“All Freedom is measured by its boundaries.
So carry a tape measure.”
How do you measure your boundaries – in inches or in cinches? Living free in your own power is not a cinch! It’s no easy task. When I began my journey back toward a relationship with Christ, I needed guidelines to help me stay within God’s parameters. I have found ten principles that will keep us within the boundaries of our freedom in Christ.
If we are ever going to have any success whatsoever in our efforts to experience freedom in life, we must determine that if God tells us that something is wrong, it is wrong. If God is against it, so am I. I grew up in a Christian home and had lots of boundaries and rules put on me. As a young person, I misunderstood their purpose. I used to plan for the day when I became an adult and could release myself of all those rules. I could not wait for the day that I could live in what I thought would be true freedom! But make no mistake about it, friend, true freedom is found in boundaries. For you only exchange boundaries for bondage.
After stubbornly refusing to allow anyone to tell me what was right and what was wrong, and after my life was destroyed from the “freedom” I chose, I finally realized the lie to which I had become enslaved. As I sought to gain stability once again in life, I struggled because part of me was still living like the world but on the weekends I would sober up and go to church. God taught me a valuable lesson after several months of struggling, ten principles to conquer stubborn habits and that is what I needed to have oneness with God in all parts of my life.
I had to come to a point where I set the standard that if God pointed out to me that something is wrong, I must adapt the same standard. I made the decision that if God would tell me through either my umbrella of authority or through His Word that something was wrong, I was going to get on the right side of the fence. The first line that I drew for myself was when I started coming back to church. I knew that using drugs was wrong. So, I drew a line in my life and set the standard that I was not going to use drugs anymore. But I could not stop there, I soon discovered. Because it would only take a bad day or a wrong choice and I was merely one step away from my addiction. I continually found myself falling over that line. However, as God began showing me more things through His Word and through my leadership, I began drawing more lines in my life. Each one pushed me further and further from the life I once knew. I continued to take steps in the right direction.
As I began to follow this first principle in its entirety, God gave me several others to help me maintain complete sobriety! They are what is now commonly referred to as the RU Ten Principles of Prosperity:
Principle #1- If God’s against it, so am I.
Principle #2-Every sin has its origin in our hearts.
Principle #3-It is easier to keep the heart clean than it is to clean it after it has been defiled.
Principle #4-We cannot fight a fleshly appetite by indulging in it.
Principle #5-Small compromises lead to great disasters. (Little sins lead to big sins.)
Principle #6-Those who do not love the Lord will not help us serve the Lord.
Principle #7-Our sinful habits do hurt those who follow us.
Principle #8-It is not possible to fight a fleshly temptation with fleshly weapons.
Principle #9-We lose our freedom to choose when we give in to temptation. Our consequences are inevitable and incalculable and up to God.
Principle #10- God balances guilt with blame. Accept the blame for your actions and God will remove the guilt.
These principles I still apply, as daily I seek to die, their relevance you cannot deny; if on self you once did try. So soon you will reply, “In Him I must rely”!
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“If gaining our freedom took a ‘particular process’, then we can be certain losing that freedom will come from a ‘regrettable regress’.”
The formula used at RUI for gaining and maintaining freedom from habitual sin is found in John 8:31, 32 where Jesus said, “. . .to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Let us be reminded of this simple equation while SIMULTANEOUSLY considering what battle we are currently having in our own life. (If we are honest with ourselves, we would admit there is always a sin of sorts seeking dominion over us.) Step one of our formula for freedom is to believe on Jesus. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him…” The very first key to being made free from our addiction, from the power and penalty of sin, and from the control the devil has on us is to believe on Jesus! Mark 9:23, “Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” John 3:16b, “…that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not taken this first step, then stop taking your twelve steps! They are a waste of time! Step one is to believe on Jesus. When we must believe IN Jesus to be saved and we need to believe ON Jesus to be made free; for the burden of our bondage will need to be placed ON Him, as we learn to trust IN Him. {click to continue reading…}
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Webster’s dictionary defines worry as personal torment of oneself with disturbing thoughts; to fret. Many believe that worry is an emotional problem. In reality, worry is a psychological problem. Psychology simply means relating to the mental process. There is no doubt that worry can be slowed in one’s life, even stopped. Its even better to realize that the results of worry, which are both physical, emotional and relational can be practically eliminated from your life. But first we are going to have to handle the psychological mistakes that bring us to the personal torment of disturbing thoughts—to worry.
Some people are critical of teaching that abdicates the “power of positive thinking”. I understand that you cannot create a positive out of a negative by persuasively thinking positively. But I would suggest that I believe there is more power in positive thinking than there ever has been in negative thinking!
Worry creates all kinds of physical stress and interpersonal reactionary mistakes. The ramifications of worry are oftentimes even worse than the circumstances that created the worry in the first place. You see, worry is a personal torment. Torment means to inflict with painful suffering. When we worry we actually inflict painful suffering on our mind. The pain from these meditations usually engage our flight or fight response within our minds that subsequently stimulates our emotions. Though negative thoughts can sometimes creates emotional pleasure (like criticizing someone tends to do), fearful thoughts always create emotional displeasure. This displeasure will eventually show in our actions and reactions in life. So we see that by stimulating our emotions with disturbing thoughts will play a profound effect on the peace we have with ourselves, God and others.
When we have peace with God, as people void of offense, we can have a clear conscience. Behavioral mistakes will hinder that peace and disturb our peace with self, which in turn manifests in eventual division among those we appreciate in life. This ought not to be. We can control thoughts, just like we can control our behaviors. But it takes power and it takes preparation. In order to maintain peace with God and self, thus enjoying peace with others, we will need to prepare for peace. This preparation is found in managing our moment by moment meditations.
We will talk more of this preparation in another blog.
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