Trinity Blog

As Christians, we have freedom in Christ – will we share it?

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.’”
-Matthew 28:18-20a

Jesus’ words may have been acceptable 2000 years ago. Or maybe 100 or even 50 years ago. But we live in a world of tolerance. Is it really OK to go out and make disciples in the 21st century? It sure doesn’t feel like it!

Let me ask you something different. If you lived in the middle of a desert and knew where to find water, would you tell people or decide to respect their thirst? People around us are spiritually thirsty enough, aren’t they?

Maybe it’s more about bondage. In February, with great enthusiasm, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in England. It wasn’t until 1833 that all slaves in England were freed. In the African slave trade, slave status was forced upon people based on the color of their skin and their continent of origin. Its effects still linger – even here in the United States. We have seen the great power that slavery has to harm individuals, families, communities – even nations.

Our awareness of the effects of slavery makes it even harder to see people we care about choose to live in bondage. So many of us live in bondage to the preferred masters of our society: money, power, beauty, status, entertainment, control… there are many more. And we know the source of freedom – Jesus Christ.

In Christ, we are free from the need to save ourselves and from the need to create purpose and meaning for our lives. Jesus has done those things for us. He has freed us to live meaningful and fulfilling lives – not lives of servitude to powerless false gods.

So if we know about this freedom, why wouldn’t we want to share it with others? Nicky Gumbel, the creator of the Alpha program that we use in our church, talks about the difference between persuasion and pressure. Pressuring people is not helpful. Even if they responded to it, they would simply have transferred their bondage to a new master. But invitation and gentle persuasion simply make a new option available in someone’s life. Don’t we owe it to those around us to invite them into the family?

As we enter into this Easter season, a time when people are thinking about resurrection and new life, try to think of someone you’d like to share freedom with… Pray about the situation first. Then see if God may be leading you to invite them to church with you or maybe to talk about your own faith or what God has done for you. You may just change someone’s life!

Offering Freedom with You,

Pastor Steve

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Pastor's Newsletter Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.