JESUS sets us free to serve and love.

On the last blog, we talked about the 1 Red Heifer in Numbers 19:2 and how it was a perfect animal for sacrifice.  But as I said, the main thing for me was how it could not be used for being yoked to a plow.  All of us are born sinners and yoked to sin and brought up in this world. So we know we are freed from this by our belief and faith in Jesus. John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.’  When GOD freed his people from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the promise land. He freed and restored them and gave them a new life in this land called flowing with milk and honey. They were free from being yoked to slavery.  The same thing happens when we accept Jesus, we are free from sin right that moment when we open our heart and ask him in. At that moment our relationship with God is restored and we become a child of GOD, we are clothed with Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. A good example of this is in Zechariah 3:1-3, ‘Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel's right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. And the LORD said to Satan, "I, the LORD, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire." Jeshua's clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. So the angel said to the others standing there, "Take off his filthy clothes." And turning to Jeshua he said, "See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes."  By accepting Jesus we are given all these things from God that we don’t deserve. Ephesians 2:8, ‘God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.’  We are able to have a relationship and walk with God, we have eternal life and are part of the body of Christ, God’s holy temple. Ephesians 2:21, ‘We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.’ What is interesting for me is how God is the vine dresser or gardener; he disciplines us, shape and molds us. We are right with God but it’s a process to become more like Jesus. We make a lot of mistakes and still sin but he see’s us holy and blameless because of Jesus. Colossians 1:22,   ‘Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.’ The point I’m making is we know we have been set free and have eternal life we also have a purpose here. 1 Corinthians 7:23 ‘You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.’ 1 Peter 2:16 ‘Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.’ Galatians 5:13 ‘You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.’ We have been set free and the Lord is our master. Christ doesn’t want us to be yoked to anything other than him and have or be doing anything that would keep us away from receiving what he made us for. We know he wants us to love him, each other, use what he has done in our lives as a testimony to reach the lost, take care of each others needs in the church and feed the poor. We are called to do the great commission, there is still a lot to do and that’s why the whole church or body has a part to play.  So we will leave off with this verse which will be the beginning of the next blog then.  Ephesians 4:16 ‘He makes the whole body fit together and unites it through the support of every joint. As each and every part does its job, he makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.’