Jesus // The Ultimate Freedom

When I first became a Christian, I thought that my life was going to be sunny skies and plain sailing until I met with Jesus in Heaven.

Man, how wrong I was.

Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that Jesus decides that you will walk a completely blissful life without ridicule or persecution. On the contrary, He said quite the opposite. In John 15:18 Jesus says

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

Jesus openly says that because He has chosen you to do his work of Heaven on Earth that people are going to hate you! In Acts we see the apostles put in prison for preaching, Stephen stoned and Paul and Silas nearly beaten to death. Jesus himself was killed because he was the Son of God!

There's also a lot of sacrifice in following Jesus. You tend not to see distractions in your own life, but look at a Christian friends life. How many things do they do before reading the Bible? Who do they consult before consulting Christ? How many things are distracting them from God? After looking at your friends life, look at your own. Books, films, TV - distractions are literally everywhere. And if it distracts you from God, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

With all this, you're probably asking yourself 'Why would anyone want to follow Jesus?!'

Because Jesus is so much more than any book, or film, TV show. He's so much more that persecution or ridicule. When Jesus went to the cross, He took all of your sin with him. And I mean ALL your sin. Sins you've done, you will do, sins your doing now. Every single one of them died with him on the cross. You are forgiven for every sin you've ever done or will do in your whole life - how amazing is that?!

In Galatians 5 Paul speaks about freedom through Jesus. He says

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." 

Life with Jesus is truly amazing. When you have a full life with Jesus, when you put your full trust in Jesus - you have nothing to fear. Because if God is for us, who can be against us? 

Without fear, without shame, without worry - with Jesus, we are free. 

Galatians 5:13
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free."

Relationships // The Spirit

So how many times have you been in Church and seen someone doing this?

For those who don't go to church, this happens a lot. Recently at my youth groups church, I over heard a few people asking why there were people with their hands in the air. I also heard one person say that they did it because they were 'really religious'. 

No. 

I'm not even going to get into the faith > religion argument today (but here is a Jeff Bethke poem that will...) 

When we're in church worshipping, sometimes people experience Jesus calling them to meet with him through the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit can have all kinds of impacts on people. In Acts 2:1-4 we see the Spirit allowing people to speak in tongues (which means other languages). But the Spirit can do a lot more than allow people to speak in other languages. Sometimes people can receive emotional healing, people can cry, people can scream, fall over, sing. 

The Spirit is nothing to fear. Often when someone experiences the Spirit for the first time, it's easy to be afraid. It's something new, it's unknown. But nothing bad can come from the Spirit. Through the Spirit we can receive healing for problems that we never knew existed, and having a relationship with the Spirit enables you to draw closer to Jesus, creating a stronger relationship with Father, Son and Spirit.