DEVOTION - TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2012

DEVOTION – TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2012

Holy Land Devotional

“Freedom”

by Emil Winkelspecht, Trinity UMC, Clayton, NJ

When we look at the picture of this Bedouin community, it is for us to say, “Oh how terrible that they have to live that way.” But, our guide explained that this is how the Bedouins prefer to live because they are free from the constraints of the world. Out in the Wilderness they don’t have to live by society’s rules. Even if they are moved to a more “normal” house built for them, they will choose to live in a tent right next to the house.

How often do our lives look like a Bedouin village? We would rather live in the “freedom” of sin, doing our own thing; rather than live within the “constraints” of God’s ways. In Galatians 5:13 Paul tells us, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. Choosing to go our own way, we refuse to submit and live as servants of God. And yet, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” True freedom is freedom from self obsession, rather than freedom to serve ourselves. The values of God’s kingdom are upside-down compared to the way of the world. When Jesus announced His ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, He read from Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Are you willing to be what Paul preferred to call himself, “a slave of Jesus Christ” so that you might know true freedom from sin? Let us pray today and every day, “Jesus, I submit myself to your lordship that I might know real freedom in the Spirit.”