On preparing for the Over Sixties Club meeting this past week I found that every day, every month and every year has at least one specific theme to commemorate or celebrate. So for example, yesterday was Bridge day, International Sloth Day, Sweetest Day, Wear Something Gaudy Day, Spreadsheet Day, Mulligan Day and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty! Today is Chocolate Cupcake Day; forget about the diet, today is a great excuse to have a nice gooey, fudgy and intensely chocolate cupcake. Excellent!
Today has also been assigned as Anti-Slavery Day. It marks the day when The Anti-Slavery Bill became law in 2010. It was created to raise awareness of modern slavery and to inspire people to eliminate it. In connection with this, within the Faith community today is Freedom Sunday.
Freedom is priceless and where it is present almost any kind of life is enjoyable. When it is absent life can never be enjoyed; it can only be endured. Freedom is an idea we spend most of our lives striving to experience. We as a culture celebrate monumental events like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the global civil rights movement because we know freedom to be necessary for a life to be lived to its fullest. We fight for the freedom of those held in captive. We advocate for those silenced by the bonds of slavery. And Scripture makes it clear that God is no different.
One of the most persistent themes in Scripture is freedom. Its pages are filled with stories of God delivering his people from the bondage of slavery. Not only does the Bible contain stories of God's deliverance from physical slavery, but spiritual slavery as well. Scripture is explicit that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we as believers have been set free from the bondage of sin. Sin is no longer our master. In the death of Jesus, God made to you his promise of freedom. He's promised that you no longer have to live life under the slavery of sin. You now have available to you a life lived in the joy and power of righteousness.
Therefore, let’s clothe ourselves every day in the knowledge of who are in Christ. Choose to live in freedom instead of sin. When you feel the tug back to your former ways, take a minute and ask the Spirit to guide you away from your former life. God has promised you his freedom. He's worked his miracle of freedom in you at salvation. You have been made new. Now live in response to God's incredible work by pursuing a life lived in righteousness. Spend time in God's presence allowing his truth and love to mould and shape you into the likeness of the very one who's saved you.
Captain Clare