Slavery

--8/15 UPDATE-- About the site being down...My DNS settings were altered somehow, and I didn't much care because I've been dating a super awesome girl. I may start writing four times a month again..or maybe once a month... or maybe not at all.

When we think about people in prison and maybe try to put ourselves in their shoes for a moment, we shutter at the thought of being so confined. Our freedom means so much to us in this country. If we don't get what is coming to us or if our rights are taken, there will be hell to pay. Racial tension exists in this country because there was a time when people of a certain ethnicity were enslaved. Modern America wonders how we could have allowed such an atrocity on our soil because taking away someone's rights in this country is a mortal offense.

So why do we willingly enslave ourselves to sin?

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

We'll die for our right to free speech, but completely wave our freedom to live an abundant life. Rest is knocking on our door, but we don't want rest, we want sleepless nights. We want death and depression because receiving help from God to become righteous is out of the question.

²²Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' ²³Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

People have this picture of Christianity as something you do right. You practice at it and get good at being a Christian. I think that's all wrong. There's a saying in the business world (not that I know anything about the business world) "It's not what you can do, it's who you know." Maybe that saying is true spiritually. If you know Christ, then you are being saved no matter what you are good at or bad at. A holy life is the natural result of that knowledge. No guilt-trip is necessary because the Holy Spirit convicts.

All of this random thinking spawned from a question I posed to myself recently: how can a Christian in prison have anything to be joyful about?

The answer? He has everything to be joyful about because the only real prisoners are those that continually let their desires rule them by sinning. When you put Jesus on that throne, you are free from the torture of a selfish life. And it is torture to only care about yourself.