“ENSLAVED” – Feb. 24

“Then He said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.'” Matthew 22:21

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

I am a slave,
but I am not unique.
I am a slave,
but so are you.
We are slaves but
not in the way you think.

We are slaves of many masters.  We serve them all, typically without title but all hidden while still in the open.  Yet, their authority is enforced when the bounds of their reigns are transversed or challenged.  We were born into the bondage of our initial master, whose realm was established at the beginning, when it demanded our lungs to accept this new product called air.  Next, the bounds of nutrition were delineated through pangs in the belly.  The bounds of consciousness were defined by the needs of sleep.  As we mature, new bounds were yearly discovered.

We all labor to serve the Master of Flesh.  Our bodies demand obedience to biological needs, requirements for the preservation of life.  This realm redefines slavery as “self”.  You may say, “my body is not a master,”  I say, “are you free from it?”.  Try not obeying the Master of Flesh.  Try to exert your freedom from hydration.  Try to exert your freedom from food.  Soon, your flesh will punish your liberty with pain until you yield or die.  The Flesh is an unyielding task master.

Many live their entire existence solely under the tyranny of Flesh, laboring to satisfy its demands.  Some even cede more authority to the Flesh through addiction and/or neurosis.   Yet, all yield to the essential demands of the Flesh from the dawn of every day to its setting.

However, the flesh is not our only master.  As we mature, we enter the realm of another, the Master of Work.  Work’s realm includes all those activities mitigating Flesh’s tyranny.  I want leisure.  Therefore, I must work to be able to take a vacation.  I want amusement.  Therefore, I must work to be able to have a hobby, go to a movie, eat gourmet food.  I want more comfortable housing.  Therefore, I must work to be able to have a better home.  I want to be happy.  Therefore, I must work to be able to consume and feed my craving for happiness.

Work is not a private affair.  Work is a public engagement and therefore ruled by the cultural and governmental masters.  This realm redefines slavery as “citizenship”.  You may say, “my government is not a master.  I live under a constitution.”  I say, “are you free from it?”.  Try not obeying the Masters of Work.  Try exerting your freedom from taxation.  Try exerting your freedom to take another’s property.  Try exerting your freedom to live without clothing.  Try exerting your freedom to cry ‘fire’ in a fireless theater.  Transverse the bounds established by the Masters of Work and you will find your time relegated to satisfying the Master of Flesh.  You will become preoccupied with the necessities of existence because the means to mitigate the tyranny of the Flesh will be removed by the tyranny of Work.  Work is an unyielding task master.

We all yield to the essential demands of society in order to have a slice of the prosperity ensuing from our obedience as cogs in the economic mechanism of Work’s realm.  Even if Work could be freed from the Masters of government and culture, it can never be truly free because it resides in the realm of a third master.  Work cannot be free because work is not an end in itself.

The extent and quality of freedom in the flesh and work can only be experienced through obedience to the Master of the third realm in which we all reside.

The Master of the Divine inhabits a realm that was before the Flesh and before Work.  This realm defines the freedoms of those realms and our allegiance to those Masters.  God created the realm of the Divine.  He is the Master of all.  Yet, Satan rebelled against Gods’ rule and when he fell so did all of humanity.  You and I have been born into rebellion against the Master of the Divine.  Yet, we were not born free.  We were born under the tyranny of Satan, who bent the Masters of Flesh and Work into wicked task masters.  It was never meant to be this way.  The Divine has been redefined as “enlightenment”, “science”, “atheism”.

Our inward desire for liberty is an echoing call of creation.  We misunderstand it to be an inherent right of mankind.  It is actually a memory of creation, longing for a world ruled by the true Master; longing for a world where the flesh and work have no power to harm.  Our desire for freedom is incomplete.  It actually is a desire to be completely free to serve the Master as we were created to serve.

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Freedom is the freedom to do what we want.  When we are truly free, our nature takes us fully to God, the Master of the Divine.

So, I am a slave.  I am a slave to the Master of the Divine.  I live as an ambassador in the realms of the Flesh and Work.  I pay the requisite requirements to inhabit these realms, but they are not my Master.  I owe them no allegiance.  I will readily say my farewells to the Master of Flesh when the Master of the Divine bids me to return.  I will readily give what is due the Master of Work and give unto God what is His.

I am a slave to only one Master and He is good.  I will serve no other.

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for serving other Masters.  Forgive me for forgetting that you have set me free to serve you fully as I was intended.  Thank you for binding me to yourself.  Lord, you know that I am prone to wander.  Let your grace, like a fetter, chain my wandering heart to you.  Take my heart and seal it in servitude for your courts above.    I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

“YOUR GOD REIGNS” – July 22

“How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  Isaiah 52:7

This world has an abundance of hurting and disillusioned people.

What words can be spoken to the defeated?
What direction can be given to the oppressed?
What encouragement can lift up the suffering?

There are words for those who are battling, the unhappy, the discouraged, the doubting – “Your God Reigns!”

Although this world may not be unfolding as we had hoped – Our God Reigns!

God is reigning over chronic pain.
God is reigning over the loss of a loved one.
God is reigning over addiction.
God is reigning over finances.
God is reigning over helplessness.
God is reigning over failure.
God is reigning over waiting.
God is reigning over unbelief.
God is reigning over uncertainty.

Although this world may appear chaotic, God reigns.

We have not been abandoned to cosmic forces.
We are not subjected to the merciless winds of fate.
We are not forced to drink the cup of meaninglessness.

The good news for those who have been adopted as children of God resides in the everlasting hope flowing from the reign of our God.  He reigns over all.  There is none like Him.  There is none equal to Him.  Nothing is too small for Him.  Nothing is too large.  Nothing is beyond His dominion.

English: White-Crowned Sparrow / (Zonotrichia leucophrys). Français : Bruant à couronne blanche (Zonotrichia leucophrys). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He has not forgotten the falling of a sparrow – because He reigns!

We are of more value than many sparrows.  Nothing can force Him to abandon us –because He reigns.

We can have confidence that nothing is outside His control; nothing is a surprise; nothing is beyond His will.

“Your God reigns,” are sweet words to the redeemed.  Hopelessness has no home while God reigns.  The knowledge of God on His throne banishes all anxiety and worry.

There is no valley too deep or too long for the one who is loved by God.
Our God reigns over all – valleys and mountains.

May we live in the joy and happiness that our God reigns!

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for reigning over all!  Thank you for keeping an eye on me.  Thank you not abandoning me.  Thank you for valuing me more than a sparrow.  Forgive me for worrying while you are firmly on your throne.  Forgive me of the unbelief that I show when I am anxious of tomorrow.  Help me to walk in faith.  Remind me that you are on your throne.  Grant me the peace that only your reigning can give.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.

“COME TO THE GATES” – July 21

“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called!  I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.  My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.”  Isaiah 48:12-13

Here stand the gates of the Kingdom of God. 

God is everything.

He is from the first to the last;
He is from the east to the west;
He is from the beginning to the end.

There is no place beyond His knowledge.
There is no place beyond His presence.

Every step that we take is because of His hand.
All that we lay our hands to has first been touched by Him.
All that we see is the result of His work.

The universe functions in obedience to His commands.

Star Trails Northern Hemisphere (Photo credit: Kiran Photographic)

What am I to say?

Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. 

I am nothing; I have nothing; I can do nothing.
I am poor.

I have nothing that I have not been given.

All that I am;
All that I have;
All that I can do;

Comes from the Almighty.

It is here that we kneel at the throne of the Great I Am, in the blessings of the knowledge of our own poverty.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 6:3)

How many struggles have we wrestled through because we forget our condition?
How many worthless battles have we fought because we think that we are worthy or deserving?
How remedial our education has remained because we do not believe that our spirits really do exist in abject poverty.

Christ’s work within us flowers when we relinquish our false sense of entitlement and embrace the poverty of our condition.

Come back to the gates of the Kingdom. 

There is nothing too hard for Him.
There is nothing more desirable than His presence.
There is nothing more valuable than Him.
We have nothing to add; come and receive!

Come and behold the King of kings!

PRAYER: Lord, you are my everything.  I have nothing to add.  I have nothing that you have not blessed me with.  Forgive me for forgetting my condition.  Thank you for the poverty of my soul.  As I enjoy your blessing, remind me of my poverty.  May I never lose the gratitude of a blessed servant.  Give me eyes to behold you glory and greatness!  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.

IT IS JUST WEIRD – Feb. 13

“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36

It would be a little weird if I came over to your house and crawled into your bed to take a nap.

It would be a little weird if I came over and started to rearrange your furniture or repaint a few walls.

It would be a little weird if I put on some of your clothes, made myself a sandwich, and started to edit your family photos.

I do all that in my home. The reason it would be weird doing what is normal in my home in your home is because I don’t belong in your house.  It is not appropriate for me to treat another person’s belongings as my own.  There are laws that prevent me from doing that.  People take their personal possessions very serious.  They treat them like they’re personal.

Jesus never treated this world like it was His personal possession.  He was very clear that this world is not His kingdom.  If it had been His kingdom then He would have fought for it.  His servants did not fight for this world because this was not the world of Jesus’ possession.

This is a lesson that I have to continually re-learn.  I have a bad habit of fighting for this world.  I am perpetually making myself at home in this world like it is my personal possession and it is just weird.  It is never satisfying.

We have such a tendency to cling to the things of this world like they’re our entitlement.  We can become so passionate about this world’s stuff as if it is a matter of life or death.  We can become preoccupied with the thought that our happiness is connected to what this world has to offer.

It is an attitude that is just weird for an heir of a different kingdom.

Our kingdom is with Christ.  It is a kingdom that surpasses this world in ways that we cannot even imagine.  It doesn’t make sense for us to spend extensive amounts of time preoccupied with the things of this world.  It doesn’t make sense for us to live like this is all there is when we have a far better kingdom awaiting us. It doesn’t make any sense to fight for this world.

This world has nothing to offer to an heir of God’s kingdom.

We are merely ambassadors of our King in this world.  We are here to serve Him.  Let’s stop trying to make ourselves a home in this world; it is just weird.

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for desiring the things of this world like this is all there is.  Forgive me for living like this is all that I am called to.  Forgive me for caring for this world more than I care about your kingdom.  Father, open my eyes to the reality of the kingdom that you have made me an heir to.  Father, please continue to cleanse me of all that binds me to the world.  You are so much better than anything this world has to offer.  I long for the day when I can be with you in your kingdom.     Amen