ACT NOW!

Below is something that David Wilkerson wrote which really hit home for me. Faith is an action and we need to act on our faith and living out our freedom. It does not just happen. Someone once told me that being a christian is the easy way out - a crutch. Well, that could not be farther from the truth. Being a christian is hard- it takes work each day to die of your flesh and live and walk out your life the way that the bible show us to. As this world becomes more and more ran by the devil- feeding our heads with lies we have to work even harder to stay focused on the truth. We are all free but we all need to act that way in order to live the life the is meant for us. I find it troubling how you can see people who from the outside look so pulled together, they live in their big fancy house, run a "successful business" , go to church every Sunday, put the christian bumper sticker ( so to speak) on everyday but yet I see how each day they add chains of bondage to them by their fear of ACTING out their faith. They can speak of god and his word but they can not DO his word. I hear from this very person how it is everyone else that is holding them captive but in actuality it is only them who adds the chains to their lives. They do not see the accountability part in being a christian and see it as everyone else's problem when they are called out on choices they are making. Jesus would say reach out to them but I would say remember that they have choices just like everyone else- free will to either listen to you or to continue to be held captive. We are all held captive and each day need to work towards breaking those chains. We are all the same- all going through life fighting the same battle. We may all look different but we are not so different after all. The only main difference that I see is that there are those who take responsibility for their actions and realize it is them who can make the difference and then there are those who look at everyone else for the reason they are held captive. You are either a survivor or a victim. I am starting to realize that not many victim thinking people can change. Be careful how long you invest in them because before you know it they are adding chains to you and dragging you along with them . Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of being the one to assume the role they want for you to play. The role that only takes the accountablity off of them. By doing this you are only adding to the problem. The problem of what this shows to other's who are watching. The reason that so many people are not walking with us is from these very people and people like you and me that assume it for them to make them and ourselves feel better. Face it- it is easier to not say anything and just ignore. Well that is a lie. Who said we are to always do the easy thing? Act now and be free yourself and do your part in bringing others to freedom. Saving lives may not make you most popular in this life but it will in another....

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Abraham Lincoln is said to have "freed the slaves" with the Emancipation Proclamation. This legal document declared that slavery was dead and all the slaves were set free.

When this news first spread through southern plantations, many of the slaves would not believe it. They continued slaving for their masters, convinced their promise of freedom was a hoax. Numbers of unscrupulous landowners told their slaves it was just a rumor and kept them under bondage. But little by little, the truth dawned on them as they saw former slaves walking about, happy in their newfound freedom. One by one, they threw down their loads, turned their backs on slavery, and walked away to begin a new life.

Maybe you haven't heard yet, or maybe it sounds too good to be true, but Christ emancipated all the slaves to sin at Calvary. You can now "walk out" on the devil! You can throw down your load of sin, walk away from Satan's dominion, and enter into a new life of freedom.

Let me show you what the Bible means when it talks about dying to sin. When Lincoln emancipated the slaves, the "issue" of slavery died. Not the slave master—not the slave. The slave could walk away free, saying to himself, “Slavery is a dead issue.”

Now the slave could slip back into the field and pick a few more rows of cotton—perhaps through fear or instinct—but that in no way made him a slave again. He was free, but he had to exercise his freedom. The proclamation couldn't force compliance, and neither could the slave master force him to return. It was a matter of the will of the slave.

The Bible says, "...he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him" (Romans 6:7-8).

What that means is simply this: Since the matter of your slavery to sin is a dead issue, seeing that Christ has already declared you emancipated, you are now free to live as a new person in Christ by thinking of yourself as unchained.

Christ can't make you do right, and Satan can't make you do wrong. Christ declares you are free by faith, but you must act as a free person.