The Thang- Mosey out west market street to the bank at 113 cut thru parking lots to possum point players.
15 diamond merkins 10 SSH
15 Ranger merkins 10 SSH
15 Finger tip meekins 10 SSH
15 wide arm merkins 10 SSH
15 Merkins 10 SSH
Mosey to steps on the east side of GMS for Aiken legs 20 Squats, 20 box jumps on steps, 20 Lunges each leg, 20 split Jack’s (4 count)
Mosey to Armory 25 Flutter kicks IC, Toy soldier set 35 LBC, 20 E2Ks each side, 20 box cutters.
Mosey to circle 20 forward arm circles, 10 backward arm circles, IC 20 seal claps, 20 overhead claps.
Every set back is a set back for a comeback God wants to bring you out better than you were before. Unfortunately failure and setbacks are a part of life. No way around it, gotta go through it. However just because folks are experiencing a personal setback whether it be an injury, illness, job loss, financial pitfalls or just hard times in general it does not mean you are forever doomed. It is important to remember that a setback is just where a person is right at the moment not where they will always be. With time, patience and trust in God it is possible for everyone to comeback one way or another both physically and mentally
Q: Waterfall The PAX: Toy Soldier, Summit, Ruxpin, Ying Ying, Chairman, Gump, Doubfire, Chattahoochee
The Warm Up: 20 SSH IC, 20 Diaper Pickers IC, 20 Moroccan Night Club IC, 20 Windmill IC, and Superman Banana! Superman Banana starts in the superman position. When Q yells BANANA you roll over on to your back in a reverse of the superman so you are curled up like a banana. When the Q yells SUPERMAN you roll back. Rolled back and forth like a bunch of crazy people a few times.
The Thang #1: Route 66 and a bag of chips. We did the Route 66 from telephone pole to telephone pole. We did it decessending from 11 burpees at the first telephone pole down to 1 burpee at the last telephone pole for a total of 66 burpees. For added suck we also did LBCs ascending. I’m calling the additional exercise “and a bag of chips” since it was added on.
The Message: The story of the Rich Young Ruler. His good works weren’t good enough. Jesus invited him to follow him. But the young man went away sorrowful because he wouldn’t give up his lavish lifestyle to follow Jesus.
The Thang #2: Waterfall likes the wall! Wall of Burpee for an additional 3 burpees. Each PAX takes the chair. We go down the row doing 1 burpee each. Then we went down the row again doing 2 burpees each. Next we did Mexican jumping beans and overhead claps ascending up to 10 jumps and 40 claps. With a few minutes left we ended with some Mary.
Bolt 45’s –
15 squats to halfway down. 15 squats
halfway to full down. 15 full squats
Cherry Pickers – 15 IC
Chilcutt Plank Jacks – 15 IC
Windmills – 15 IC
Mosey .5 miles by way of the merkin
mile to the school. Each ¼ mile, all Pax
stopped to complete 25 merkins.
The Thang
Q brought a modified Super 21 beatdown for the hot and humid morning that Summit dubbed “a friendly 82” degrees at 7:00 a.m. 1 Merkin to 1 Big Boy Sit up. 2 Merkins to 2 Big Boy Situps. 3 Merkins to 3 Big Boy Situps, etc., etc., etc. Since we had excessive heat and humidity, Q elected to start at 21 in descending fashion. Each merkin/big boy set was followed by 21 prisoner squats. All Pax completed the round of 21 descending through the round of 16 before taking a break for the third F. After the message, Pax completed the Super 21 descending through the round of 10.
Mosey .5 miles back to Aegis. Pax stopped twice on the return mosey and completed 25 merkins at each stop to complete the merkin mile.
Back at the Aegis, Pax completed the modified Super 21 from the round of 9 descending to the round of 1.
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayer.
F3 Message 07/20/19 – Q shared from Ron Hutchcraft Ministries in regards to how Jesus, the Cross, and the Bible is being systematically removed or “stolen” from our daily lives because it offends someone. As Christians, we must remain vigilant and defend the One who sacrificed all for us.
Who Stole the Cross? – #6479
Thursday, November 10, 2011
“Somebody stole the cross! Go figure.
Well, I mean that was a news story that got my attention a while back. The missing cross was a six-foot-tall metal structure that was embedded in rock and concrete, and it was perched high up on Sunrise Rock in the Mojave Desert. Veterans actually placed it there to honor those who’ve died fighting for their country. And wow! It’s been there for 75 years—no problem; suddenly—problem. People who didn’t want it there argued against it all the way to the Supreme Court. And for the time being, the Justices said that it could stay. But then somebody just went up there and stole the cross. It’s crazy.
I’m
Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about “Who Stole the
Cross.”
As
soon as I heard the story, something much more troubling hit me. The cross has
gone missing a lot of places these days; places that matter a lot more to God
than some mountainside in the desert. I’ve listened to lots of sermons and
Christian radio programs, and sometimes I’ve heard little or nothing about
Jesus’ cross. I’ve heard lots of Christian talk about how to have a great
marriage, or how to raise your kids, how to manage your money, how to have a
good self-image, but somehow they never got to the cross.
I’ve
heard some great Bible teaching that was deep and powerful, but the cross was
on the margins or not even on the page. We’ll talk a lot about important things
like justice for the oppressed, compassion for the poor, and help for families,
and God cares about all of them. But we never get to God’s game-changer for a
sin-broken planet, and that’s the cross of Christ.
Sadly,
I think of lost people I’ve known for a long time and talked to about a lot of
things, but somehow I’ve never told them about the cross where Jesus died for
them. I suspect I’m not alone. Too often, Christians talk a lot about their
church or their faith, but not much about their Savior. Oh, yeah, somebody
stole the cross…from our conversations, from our ministries, maybe even from
the center of our hearts.
Oh,
I know who took it. The one Jesus called “…the thief who comes only to
steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). The devil hates the cross because as the Bible says,
“having disarmed the powers and authorities, (Jesus) made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).
You
know, Satan’s death warrant is signed in the blood of Jesus. He knows the power
of that cross. The oft-quoted Charles Spurgeon called the cross God’s
“magnificent magnet.” And in our word for today from the Word of God
in John 12:32, Jesus said this about His cross: “When I am lifted up…I
will draw all men to Myself.” No wonder Satan says, “Hey, go ahead.
Talk about everything you want. Just don’t mention that cross.” Talk about
your church. Talk about your faith. Talk about your family values. Don’t
mention the cross! The enemy of our souls knows its power and does whatever it
takes to erase the cross from our view.
Now,
veterans are outraged that the cross was stolen from that hill. We should be
outraged! We’ve allowed Jesus’ cross to be stolen from the center of our
hearts, and our ministries, and our conversations. “The message of the
cross,” 1 Corinthians 1:18says, “is…the power of God.” I need to be as
passionate about elevating that cross as the world and the devil are about
eliminating it.
I have the unspeakable privilege of taking a lost friend by the hand and walking with them up a hill the Bible calls Skull Hill, and standing there at the foot of an old rugged cross, and sharing with them the greatest love in the universe. “What He did here, my friend, was for you.” Without that cross, there is no hope…no heaven.”
Great times! For this time of year as PAX rotate out on vacations it was awesome to have 11 HIM drop the DRP and post for the Field of Dreams [delirium] workout. It wasn’t always this way, so its exciting to still see double digits when others are out. Plant, Grow, and Serve small workout groups of men for the invigoration of male community leadership–on mission!
So here’s the skinny, it went a lil’ something like this:
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH’s – 18 IC
SwartzJack’s – 20 IC
Seal Jack’s – 18 IC
Plank Jacks – 18 IC
Merkins – 10 OYO
Crab Flippers – 18 IC
The Big Dice
THE THANG:
Upon returning to the AO following a nice brisk 0.5 mile Patriot Run around the block, PAX divided into 2 teams. Teams took turns rolling the 3 dice until reaching the opposite end of the field.
ROUTINE: Roll dice, both teams Bear Crawl to dice, execute the corresponding number of Burpees rolled (teams were to remember total number rolled. Team with highest number determined the punishment of lower scoring team at the end of the field).
Team 1 rolled 4x – Roll dice, Bear Crawl, Burpees. Rinse & Repeat…
Team 2 rolled 3x – Roll dice, Bear Crawl, Burpees. Rinse & Repeat…
Team 1 Rolled the highest number, though neither team remembers the exact number due to burpee delirium. Guestimates are as low as 77, but it was more likely closer to 100.
Da MATH: Neither team rolled less than 11 (77 Burpees would be the bare minimum), but there were rolls of 16, 14, 13, and 12. I.e. just know that the PAX executed ALOT OF BURPEES!
Rolling the highest accumulated number, Team 1 determined they would do 15 Merkins, while Team 2 was assigned 30 Merkins.
PAX took the long Mosey back to the AO, taking turns swapping out holding the dice overhead. They’re not heavy but THAT did create a different dynamic for the mosey.
Meanwhile back at the AO: 3rdF Message…
(The following thoughts adapted from R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man)
Harry Blymires, in (The Christian Mind) said, “The Christian mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness and nervelessness unmatched in Christian history.” He sees our generation as suffering from religious anorexia (anorexia religiosa), a loss of appetite for Christ.
The bottom line is: this comes from a declining willingness to properly program the amazing instruments God has given us. Christians leave their 12 billion cells unguarded and unthinking—and undisciplined. When we turn to God’s Word, we’re aware that the Biblical writers understood the problem in a less technical way. “Above all else, guard your heart,” says Proverbs, “for it is the wellspring of life” (4:23). “For as a man thinks within his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). The Scriptures tell us rightly that INPUT DETERMINES OUTPUT — that our PROGRAMMING DETERMINES PRODUCTION.
The one thing that will always shape your life is the condition of your heart. The Apostle Paul told us in Philippians to think on explicitly positive things: The true. The noble. The right. The pure. The lovely. The admirable. This is more than the power of positive thinking. They all defy negative exposition. I.e. each is a matter of personal choice — and our choices make all the difference in the world. We all can CHOOSE a thought “program” which will produce a Christian mind.
2 AREAS OF PERSONAL APPLICATION:
#1 – I have great sympathy for those whose past has been a series of bad choices. I understand that if over the years one has chosen the impure and the illusory and the negative, it is very difficult to change. But as a biblical thinker I give no space to myself or to anyone else who rationalizes his present choices by the past. Brothers, as followers of Christ we are free to have a Christian mind/a biblical worldview. It IS within our reach, and it is our duty.
#2 – We should be aware of the wise warnings against using words like “all,” “every,” and “always” in what we say. Using absolutes is dangerous. But I’m going to do it anyway. Here it is: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY FOLLOWER OF CHRIST WHO SPENDS THE BULK OF HIS EVENINGS, MONTH AFTER MONTH, WEEK UPON WEEK, DAY IN AND DAY OUT WATCHING THE TV AND WATCHING VIDEOS TO HAVE A CHRISTIAN MIND. This is ALWAYS true of ALL Christians in EVERY situation. A biblical mental program cannot exist with worldly programming. Again, INPUT DETERMINES OUTPUT — PROGRAMMING DETERMINES PRODUCTION.
Where the Bible says “think about such things” (Phil 4:8), the word that is used is “logidzamai”, from which we get the mathematical computer-like word logarithm. It means a “deliberate and prolonged contemplation as if one is weighing a mathematical problem.” It’s like getting junk mail versus getting the new Shooters Magazine, Runners World, etc. Or like getting junk emails versus emails from F3 or GoRuck, etc. You throw out the junk after a brief scan, but you take deliberate and prolonged contemplation over the new items from your favorite sources.
Even more so, we are to think about the good and positive elements God wants us to put into our computers/minds. God calls HIM in His Word to a massive and positive discipline of the mind. You cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know. I.e. INPUT DETERMINES OUTPUT — PROGRAMMING DETERMINES PRODUCTION.
“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, For I meditate on Your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, For I obey your precepts.” (Psalm 119:97-100)
Last but not least A Round of Mary:
Flutter Kicks – Courtesy of Chattahoochee
Box Cutters – Courtesy of Vanilla
Big Boys – Courtesy of Gump
LBC’s – Courtesy of Summit
American Hammers – Courtesy of Ying Ying
COT/BOM:
Announcements: Warm-Up VQ scheduled for Gump @ Primis. Be there!
Prayers: Chattahoochee, Bill Crouch, YHC, etc. Plus, as always prayers were lifted up for each PAX to be a HIM in his home, his workplace, and in his community in which he serves.
That’s a wrap. Lot’s of PAX on vacation but we still posted 11! Way cool to see the continued growth of this group and of each individual PAX getting stringer and better as they keep posting. YHC was once again honored to lead!
Warm up. 20 SSH. 15 windmill. 15 cherry pickers. Butt kick around half the circle, high knees other half. Right shuffle around half circle, left shuffle other half. Right karaoke around half circle, left karaoke around other half.
Mosey to middle school.
Start at first sidewalk (five total). Bear crawl to second and do 25 super squats. Lt Dan to third sidewalk and do 25 switch kicks. Lt Dan to fourth sidewalk and do 25 windshield wipers. Bear crawl to fifth and do 25 leg bicep curls each side.
An set. 10 big boys. 20 leg raises. 30 reverse crunches. 40 long arm crunches.
Do the same workout above except backwards, so we nurred where we lt danned and we crawl beared where we crawl beared.
F3 LAX (crab vs bear soccer. Split into teams. And everyone on one designated side of field (offense or defense) did crabwalk and the other side did bear crawl, switch every goal. (15-20minute game). Ended 5-4 with a ruxpin game winning goal.
3rd F on how to pray and the Lord’s Prayer Vs our prayers.
Warm up – 30 SSH -15 Cherry Pickers – 15 Moroccan Night Clubs – Arm circles forward and reverse.
Its the All Star Break for MLB so we Mosied to the ball fields for the beat down .
The Thang : two teams broke off one team held plank while first team started the Workouts
Home Plate to 1ST base – walking lunges
1st Base -15 Squats with 3 second hold at the bottom.
1st base to 2nd Base – Bear Crawl.
2nd Base -15 Merkins.
2nd Base to 3rd Base – Walking high knees.
3rd Base – 15 E2KS each side.
3rd Base to Home Plate – Crawl Bears.
Home Plate – 10 Burpees
Repeat for two more rounds .
We broke for 3rd F Message:
I do not know who wrote the quote . But in my quick 3rd F fashion I hit on how this can impact us as Men. Ruxpin added to it since we all need a little more of a break lol . Thanks brother !!!
The Thang 2 :
We took a wosey to the Tennis Courts and pulled out the Corn Hole Boards broke off in to teams again. Throwing 6 bags each. if your bag landed on the board the team had ten merkins if you miss you owe 10 merkins. if the bag drops in the hole the team owes 20 merkins. we played this for the last 10 min of the workout .
WARMARAMA: 20 Moroccan Nightclubs IC , 20 SSH IC , 20 Copperhead Squats IC, 20 Cherry Pickers IC, 20 Mountain Climbers, 15 SSH IC
The Thang 1: Mosey to Shipbuilders Village and partnered off. Partner 1 runs to Spinnaker Lane and nurs back while partner 2 is doing merkins and then switch. Then Partner 1 runs to Genoa Ln and nurs back while partner 2 is doing side plank leg lifts switching sides at 10 counts. Then switch with partner.
Thang 2: Mosey to Post Office circle. Same partners. Partner 1 bearcrawls halfway around circle and crawlbears the second half of the circle while Partner 2 does 80/40/20 super toy soldier set. Then switch.
3rd F – First Watch Psalm 143:8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
I have struggled all of my life with a shallow relationship with my heavenly father. I have tried since I was 15 years old to have a daily quiet time with him. I have had spurts of success, but never sustained. Some events in my life over this past year have caused me to reflect on that issue and I have made some major changes accordingly. I belong to a Christian business leaders group called C12 Group. About 5 years ago I was at a C12 conference in Orlando the founder, Buck Jacobs gave a stirring message about how important it is to have a consistent daily time in the Word of God and prayer. He said the best success for that time is the first hour of every day, no matter what you do. Make it non-negotiable. At the prompting of a very good friend of mine, Herb Troyer, whom I ironically introduced him to C12 4 years ago, he suggested I revisit that message. I did, and I have successfully adopted this routine into my life now 138 days straight (Buck is on day 10,000+-). I would encourage each of you to consider this to be part of your life, a non-negotiable start to your day. God will redeem your time and rest.
Apart from Christ, we are all creatures of our fleshly desires and habits. Even though He promises that our salvation is secure, our commitment to living under the Lordship of Christ must happen one day at a time as we react to the many challenges and temptations which come our way. Our ability to provide Godly leadership stems solely from our daily intimacy with Christ. Unless we abide in Him by routinely accessing His means of Grace (i.e., Bible, prayer, worship, fellowship, witnessing), it is easy for us to get off track and be compromised in our ability to be ambassadors and make disciples.
Start small, 10-15 mins everyday. Routines become habits, habits become part of us, good or bad. This will change your life, I promise you.
Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Ephesians 6:13 ..put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
The Thang: Mosey to the covered pavilion for 2 pain stations.
STATION 1 Pavilion: 20 Dips OYO; 20 Derkins OYO; 20 Wide Arm Merkins OYO; 20 Staggered Arm Merkins OYO (10 each hand forward).
STATION 2 Pavilion: 20 Big Boys OYO; 20 E2K each side OYO; 20 Gas Pumpers OYO; 20 Reach Through Crunches OYO.
Third F Message: Please see below.
STATION 3 Wheelhouse Parking Lot: Sprints @ 50%, 75%, 100% speed with 20 Squats after the speed set. (x2). Wosey to the draw bridge for a Bear Crawl to the top with 20 Bobby Hurleys looking out over the canal.
STATION 4 The BIKE RACK: Wosey to the Rack for 20 Pull Ups & 20 Double count Flutters. Mosey back to the courts.
Count off, Name-O-Rama, COT.
Third F Message on Dates surrounding Independence Day:
APRIL 19, 1775: The Revolutionary War begins with shots fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.
JUNE 7, 1776: Richard Henry Lee introduces a motion in a meeting of the Continental Congress that the United States IS AND SHOULD BE DECLARED free from ties to Great Britain. Delegates disagree about the wisdom of the idea, which comes to be called the “Lee Resolution”. Eventually, the Congress appoints a Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence for consideration.
JUNE 11, 1776: John Adams convenes the Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence. The five members of the committee are John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman. The committee chooses Jefferson to write the first draft.
JULY 2, 1776: The Continental Congress votes to declare independence from Great Britain, formally adopting the Lee Resolution. The next day John Adams writes in a letter to his wife that, “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America….It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and ILLUMINATIONS, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore”.
JULY 3, 1776: The Continental Congress begins debating and editing the draft Declaration, eventually making 86 edits and cutting the length by about a fourth.
JULY 4, 1776: The Continental Congress approves the final draft of the Declaration, formalizing what had already been decided on July 2. Congress hires printer John Dunlap to print copies of the Declaration to be distributed throughout the colonies.
JULY 9, 1776: A copy of the Declaration of Independence had reached New York City. With Hundreds of British Naval ships occupying New York Harbor, revolutionary spirit and military tensions were running high. George Washington, commander of the Continental forces in New York, read the document aloud in front of City Hall. A raucous crowd cheered the inspiring words, and later that day tore down a nearby statue of George III. The statue was subsequently melted down and shaped into more than 42,000 musket balls for the fledgling American Army.
PAX partnered up for B.O.M.B.’s on
the Hill. One PAX Soldier Crawls
(Spiderman Crawl) up the hill and mosey’s back down while his partner completes
a series of exercises. Each team completed
a total of 50 burpees, 100 Overhead Claps completed as SSH’s, 150 Merkins, 200
Big Boy Situp’s, and 250 Squats.
However, Q had each PAX carry his own weight and complete half of that
total exercise amount before moving on to the next exercise….25 Burpees, 50
Overhead Claps completed as SSH’s, 75 Merkins, 100 Big Boy Situp’s, 125 squats. A little chatter in regards to the pain
station prompted a response by Q to blame it on the milkshake he indulged at
the fireworks display last night.
F3 Message – See below
Mosey .5 miles back to CHOP by way of
the Patriot Run.
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayer. Save travels and a shout out to Bovine and Chappie as they were completing a 17.76 mile Ruck during this morning’s beat down.
F3 Message 07/04/19 – Excerpts were utilized by Q from the re-post below from Christianity Daily as well as Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Happy Independence Day 2017: Bible Verses
and Quotes To Reflect On What Freedom Means In America
JUL 02, 2017 07:26 PM EDT
From Christianity Daily.com
Fourth
of July marks the moment in history when representatives of a new government
uprising signed the Declaration of Independence in the United States on July 4,
1776. The document listed grievances suffered by the U.S. colonies under
British monarchy and justified a desire for liberty. It was penned by Thomas
Jefferson. Also known as Independence Day, it is an annual holiday that
symbolizes freedom. It is celebrated nationwide in 2017 on Tuesday, July 4.
Although declared in 1776,
Americans were not delivered from bondage until 1783. The high cost of freedom
was paid for in blood, in what historians estimate to be the death of 25,000
American Patriots. It took eight years, four months, and fifteen days of war between
America and Great Britain during the American Revolution to be fully attained.
The Oxford dictionary defines
freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants
without hindrance or restraint.” It is also defined as the “absence
of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government,” and “the
state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.” Christianity Daily compiled a
list of Bible verses and quotes that shed light on the true meaning of freedom.
As
the United States of America celebrates Independence Day on July 4, it’s worth
noting the nation was founded upon the idea that God created human beings to be
free. The Declaration of Independence states that people “are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness.”
But
what is “liberty,” exactly? Is freedom based upon the country where you live,
or can it have a deeper meaning?
Here
are some key ideas from the Bible about freedom—including how to find true
freedom in your life.
1. People have been searching for it for thousands
of years.
The
quest for freedom is a theme found throughout the Bible, from Genesis to
Revelation. Just three chapters into the story of God’s creation, humanity gave
up its freedom by choosing to rebel against God. From that time forward, the
perfect freedom God created in the Garden of Eden was gone, and the long-term
effects were both physical and spiritual.
The
Old Testament of the Bible records how God’s people lost their physical freedom
time and again as various empires overtook them (most notably the Egyptians, as
recorded in the book of Exodus).
The loss of physical freedom was often
tied to spiritual disobedience like worshiping false gods. But time and again,
the one true God forgave His people and rescued them. When God freed the
Israelites from slavery in Egypt, He was foreshadowing the arrival of Jesus Christ,
who came to free humanity from sin—the spiritual slavery that leads to death.
Today, many people are living in
spiritual slavery without realizing it. They chase false gods of money,
success, personal comfort and romantic love—only to realize they still have an
emptiness that can’t be filled by any of those things.
2. God’s answer to our loss of freedom has always
been Jesus Christ.
When Jesus began his short period of
ministry on the earth, He announced He was the One that God’s people had been
waiting for since the fall of humanity. He did this by reading a particular
passage from the book of Isaiah—a passage his listeners knew was referring to
the Messiah, or the Savior of the world.
The words had been written hundreds of
years earlier and spoke of a new freedom that was coming in the future. When
Jesus stood up to read, He was saying the future had arrived. Liberty would come through Him.
“And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He
unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to
the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are
oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And he rolled up the scroll and
gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the
synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:17-21, emphasis added).
“For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The Good News—the best news ever—is
that faith in Jesus frees us from the death we deserve for sinning against God.
It frees us from the punishment that would be inflicted upon us at the end of
our lives for the evil things we’ve thought and done.
While Christ followers still battle
with sin, they are no longer slaves to it. Through the power of Christ, His
people can be set free from the bondage of greed, vanity, pride,
pornography, addiction, abusive behavior, gluttony, selfishness—and any other sin under the
sun. Here’s what Jesus
said about the freedom He offers:
“If
you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,and you will know
the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone
who practices sin is a slave to sin.The slave does not remain in the house
forever; the son remains forever. So if
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36).
God created human beings, not robots.
We don’t have to accept the freedom He offers us through Jesus Christ. He gives each person the free will to accept or reject His salvation.
But the Bible warns that hell is a real place where real people end up when
they knowingly reject the truth.
Likewise,
those who choose Christ are not forced to obey Him at every turn. But God makes
it clear: the best life is one that’s devoted to honoring Him. As the Apostle
Paul explained to some of the first Christians:
“’All things are lawful for me,’” but not all things are
helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by
anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12).
“For you were called to
freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the
flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
From cover to cover, God’s Word points
to freedom in Christ. And God doesn’t leave us wondering how to grab hold of
the freedom He offers. It starts with acknowledging our brokenness—and
admitting we are slaves to sin. And it ends with choosing Jesus and following Him daily. Only He
can break the bonds of slavery and lead us to true freedom, now and forever.
