Who do you put your faith in to help change our country and solve our political problems?  Republicans?  Democrats?  A third party?  Guess what.  None of them are the solution to our nation’s problems.  Click on the link to hear why this election is no big deal!

Romans 8:1-4 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. ²And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. ³The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. ⁴He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

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Hosea 4:1-6 Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel!  The LORD has brought charges against you, saying: “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. ²You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery.  There is violence everywhere—one murder after another. ³That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away.  Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

⁴“Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!  My complaint, you priests, is with you. ⁵So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.  And I will destroy Israel, your mother. ⁶My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.  Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests.  Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.

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CHAPTER EIGHT – More Than Conquerors

Have you ever done something wrong and you wish you could go back and change things?  Probably just about everybody has.  And since we haven’t yet figured out the whole time travel thing, we have to figure out some other way to deal with those situations.  So what do you do with those kinds of problems?

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CHAPTER SIX – Dead and Buried

Did you ever wonder why it’s so hard for some people to quit doing things they know are bad for them?  It’s usually because they’ve been doing it for a long time.

If a person smokes one cigarette or drinks one beer and realizes that it’s gross and unhealthy, it’s easy for them to never drink or smoke again.  It’s even easier for people who have never even tried such things.  If they have watched other people’s lives destroyed by things like drugs or alcohol, it’s extremely easy for them to choose never to touch those things.  But for the person who has made it a habit and become addicted after months (or even years) of use it can be an extremely difficult struggle to break free of those bonds they have created.

It’s the same way with sin.  People choose to turn their backs on God, and break his commands.  And the deeper they go and farther they run from God the more they become enslaved by their own evil.  They become so used to living in sin and their minds are so darkened that they can’t even imagine what life could be like if they weren’t slaves to wickedness.

That’s why the fact that Jesus is willing to cleanse us from all sin is such Good News.  Not only does he save our lives from eternal damnation, he purifies our lives from the stain of sin and empowers us with the Holy Spirit to be able to live the way he commands us to live.  When we choose to repent and to turn away from sin and toward God, in his wonderful grace, God sets us free from that slavery to sin and death, and we are free indeed to live for Jesus and have a brand new life in relationship to him.

I don’t know about you…but I think that’s awesome!

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One of the things Americans value (or at least claim to value) is freedom.  We’re so glad for our freedom and the people who defend our freedom and our ability to say what we want and worship how we choose and travel from state to state without restriction, etc.  But how much do people really value freedom?

How many people aren’t involved at all in the election and supervision of our political leaders?  If you don’t care about politics, you don’t care about freedom because you allow those who are elected to make decisions about your life without your consent.

How many people live on welfare for months and even years sometimes?  If you are happy to live as a baby sucking on the breast of government instead of working for a living, you don’t care about freedom because you are trading your own independence to live as a dependent of taxpayers.

Those who value freedom are willing to work to keep it and maintain it.

In the same way, if you want spiritual freedom, you have to live a life that values that freedom and maintains that freedom.  Want to find freedom today?  Turn to the leader who can set you free from your sinful past, and then stop living for self indulgence and start working to be the best you can be.

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I’m sure you’ve heard before the line from the Declaration of Independence that lists 3 of the freedoms that are inseparable from us as human beings because we are created by God with such freedoms being part of who we are…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It goes on to say that the purpose of government is to protect such rights.  Did you ever stop to think about what the pursuit of happiness is?  We don’t have a right to happiness.  We only have the right to pursue it.  Interesting…don’t you think?

Some interpret that right of pursuit as “property.”  In other words we own our own body and our own ability to work and to build and to trade our labor for property.  So the money/property we trade our work for is our right–and therefore shouldn’t be taxed (as with the income tax).  So it’s everybody’s God-given right to trade skills and labor for money or goods in order to better our own lives.  Or you could say that “work” is pursuing happiness because it’s your means to improving your life.  Anyway, that’s the political definition.

From a spiritual perspective it’s slightly different.  Happiness comes to a person who obeys God’s law.  When you break that law, you enslave yourself to sin and death.  But real freedom comes from living a moral life.  If you avoid all those things that hurt you and hurt other people (lying, stealing, lusting, etc.) then you never become a slave of sin or death.  So you have the God-given right (and obligation) to pursue happiness by living the way God wants you to live.  And the natural result of living that kind of life is better than happiness–it’s joy, which is a deep seated glad contentedness that comes from having a relationship with Jesus–who, by the way, is the only one who can equip you to live a life of purity and total morality.

And if you have already made yourself a slave to sin and death because of your selfish and evil choices, your one hope for freedom is Jesus.  Wanna know more?  Listen to the podcast…

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When you ask someone how much money they’d like to have, the most common answer is ‘just a little more.’ Whether they’re making minimum wage or have billions, everybody wants more money. The funny thing about that is we don’t equate that desire with the addiction people have for drugs or alcohol or porn or whatever. Greed is looked at as a good thing in our country. Anybody who is actually content with what they have is seen as abnormal. And this national greed has not only put almost everybody into debt of one kind or another, this idea has infected our government. So now our nation is in debt–huge debt! And like a lot of other things, the church, for the most part, has completely ignored the instructions that God gives in the Bible for how to best manage money. It’s really a sad situation to think about how many people in this country have sold themselves into slavery to the bank. So how are we supposed to live? Well, this talk touches on a few basic ideas. Check it our and see what you think.

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