A guy I met recently but never got a chance to know too well posted this quote from an Evangelist from the early 20th Century. My wife pointed it out to me, and we had some brief discussion on it, and I think it has a lot to do with what I have been writing about this week.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free: Gal. 5:1.
A spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand—‘Believe this and that’; but with the demand that you square your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One Whom the Bible reveals (cf. John 5:39–40 ). We are called to present liberty of conscience, not liberty of view. If we are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty—the liberty of realizing the dominance of Jesus Christ.
Always keep your life measured by the standards of Jesus. Bow your neck to His yoke alone, and to no other yoke whatever; and be careful to see that you never bind a yoke on others that is not placed by Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us out of the way of thinking that unless everyone sees as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one liberty, the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don’t get impatient, remember how God dealt with you—with patience and with gentleness; but never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, ‘Go and make disciples,’ not—make converts to your opinions.”
-Oswald Chambers
The discussion my wife and I had, was along the lines of why we typically don’t go up to one another and say things like:
- “You know, you ought to”
- “If you do this”
- “This is the correct belief”
- “This is the only view on that”
My wife’s statement was along the lines of, “Just because you read a book and get a certain message out of it, doesn’t mean if I read the same book, that I get the same message out of it. It depends on your space!”
These two verses give us liberty to see what we need to see at the time period of the place we are. Yet! We must ensure it aligns with the message of Jesus. So, while we do have liberty to interpret, it is a stark reminder that we must Obey. We cannot twist scripture into something that we want. We cannot twist scripture into what is convenient for us. We cannot twist scripture to align with our own personal bias. Interpretation must always come back to, how does this align with Jesus?
This is why I Give Your Story. I tell my story as a reference point of what to do, and what not to do. I tell you my story to give you hope, that you too might find a new path that is better than the one you are on. I tell my story and share my struggles to show you that not I only do I share a similar journey with you, but to show you that we can bring ourselves Out of The Pit to a better life when we take the Jesus path. I give you my story in hope you might find a mustard seed of hope to spark a new beginning that provides change for the better as you walk on your journey with Jesus. How you do it, is up to you and Jesus!
Galatians 5:6 NIV
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (emphasis mine)
That is FACT.