My online dictionary says...Free-dom (n.): the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.
People fight for it. Some die for it. I think William Wallace (Braveheart) knows a little bit about Freedom. While watching this movie I long to believe in something this much. Right before he was headed to get tortured and beheaded he was praying to God in shackles, "I am so afraid.......give me the strength". While getting tortured and mocked all they wanted was for him to say mercy or to surrender and it would all stop, but as he looked at the faces in the crowd he caught the eye of a child. He was reminded of what he was suffering for in the face of a child. And then comes the scene FREEEEEEEDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM yelled from the depths of his soul. Guaranteed everyone in that crowd questioned what they believed in, what they were living for, and wanted what this man had after witnessing this heart cry in the face of opposition from all sides. The paradox is that the very thing he was fighting for was already his according to the definition above.
Check out the link to the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hce-Xvp1gm8
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that someone else is more important than fear.
William Wallace is much like Jesus, but not perfect and didn't die for the sins of the world and didn't raise from the dead, but you know what I mean. William Wallace I should say is a man just like us (but a bit more chiseled), but believed in something so much that he was willing to die for it. I want to believe in Jesus so much that I am willing to die for him. I have been crucified with Christ in His death so that His spirit may live in me. The same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead is living in me right now!!! The same Spirit of the God Almighty is living in me!!! me?? mee!!! That is why I consider death to be gain, and to live is Christ!!! Since I am now not my own, since I have died with Christ and my sinful nature, I am free to live as Christ. I am free from being everything else that the world wants me to be, I am free from human approval and the need for success, I am free! Why do I feel so afraid? I am so afraid, but am comforted to know that throughout Scripture God reminded His children over and over:
Do not be afraid, take courage.
Do not fear for the Lord your God is with you.
Do not be afraid for I am with you.
Do not be afraid of them for I am with you and will rescue you.
Don't be afraid just believe.
The Lord is my helper I will not be afraid.
Be strong and courageous Do not be terrified Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go...
BUT PERFECT LOVE DRIVES OUT FEAR - 1 John 4:19
In James it says that Elijah was a man just like us....BUT....he prayed fervently. Elijah was scared, Moses was scared, Joshua was scared, Peter was scared...these great men of God had to be reminded by God to not be afraid, and they did that through prayer without ceasing, through clinging to a promise that their heavenly Father had made to them and acting on that promise in the face of all their fears! This is where they experienced the Truth itself...this is where they experienced the Living God working through their mortal bodies!! MIRACLES because they really believed in this God they were willing to risk everything for Him, they walked by FAITH and not by what they could see.
I had a dream the other night (no I'm not about to go MLK on you, don't worry) that I was in a concentration camp, and I was being forced to do things that I didn't want to do, I was a slave, and was tortured. Then I had found a way out of the camp and had escaped. I thought that I would feel free but I actually felt more a slave than ever. I could not relax and was in chains of overwhelming fear that I would get caught and have to return to the camp. I believe that this is what the Israelites felt when they escaped from Egypt and were headed for the Promised Land. They wanted to go back to slavery and had forgotten why they escaped in the first place, they had forgotten the place that they were headed, the place filled with milk and honey.
I have to remind myself daily of where I have come from and where I am going. Jesus has brought me from death to life, from darkness to light!! I am going to be standing in front of the Almighty God soon. Me! I am!? Heaven is not just some story or dream or made up place...it is real and I am going! I am going to worship my creator in a perfect heaven with perfect love where He is going to wipe away every tear, and there is going to be no more injustice, sin, and suffering!! I am now an alien in this land. I am not my own. This is not my home. The greatest mission ever given was from Jesus to His people, His Body, The Church..."you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be MY witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". AND so I will seek to overcome my day to day fears and be reminded of my brother in Christ who writes, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace".
I pray, O God, that I may know You and love You, so that I may rejoice in You. And if I cannot do so fully in this life may I progress gradually until it comes to fullness. Let the knowledge of You grow in me here, and there (in heaven) be made complete; let Your love grow in me here and there be made complete, so that here my joy may be great in hope, and there by complete in reality. Lord, by Your Son You command, or rather, counsel us to ask and You promise that we shall receive so that our 'joy may be complete.' I ask, Lord, as You counsel through our admirable counsellor. May I receive what You promise through Your truth so that my 'joy may be complete.' God of truth, I ask that I may receive so that my 'joy may be complete.' Until then let my mind meditate on it, let my tongue speak of it, let my heart love it, let my mouth preach it. Let my soul hunger for it, let my flesh thirst for it, my whole being desire it, until I enter into the 'joy of the Lord,' who is God, Three in One, 'blessed forever. amen'
-ANSELM
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