From the Blog
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Set Free by the Cross
In Paul’s last chapter to the Galatians, he summarized his letter by reminding them that the only way to be set free is by believing and boasting in the cross of Christ. It is believing and boasting in the cross of Christ that sets us free.
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Set Free to Do Good
Being set free from the law and the flesh changes our motivation for doing good. Formerly, we thought we could earn salvation by doing good, but we ended up either judging others from a mindset of superiority or feeling like a failure from a low self-esteem. Trying to be good in our flesh actually revealed…
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Set Free in the Spirit
Don’t you wish you could do what you really want to do? What if you could start your life all over again. Would you do anything differently? I’m not sure that people really set out to do something bad or stupid. They just kind of slide into certain habits and behaviors that get them into…
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Set Free to Live Free
What is the value of freedom? Someone has rightly said, “Freedom isn’t free.” It costs something. Whether it’s political freedom, physical freedom, financial freedom, freedom of speech or thought… There’s a price to be paid to get free. And there’s a continual responsibility to watch out for threats that would steal our freedom. The same…
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Set Free from Religion
Of all of God’s creatures, only humanity seeks answers to questions like: “Who am I? What is my purpose? Where do I fit in? Where do I belong?” We have a deep-seated need for identity and relationship. We want to know and be known. And we ask questions about our future, like: “What is my…
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Set Free by Promise
That our freedom and salvation depend on God’s promise, not our performance is good news to those who know they are enslaved by sin and want to be set free, but it is challenging news to those who either feel they are already good enough or don’t agree with the Bible’s morality. Since they don’t…
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Set Free by Faith
Freedom is connected to our faith. The word “faith” appears 12 times in today’s reading. Paul emphasized that it is faith in Christ that truly sets us free, not our own works of the law. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches, he told them that true freedom came not by works of…
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Set Free by the Gospel
The reason many people are not receiving the good news that sets us free today, is because they really haven’t heard the true gospel, or they heard it and received it, but then fell back into living by self-effort. This is what was happening to the Galatians. They had heard the true gospel from Paul,…
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Contribute to God’s Kingdom
Most of us want to feel like we have accomplished something, like the work we do is actually reaching some objective. We all want to be great at something and be thought of as influential. We want to look back on our lives and believe that we truly contributed to something of value. In the…
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Matters of…Marriage
Marriage: a wonderful union designed and declared by our Creator God for the our good. But it doesn’t always feel so good does it? Not always a “dream within a dream.” Two people, uniquely different, trying to be one unified family for life facing all the internal challenges of dealing with differing opinions, goals, and…