Showing posts with label Prison Break. Show all posts
Prison Break: Deliverance
Sunday
Romans 6:23 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is hard to believe that anyone would choose to live in a prison. It is even stranger to think that being in prison can be so comfortable that it begins to feel safe.
One of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption. There is a man in the movie by the name of Brooks who after a lifetime of prison living and loosing any hope of parole is set free. He has spent all of his life making his prison home. The process of being free actually fills him with so much fear that he commits suicide.
I think that often times I want the process of deliverance to be easy, comfortable. I want the change from death to life to be dramatic and instantaneous and as painless as possible. Truth is, it is easier to make myself at home in the comfort of my prison. It is easier to live complacent than it is to live in freedom.
Freedom requires a response from me. In the movie we later see another man, Red who is given the same opportunity after 40 years of living in prison. He goes out with the same doubts and fears. Somewhere in the midst of the changes Red moves. "Get busy living or get busy dying." Red chose life.
Today and everyday we are given an opportunity to live freely in the gift of grace that has been given us. But that deliverance requires us to move and to know that it is a process. God's process of perfection.
2 Corinthians 1:10-11 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Prison Break: PSA
Tuesday
Penal
Substitutionary
Atonement
........there was a penalty to be paid for my sin
........Jesus took my place on the cross
........Jesus reconciled me.
What for?
our sins, our infirmities (Isaiah 53:4)
peace, healing (Isaiah 53:5)
intercession (Isaiah 53:12)
sins, justification (Romans 4:25)
love (Romans 5:8)
bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18)
sins of the world (1 John 2:2)
redemption (Galatians 3:13)
Prison Break: Commitment
Wednesday
Lives full of Commitment and yet we are not really committed to anything. Sometimes life becomes the list of responsibilities and has no clear purpose. Do you ever find yourself living in the line between a life that serves God and a life that longs to be accepted by everyone around you?
I do. It is hard to stick to the identity I want. I want to be a follower of Christ and yet I have all this stuff I hold onto.
Luke 9: 57-62 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But He said to him, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home." But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (emphasis mine)
How do we do it? How do we make the commitment? How do we stop hitting the easy button and fall back on our old patterns? How do I make the first thing on my mind the Kingdom of God?
Today, when I ask myself who I am, I am going to answer and say a Christian.
Today, when I ask myself what I am going to do, I am going to answer Serve God.
Today, when I ask myself how am I going to live, I am going to say Following Christ.
and
Tomorrow, when I ask myself who I am, I am going to answer and say a Christian.
Tomorrow, when I ask myself what I am going to do, I am going to answer Serve God.
Tomorrow, when I ask myself how am I going to live, I am going to say Following Christ.
Hopefully with a little accountability from the Body and lots of prayer, my patterns with change and I will stop living in the in between and I will choose to commit to who I truly am in Christ.