Celebrate Freedom

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Romans 6:15-23 (NIV)
Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Today's message reminds me of the days when I was still deeply ensnared in the tangle of sin on a daily basis. Being angry with people, gossiping, speaking ill, stealing, gambling, sexual impurity, putting on a false front, being lazy, gluttony, the list goes on.

I wasn't born a pure person. Even if I am, the world around me would have made me impure anyway. Thinking back to days without God was a total mess. I was caught up in an endless swirl of sins, a maze that I don't wish to get out from. It's true that "when you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness"(v20).

Praise be unto the Lord who has freed me from my sins. I could have never gotten out if not for Your love, grace, mercy and patience. You saved my sinful life and now I gladly be a slave to righteousness, to allow You to lead me to holiness. You broke down my sins by showing me that nothing is too big that you cannot handle. You gave me strength and confidence to face myself, on a clean white slate.

Thank you Father. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Holy Spirit.