Freedom

Good morning everyone,

Pastor Hintz's series this week ties into the Gospel reading from last Sunday.  He has connected with the cleansing aspect of Baptism and it surely stirs up a clear visual of how sin affects not only our lives, but the lives of those around us.  I was particularly hit over the head by his understanding that the stench of sin is something that we have gotten used to here on earth, but it is not something that God will ever get used to.  

However, it is extremely difficult to be aware of that stench if we are always sitting right in the middle of it.  That's why we need to read our Bibles daily  (that means we're sitting outside of this world and its stench for a little while) and why we need to surround ourselves with Godly people (you might find some at church on Sundays).  Removing ourselves from the smell will help us be more aware of it when we go back in. And if we are too "used" to it, those Godly folks might give us a clue when they kindly suggest we take a moment to recall our baptism and go for a cleansing dip or two.

I like Pastor Hintz's visual of the smell of sin, but I've been chewing on a weightier aspect of it since Sunday.  The phrase that Pastor Keil said keeps coming back to me me: We give up our freedom when...

You can fill in the blanks with any and all choices that we make that turns us away from God and His promise of eternal life with Him in Heaven.  Because that's where our freedom lies. And if we choose this world (and all its stinky, temporal sin) then we are giving up our freedom.  Jesus died on the cross for us and, as it says in Romans, we died with him through our baptism.  We were not only cleansed, but released. Released from these chains that are sure to keep us tied to this earth forever.  And yet, we daily turn back and clamp those manacles back on, without even realizing it (it's that stench we don't even smell).

The Lord led me to a Psalm that makes it pretty clear:

Those who are wise must finally die, just like the foolish and senseless, leaving all their wealth behind. The grave is their eternal home, where they will stay forever. They may name their estates after themselves, but their fame will not last. This is the fate of fools, though they are remembered as being wise. Like Sheep they are led to the grave, where death will be their shepherd. In the morning the godly will rule over them. Their bodies will rot in the grave, far from their grand estates. But as for me, God will redeem my life. He will snatch me from the power of the grave. - Psalm 49:10-15 (NLT)

Dear Lord - Please continue (as you always do) to turn me back toward you. I sit here in this world and I am surrounded by the stench and chains of a prison of my own making...and I don't even see it. It's comfortable. It's what I've always known. Thank you for the sweet smelling moments with you that give me glimpses of what could be, what should be, what is already mine...if I just let go of this world.  I cry out for your Holy Spirit to fill me and free me. I love your freedom and your joy. You are what makes my heart sing and my feet light as they walk the paths you have set before me. Thank you for dying so that I may live. I love you. Amen.

Blessings and peace,

Leah

From: Larry Hintz

Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 7:05 AM

Subject: 1-9 devo

 

1-9-12

You have been outside working hard.

Maybe you have been doing some landscaping.

Possibly the car needed to be washed and it was really dirty.

Maybe you even waxed it!

Regardless of what you were doing you were hot and sweaty.

You really had a workout.

And even though you felt good and tired something else happened.

The aroma coming from you and/or your clothes was not the best.

It might have been the same aroma that comes after you have been to the gym.

You don’t want others to get a whiff of you.

You don’t really even want of whiff of yourself!

It is off to the showers!

Everyone, you included, will appreciate this act of cleansing.

This is a lead in to what we will be talking about this week.

It is with reference to the cleansing action of Baptism.

We want to become more aware of all that it does.

Unlike the workout that brings forth sweat, sin is something that comes natural.

We are born in sin.

The psalmist says we are even conceived in sin.

And the smell of sin is not pleasant.

It is a stench to God.

It is a stench to the world as well.

Part of the problem is that we have gotten used to that stench.

God never does.

And he doesn’t allow that stench in heaven.

He wants to cleanse us of that stench.

And that is what HE does through Baptism.

Baptism is God’s work.

And when God works in us a sweet fragrance comes forth.

We notice it ourselves and the world also takes note of it.

But it is something that is needed daily.

Daily renewing our Baptism, God cleanses us, and we are fresh!

Romans 6:1-1

Pastor Hintz