Tuesday, June 26, 2018

I am Free Indeed!


"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."John 8:36


This passage in the book of John is one of the most notable and powerful promises found in the Bible.  We are free indeed!  As we near Independence Day, and we celebrate the freedom we have in our great country--freedoms that many other countries do not have or enjoy--we remember the price that was paid for this freedom.  Many lives were given for us to be able to experience the freedom we have in the United States.  (For any readers in other countries, the same probably goes for you and the freedoms you have--nothing ever comes without a cost.)

But Jesus was not talking about political, social, or economic freedom.  He was talking about spiritual freedom.  Freedom from the bondage and slavery of sin.  When Adam and Eve chose their own way over God's way in the Garden of Eden, and thereby rejecting His intimacy, they allowed Sin to take this world captive.  And all humanity since has been  slave to sin, because "everyone who sins is a slave to sin..." (v. 34). However, Jesus took on humanity, lived a perfect, sinless life, and then died a perfect death, so we don't have to continue to be slaves to sin.  He gave His life for our freedom.

The gift of life is free.  It is a free choice.  We are free from sin and slavery IN and THROUGH Jesus.  We have but to accept it by faith, and allow Him to remove the sin from our daily lives.  He removed the burden of sin from our back.  However, we too often take it back again, and again, and again.  Jesus says we are free from the slavery and bondage of lust, of discontentment, of appetite, of worrying, of anger, and the list goes on.  But sometimes we are too comfortable being a slave.  The Israelites often grumbled after escaping from their slavery in Egypt, and longed to go back to their state of bondage!  That makes no sense to us, but we really are no different!  We might want to be free from our sins, but we don't really want to give them up.  

I'm not saying it's an easy thing to do, to give sin up, to be free.  But it is simple.  Jesus has promised, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!" (emphasis mine).  He adds the "indeed" to emphasize how sure of a freedom it is.  He has already made us free--but the reality of the freedom in our lives depends on our daily submission and surrender to Him.  Our freedom actually comes in surrender.  Its a paradox, but it's a powerful paradox. 

I used the newly-released Free Indeed stamp set for this page because it has both patriotic and Biblical words and images that suit journaling this passage.  I first stamped and embossed the  various firework images in white.  Next, I blended some Distress Oxide Inks over those images, which resulted in a resist-effect.  I then stamped the words to spell out "Christ [has] set me free [so] I am free indeed."  I didn't get a super clear stamping on the word "free", so I ended up doing some white detailing with a gel pen to cover it.  That lead to me doing the same detailing on all the bolder-type words, since I liked the effect.  I stamped a few more of the smaller images in the various red, light blue and darker blue inks, made a tab out of navy washi tape, and topped it with a navy and white bow.  

Friends, don't go back into your bondage to sin.  Accept your freedom, and be free--INDEED!



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