To the Enslaved [And The Free...?]

I just realized that there is some interesting "dialectic thinking" in the New Testament. Jesus says that He came to set those who believe in Him free from their sin [John 8:36]...yet Paul says in Romans [and elsewhere] that we are slaves to God [Rom. 6:22]. So which is it?? Well obviously, it has to be both!

As soon as we are born, we are born bad, not good [the human condition]. There is nothing good we can do that has eternal value while we are under this state [Rom. 3:23]. This poses a problem. Heaven as we all know it, is perfect, and we can't go bringing our crap-lives into it and still call it perfect. That's when Jesus steps in, takes our place [dies for us], and resurrects [leaving sin in the tomb]. Thus opening the gateway for all who believe in Him to get to be where He resides forever: Heaven. Therefore He has set us free from the bondage of sin [wrongdoing. That thing that we could do nothing but until Jesus stepped in....]. We [saved Christians] have been freed from the grip of sin, and now have the freedom to choose to do good. This is new. Before we could only do evil, and now we have the choice to do good. So we're free right?? Sounds like it until we hit something like Romans 6:22 which says: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God...

Paul's point: We're always slaves to something. Well, actually, we're always slaves to one of two things: 1. Jesus 2. Ourselves [sin]. Conversely, if we are slaves to one of those two things, we are free from the other [that's where we see phrases like "free from sin" and phrases like "free from righteousness-Rom. 6:20]. Paul continues to extrapolate in Romans 6, saying the consequences of our voluntary slavery ["you present yourselves...as obedient slaves" Rom. 6:16].
The consequence are this if we choose ourselves :
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
(Romans 6:21)

The consequence of choosing obedient slavery to Jesus is this:
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to *sanctification and its end, eternal life.
(Romans 6:22 )

*Sanctification is the process whereby we are continually growing more like Jesus*
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To All Who Exist- The Brink

I was on my way to transfer a patient out of ICU when I heard a Code Blue [Adult Medical Emergency]...on ICU. I proceeded to get my equipment, hoping that the code was not the patient I needed to transfer. Fortunately it was not. It was one room over. As I introduced myself to my patient, we struck up casual conversation between him, his family, and myself. We talked about the Eagles, his condition, and so on. Even when I was just one thin wall away from a coding patient, I still didn't realize that we are all on the Brink.

The Brink is the line between life and death that no one can control.

We all forget about the Brink. It's not until a loved one is injured or dies that we think of it, or when the consequences are forced upon us by some thriller/action movie. But the Brink is more real than a movie, and more widespread than just our families...the Brink is upon us all.

We, as humans, have a fear of the unknown. Some try to hide it, but we all know it's there. If it weren't we wouldn't be...human. We all fear the Brink. The Brink is unknown.

When we turn to face the Brink, we have two decisions. Humanity is boiled down into two options: Purpose, or No Purpose? "There are two kinds of people in this world. Those that see signs, and those that see coincidence. The question is, which one are you?"-Mel Gibson, Signs.

If there is no purpose, we should all just kill ourselves now and end this game. However, if things happen for a reason, then we have something to search for; we have a reason to live. Many people have different ideas as to what purpose we're all living for. Those ideas are called religion. Religion is mankind striving for answers. For some, science is religion, for others it could be Buddhism, Catholicism, or Islam.

Mine is Christianity how the Bible describes it: Your soul belongs to Jesus or Hell. Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven, and one must accept the miraculous life, death, and burial of Jesus in order to receive his gift: answers.

Facebook message me [click on the badge on the left to go to my profile] to contact me with deeper questions and answers.

Remember, you exist in the Brink. Welcome to Security. Welcome to Jesus.

Three Steps: From Wrong to Right

We all, as humans, have those moments when we say something that completely devastates our best friend. It really doesn’t matter if we “meant it” or not; we still let it slip. I really do not think that there is such an instance when someone “didn’t mean” what they said. Every word we say is for a reason, and what we do has a motive behind it. But what can we do? We’ve just said something detrimental to our friend, on a personal level that we know we should not have said. Even if it was the truth, there were better ways to share it than the way we just chose. There is a quote from the movie The Village that I think could help speak into these situations: “The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.” Love will be the mediator that will come between us and our friend to try to mend the broken relationship. There are three ways to put a patch on what we’ve just said to our friend: realize, react, and restore.

The first thing that must happen to fix the relationship is to humble ourselves and take responsibility for the wrong we’ve done. How many times a day do we hurt people without even realizing it? We do wrong things all the time without turning around and making it right. The lies we tell our parents, children, and spouses often go unnoticed or justified in our minds. There’s no need to own our wrong if they deserve it. That way of thinking is completely motivated by self, not love. Remember that love is what will motivate us to fix the relationship. One of the writers of the Bible, Paul, says this in his letter called First Corinthians: “[If I] understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

Realizing is not where we stop “righting our wrong”. In order to truly own our wrongdoing, we need to act on what we’ve just realized. Responding is the next step to a renewed relationship. A humble apology is in order. We need to take responsibility for what we’ve done by walking up to our friend and saying, “I really screwed up. What I said earlier was way out of line, and I meant it for harm, not for good. Please forgive me for saying those things to you, and consequently hurting our friendship.” [emphasis mine]. Sometimes “sorry” doesn’t heal the harm. I know I have hurt friends even more by just saying “sorry”. Sometimes we owe our friends more than that. By asking for their forgiveness, it shows them that we mean it. Forgiveness goes much deeper than a “Whoops, I’m sorry”. Forgiveness doesn’t hide. It shows that we know what we did wrong It shows that we understand that we mean what we said. We need to be on the same page about the hurtful things we’ve communicated. Once we’ve called our wrong for the ugliness it really is, it is time to change.

Restoring the relationship is often a hard, ugly process not devoid of hurt and sorrow. Some people never find restoration from the people they’ve wronged, and rightfully so. If someone drives drunk and kills a family member, we may be able to forgive them, but we’re probably not going to act as if it never happened. There are consequences that forgiveness may not be able to remove in every case. If the friend we transgressed is not willing to make an immediate restoration, than we need to be humble and accept that. We deserve what we’re getting; we’re the transgressors. We messed up and deserve some kind of consequence for what we’ve done. Sometimes restoration isn’t available right away, but once we change our actions, it may become available after our friend realizes that we’re serious about changing. Our love for our friend needs to help us persevere through this stage. As I said, it can hurt, but if/once restoration is made, it is cause to rejoice! We need to randomly throw an invite out to lunch to give an appropriate reaction to our renewed relationship! Restoration should always be the goal when we’ve hurt one of our loved ones. If it isn’t, then we probably have selfish intents. Selfishness, not hate, is the opposite of love. Love is all about the other person. It cares about others more than ourselves.

Restoration is supreme once it occurs, and only love can motivate us to get there. It will take a lot of personal sacrifice, and possibly tears, but it is always worth it. Our friendships should not be sacrificed because we aren’t willing to realize, react, and restore. The Village also says, “One love [the love of self] to sacrifice another love is not right!” Selfishness will always bring us down to destruction very quickly. I hope we all can realize that our friends are worth more than what we give them on a day to day basis; they are invaluable.

[This was an essay I wrote for my English Comp 1 Class at Camden County College]