4/29/11   “I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.”  Oswald Chambers

 Jn 8:31-37 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.”  

We have never been slaves of anyone. Really? Seems to me that the feasts and important events of the Jewish calendar were to remind them that they had been slaves of Egypt and God had set them free. And of course their statement also would indicate that the Roman soldiers walking the streets and the Roman governor sitting in the palace were of no effect either. Can it be that the Jews were actually blind to their own enslavement? That they were so familiar with and comfortable with their situation that they could not imagine what freedom could look like? Or were they just futilely trying to deny and hide their sin from the sight of the world and from God?

Everyone who sins is a slave to sin, but if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. Are we living lives of freedom because the Son has set us free? Have you cut off sin and refused to give it a place in your life because you are free and no longer have to listen to the siren song of sin? Why not? Are you free or not? Did the Son set you free or not? If He did, has His blood lost its power so that you are no longer free? Are you taking your free-will as a slavery pill and putting yourself under the thumb of your old ‘master’ – your sin? 

Yes, God is for you

 

Stop! Jesus said hold to His teaching, know the truth. You’ve been set free, stay that way. If the Son sets you free it is a decree from the King, don’t through yourself back into the pit! You’ve got to walk in your freedom, walk in your victory. When sin tries to wheedle its way back into your thoughts and actions cast it off forcefully and sing out to Jesus – I Know that You are For ME!

To read John 8 in its entirety click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jn%208&version=NASB

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Ex 26:30-35 Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain. Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Put the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy Place. Place the table outside the curtain on the north side of the tabernacle and put the lampstand opposite it on the south side.

“The devil is in the details” is a common saying to denote that trouble can often come when details are not dealt with, either through insufficient planning or a lack of ability to deal with new information and adjust. God is definitely not suffering from these problems. He has detailed for Moses the plan for the Tabernacle, the house of God that is able to travel with His people as they move through the wilderness toward the promised land. The same God points out in the NT that “a cup of water given to the least of these” is as one given to Jesus Himself.

A cup of water. The least of these. Both are very small units in the scheme of life, details, but the man who claims to belong to God is told that if he will give attention to the details, the small things, he is giving to Jesus. The artisans and craftsmen who stitched the curtain, carved the wood, applied the gold, cast the rings and made the tables for the Tabernacle were doing detail work that went into the very House of God. Did they have the big picture of what their work was being incorporated into? Until they saw the end product I doubt they could have imagined what they were building – there was no place like this in the world, they were doing a new thing.

Do you believe that the assignment God has given you for the Kingdom is just a small, insignificant one? Do you dare to see that your part, your cup of water, is of vital import to the King of Kings? The smallest gift or action done for God has impact on His Kingdom. And there is our key, are you doing for God what God has assigned for you to do? If you are, nothing is too small, nothing done for God is insignificant. If you are doing things for yourself, even amazing impacting things, your work will amount to nothing of value to the Kingdom. Let us be Kingdom builders, though we may be just needle craftsmen, let us be those who build into the Tabernacle of God.

To read Ex 26 in its entirety click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2026&version=NIV