FREEDOM

What is freedom?  Does it mean that we are free to do anything and everything we want to do in our own home or our own country?  Does freedom mean the same to you as someone from a totally different culture?  Do you feel free or enslaved?  From what?  

Most of us experience conditions in life that make us feel enslaved.  True freedom comes from a mature mind, acceptance of life in general and all of its imperfections.  I believe that freedom is achieved mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  You are what you think.

However, I'd like to go even farther with the word freedom and it is the most important one for me.  Spiritual freedom, that is.  There is no denying that our material existence in this world is temporary, but we are not just made up of matter.  We are moved by our spirit.  Our spirits thirsts for a deeper and divine love.  Turning away that love only leaves us yearning for it even more.  We sometimes lose our way and replace that divine love with something that feeds the "matter" in the form of food, drugs, sexual addictions, etc. but we all know that no matter how much the physical body is fed, it doesn't penetrate into the spiritual.  Some people will get that.  However, again, because they refuse the divine love, they seek a peek at a fictional future from astrological signs and psychic readings.  This type of search is a very dangerous one.

Enter, Jesus.  God loved us from the gate, that is a non-argument.  But then, He wanted us to understand who He is and how he works.  In the old testament, the way to atonement is through animal sacrifice. The fattest cow, sheep or whatever they owned was killed as offering to God in atonement.  But humanity didn't really get that.  It was so easy to offer atonement to God, after all, whomever had the animals to offer could easily atone with God but loses the essence of the repentance of the sin.  God forgave but He also wanted us to learn from it so that we can have a stronger relationship with Him, and the stronger our relationship with Him, the less we tend to succumb to the temptations of the devil.

He then sent Jesus, who was up in heaven with Him.  But not only did He send His Son to us, He also wanted to feel what it was like to be us.  He took the greatest pain that humans can muster up.   He found out what it was like to be crushed, despised, rejected and in deep emotional pain.  He knows the quiet desperation we endure when faced with mounting bills, job loss, marital discord, parenting challenges, etc. which if we were wise, sends us to our knees.  Jesus became one of us who can relate to our struggles and hardships.  Jesus kneels next to us to revitalize our energy, provide relief from our stresses, set us free from sin and enable us to endure life's discrepancies.  Through the Holy Spirit, again, God in Spirit, we are freed from all of life's storms and offers us a fresh start.

Our God is an awesome God!  Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!