Embrace the Within no. 54

"The Word of God is perfect; it is precious and pure; it is truth itself."

Martin Luther

Peace is something that we can pass on to those around us. Knowing peace and being that resolute and unwavering beacon of peace and hope is really an important quality in a world besieged by fear and worry. Peace is something we should show daily in our walk.

Sometimes we forget that folks need to be reassured that there is peace and truth out there in the world because God is still in the world. And through our daily relationship we get to show the truth of the letter to the Ephesians that, “Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord” (5:8-10 TPT).

Now that we are choosing what YHWH wants for our lives, what was truly intended by Him with our creation, the relationship that was granted in the Garden, those gifts of His light are the gifts we should be sharing with our neighbors. Those gifts of goodness, righteousness, and truth will allow those around us to find the same peace we have today.

Remember when you were full of fear and doubt and worry? It might have been a long time ago or it might have been yesterday or it might be right now. The great thing is we can choose not to be full of fear and doubt and worry. We can choose peace. We can choose freedom for all those things the world wants to heap upon our minds, our bodies, and our spirits.

We can walk away from the world and into the embrace of the Lord. It’s not an easy choice. Anyone who has known me at any time for the nearly five decades I have been around on this side of eternity can testify that I did not make this easy on myself. I watch all number of other people make things so much more difficult than it need be as well. It all starts with wanting to get that relationship back. To want to walk in the Garden with Him again. And that happens with the same way we build any relationship . . . . Caring enough about the other to learn all about them.

So, if you want to find the peace that the world can’t offer, then the only place to look is to Him. And the best way to get there is through understanding His Son. Through that understanding, we can all build a better relationship through conversation and study.

Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #ChristsLifeMatters #EmbracetheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH #GodKnows

Embrace the Within no. 53

O Israel, keep hoping, keep trusting,

and keep waiting on the Lord,

for He is tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving.

He has a thousand ways to set you free!

He himself will redeem you;

He will ransom you from the cruel slavery of your sins!

Psalms 130:7-8 TPT

There are probably more than a thousand ways that folks are set free every day. We just have to put in the work to get ourselves free. God did all the heavy lifting. God laid the foundation for our salvation. God paved the road to get us to eternity. God sacrificed to show us the right path. All we have to do is follow the framework provided.

Freedom always sounds easy when you take it out of context. Freedom is easy to talk about. Freedom is easy to visualize. Freedom is easy to romanticize. Freedom is easy to rally around. Freedom is easy until you have to act. Then all the easiness falls away and the hard work begins.

We so easily forget what it takes to be free just like the man looking at his reflection, “But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what manner of man he was” (Jacob 1:22-23 NMV). And we can see that forgetfulness all around us when it comes to freedom. We forget to be a doer of freedom and not just a speaker of freedom.

Are we merely talking about freedom or are we a mirror of freedom? I think we sometimes get caught up in the rhetoric and the self righteousness of knowing the path and thinking that is quite enough. Simply having that special knowledge makes us feel superior. BUT what we really should be doing is the doing and not the talking. We really should be living the example.

And that is how I strive daily. My quotidian task is to work on my own freedom. And that work is work. I can’t outsource that work. I can’t send the work to a foreign country. I can’t ask my neighbor to build my freedom. I can’t rely on my pastor to get me free. I can’t ask my boss to give me some extra freedom in my paycheck. I have got to put in the work. I have to be a doer of freedom and not a listener or a speaker only.

And when I do the work, I can be assured that YHWH has already done what He needs because, as the 130th psalm sings, “He has a thousand ways to set you free!/He himself will redeem you;/He will ransom you from the cruel slavery of your sins!”

YHWH is waiting to break the chains. BUT we have to make the choice. We have to take the personal responsibility and the self ownership of our own freedom. YHWH is offering everything we need to get there in a thousand ways.

Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #ChristsLifeMatters #EmbracetheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH #GodKnows