“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
- Paul, in II Corinthians 3:17 Since the Bible speaks of freedom, it’s good to think comparatively of some of the kinds of captivity people find themselves in these days…
Paul described the experience of the Holy Spirit as an earnest or an early deposit (II Corinthians 5:5, Ephesians 1:13-14). We have such a great inheritance coming; what we’ve experienced so far is just a start. Think of the free taste samples you can get at an ice cream store. So it is with our collective experiences of God. The Holy Spirit is our foretaste of the much greater inheritance that is to come, which marks our full freedom. Hence the line of the hymn: “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; O what a foretaste of glory divine!” Sometimes Christian freedom is misunderstood. I remember a fellow who said to me years ago, “My church lets me believe whatever I want to believe. I can do whatever I want to do.” He hardly ever went to church at all; his faith had little importance in his life. To me, this is the opposite of what Christian freedom is about: It’s not an excuse for irresponsibility, but a call to responsibility. Several times Paul compares it to seeing things more clearly (in II Corinthians 3:12-4:6). Our experiences of God, our insights from the scriptures, and our faith-relationship with Jesus Christ – these all grant us a new perspective. We can see ourselves and the world around us with a better understanding. We don’t have to be hindered by things that would keep us from being all that God would have us to be. We are set free from captivity. God bless you. Andrew McHenry, Pastor First Congregational Church of Oroville, California
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Andrew McHenryI am a husband, a Congregational pastor, and a native Kansan currently living in Thermalito, California. In the past I have also been a prison chaplain and a youth pastor. Interests include reading, railroads, prog rock, KU, and the KC Royals. Archives
March 2024
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