Jan 27, 2021 … Freedom In Christ

Berry Patch Devotions in 2020 - Day 27 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...   Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from the group Jesus Culture singing … Freedom …  powerfully singing how we are freed from the shackles of the past in our relationship with Christ.  

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Highlight Passage:   John 8:36 [ESV] ... 

36 … So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.   

… Jesus declares the freedom His real disciples will experience by following Him.            

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …  John 8:31-36 [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus helps His followers understand that surrendering to follow Him as their Messiah would free them from their past sin shackles. 

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Reference Passage: … Romans 8:1-2   [ESV] ... 

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  

…  Paul taught fellow Christians that in Christ we are set free from sin and death.  

Reference Passage: … 2Corinthians 5:17   [ESV] ... 

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

…  All things become new in Christ and we become free of past hurts and hangups.  

Reference Passage: … Galatians 5:1   [ESV] ... 

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.   

…  Once we are free from our past sins in Christ we must stand against that yoke of slavery to sin for our future. 

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Patricia Raybon, AT THIS LINK tells of  journalist, John McCarthy, who was held hostage in Lebanon for five years and his gratitude for what a U.N. envoy did, … risking his own freedom, … to help McCarthy be set free.   

And the ODB author compares the gratitude that McCarthy had for being set free with how grateful we, as Christians, should be for what our Lord did on the cross to secure our freedom from the shackles of sin, shame, and even death. And oh, how grateful yours truly is in that regard. 

For 35 years of my life, I was a captive to the enemy’s temptations and his lies and my own flesh, … shackled to habitual - even addictive - sexual sin.  But when I was able to seek, find, and surrender to follow Christ, He set me free from my past chains to sin (see photo) as I chose to serve Him rather than myself.  

And I pray that all reading here with me have been set free as depicted in the attached photo, … by the truths of the Scriptures above, … and by what is sung in the linked song.  And in that freedom, I pray we all use the empowering grace provided by our Lord to shackle ourselves to Him and to serve Him today … and tomorrow. 

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for setting me free from myself. 

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray that all reading here will join me, … to walk in freedom from ourselves today by choosing to be a slave to our Savior.   … Amen

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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.