ListenDaily - 01 May2009; The big "IF"
Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
John 8;31-32 (find any passage at www.Biblegateway.org)
The recipe for freedom begins with a little bitty word...but a powerful one: "IF". These two letters hold within them the key to much of our theology and doctrine of 'free will'. "If" can open the door to salvation, peace, removal of anxiety, and freedom in Christ.
If.
Do you want to be free?
You can be! If...
If...
"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Follow...know...freedom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Questions:
1. What other 'ifs' are keys to Christianity? 2. Are there 'ifs' to salvation? Discipleship? Obedience? Anything else? 3. How do you choose?
INTERESTING THOUGHT ON FREEDOM:
"There are two freedoms:
the false where a man is free to do what he likes;
and the true where a man is free to do as he ought."
Charles Kingsley
"On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that, citizens;
on this side, orphans, on that, children;
on this side, captives, on that, freemen."
Henry Ward Beecher
"The Jews looked upon a serpent to be freed from serpents;
and we look upon the death of Christ to be delivered from death."
Augustine
"The lost enjoy forever the horrible
freedom they have demanded..."
C.S. Lewis
"God, having placed good and evil in our power,
has given us full freedom of choice;
He does not keep back the unwilling,
but embraces the willing."
John Chrysostom
"A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all."
Martin Luther
"God created things which had free will.
That means creatures which can go either wrong or right.
Some people think they can imagine a creature
which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot.
If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad.
And free will is what has made evil possible.
Why, then, did God give them free will?
Because free will, though it makes evil possible,
is also the only thing that makes possible any love
or goodness or joy worth having."
C.S. Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment