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Sometimes we go through seasons. Like the weather we have our times of growth and hibernation. Unlike the weather we have a greater range of variables. Our seasons change in more ways than precipitation, temperature and barometric pressure. Our range of change is deep within us and on the surface. Our emotions, spiritual man and even our physical body go through seasons that affect our out look on life.
Today I would like to highlight what i like to call a “Joseph Season”. This season is named after who else but Joseph. Joseph and his coat of many colors. Joseph who was a dreamer. Hated by his brothers and aboandoned into slavery. Falsly accused and thrown into prison. But through these seasons he did not give up on God. He held on to the dreams God gave him when he was young and that is what supplied his faith to make it through the toughest of seasons. Without a dream somtimes it is hard to hang on through the Joseph seasons of our life. God is the giver of our dreams and gives them freely. Dream big, dream often.
My wife and i have been married for 3 years this June. But we have known each other for nearly 8 years. Like all of the great romances, ours started with a friendship. We grew together, learned together and celebrated together as friends for years before we ever started dating. Then one day seemingly out of the blue i had this new feeling for this old friend. She didn’t change but something inside me did. I saw the same person a different way. It was like i learned how to breathe again for the first time. Or my heart, although it was living before, came alive. The same but new.
This past Sunday the verse that has Jesus talking about salt and light really came alive to me. It was that same old verse but new. The same thing i have heard my whole life growing up but now it wasn’t that same old thing but a new old thing. A new old thing? yeah i guess so.
The verse says that “You are the Salt of the Earth” and that “You are the light of the world”. We are essentially his salt and light, His means of communication, His Witnesses. But here is what came alive…..You means me. I am the salt of the earth…not Rev. so and so or Mrs. Churchlady or Youth pastor guy down the street or super christian at my school or my mom or dad or bus driver or missionary or whoever I can think of. It is me and my responsibility. Can I say it like this….There is no other way by which the world will get its light except by me. There is no other way by which the world will receive its salt except by you. We are His chosen means of communication. The hope for the world is our responsibility.
Sounds kind of scary if you think about it for too long. The good news is that we dont have to have a big platform and a fancy stage to be salt and light. All we need is to live a life that looks different. A life that looks like Jesus. After all the word Christian does mean “little Christ”. Live like a little Christ and you will be salt and you will be light.
Last night in our youth ministry we asked the question: When we become a Christian do we actually lose some freedom? Unfortunatly we Christians have shown the world about all the rules and none of the freedoms of a life in communion with God.
We are truly free. “Whom the son sets free is free indeed” John 8:36. This is not a false sense of freedom but a real freedom.
Think about it like this….when you first get your license and dad gives you the keys to the car. You are free. No longer a slave to the world of sidewalks and bike lanes, but really free to travel in a timely, effortless way. But there is a catch, there are laws that you have to follow. These laws are what ensure your freedom and your safety. Signs telling you what to do and lines that keep everyone in the proper order.
And so it is with our Christian walk. We are completely free from the old way of life. To travel as we please. As Paul writes “Everything is permisible…” 1 Corinthians 10:23. We are free to make decisions, but at the same time subject to obedience to the Law. The second half of 1 Corinthians 10:23 says “…but not everything is beneficial.” The Laws of God protect us from danger and those things that are not “beneficial” to us.
Our freedom is directly linked to our level of obedience to the Laws of God. Not exactly the easiest correlation but a true one. The more captive we are in obedience the more free we actually are. Once we trade our obedience for disobedience we not only sin, but lose our freedom in the process. “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Hebrews 12:1. When we sin we are entangled by it, trapped by it, bound by it. We are no longer free but slave to sin.
Cisero said: “We are in bondage to the Law in order that we may be free.”
Freedom is ours to live in, but it does require our obedience to God. Choose today to live in freedom and throw off everything that hinders.
We each are given a unique opportunity to dream. I’m not talking about the kind when your asleep, but the real important ones, the ones when your eyes are open.
Personally I would like to consider myself a dreamer, but when it comes down to it I, like so many others, fall into the dream of another. Someone else’s passion or vision. When you live someone elses dream you eliminate the risk, adventure and sting of failure. Though it is a safe road the reward is small, your growth is minimal and in the end you will find yourself asking questions like “why?” and “what if?”
Some days are easy to dream others aren’t. But one thing is consistent, in the heart of every man and woman is a desire to conjure up, work toward and accomplish our dreams. This is God given gift that sustains us.
“For where there is no vision the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18a (KJV)
Don’t be afraid to accomplish your dreams. Work for your dreams. Don’t be afraid … to dream, because after all dreams are free. After the dream comes the fight.
