings Jesus gives you and what the spirit is saying. That is really a mighty weapon, just to hold fast to Jesus with no apology.
I just feel like this message strengthened my “inner man” to go with Jesus, realizing that in this covenant we are being judged by our obedience to the spirit in the liberty that has been given to us, and what a precious, life-giving gift that is! I could hear the cry of the spirit in your voice every time you said, “LIVE!” Help us to really understand your life in us, O God!
te.