{"id":121,"date":"2010-08-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/2010\/08\/freeeeeedom.html"},"modified":"2011-05-14T12:14:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T16:14:53","slug":"freeeeeedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/08\/freeeeeedom.html","title":{"rendered":"Freeeeeedom!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft at-xid-6a014e87f1cb84970d01538dfeae06970b\" style=\"border: 0 none\" src=\"https:\/\/fearofwhales.typepad.com\/.a\/6a014e87f1cb84970d01538dfeae06970b-pi\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Braveheart\" width=\"465\" height=\"250\" \/>The lesson in church today was out of 1 Peter, and it began with a discussion question for the tables we were seated at &#8220;If you could be free from anything what would you want freedom from, What would that do?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>it was pretty clear where the pastor was headed bless his heart. We were all supposed to name silly things like freedom from weight gain, or<\/p>\n<p>punishment, or busyness, and then he was going to flip it on us and show that what we really need freedom from is our sin.<\/p>\n<p>Would you like some milk with that <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/2010\/08\/colostrum.html\">colostrum<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile we at the table were playing the small group game where we go in a circle and each say the same right answer in a different way so as not to make anyone feel like they already answered it because it\u2019s a stupid obvious question. &#8220;Temptation&#8221; ,no for me it&#8217;s &#8220;doubt&#8221; I&#8217;m saying &#8220;the flesh&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s actually something that&#8217;s really good here. I don&#8217;t know if it was by design or not, but this becomes really interesting when you leverage wish fulfillment.<\/p>\n<p>If you could choose, which would you rather have: Freedom from the responsibility to righteousness or freedom from sin nature?<\/p>\n<p>If God approached you and said \u201cTell ya what, I\u2019ll give you a free pass, You can love me while doing whatever the hell you want with no moral consequences, or if you\u2019d rather, I\u2019ll take away your old self so you won\u2019t be tempted anymore\u201d Which would you take?<\/p>\n<p>Obviously the correct church answer is the sin nature but would you really rather have that? I for one think a very strong case could be made for the freedom from righteousness!<\/p>\n<p>Knowing God, It\u2019s better to love him and serve him then rebel against the world the way he made it, obviously. But if he was willing to give you a let you off the hook, and say \u201cDon\u2019t you wish I made it this way?\u201d I might be tempted to say \u201cyes I do!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Put another way: If pleasing God was not an issue, would you rather live in sin or righteousness?<br \/>\nSin really has it\u2019s advantages!<\/p>\n<p>I still pick righteousness.<\/p>\n<p>I know, I\u2019m sorry I\u2019m landing with the right answer people. But I do really think that\u2019s better. That virtue is it\u2019s own reward if only I could get past this stinking flesh.<\/p>\n<p>I believe that it is a more extravagant gift to free me from what I want than to give me what I want.<br \/>\nDo you believe that?<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t just rightanswer me and say you believe that because you\u2019re supposed to, think about it for a sec, there\u2019s more here than meets the eye.<\/p>\n<p>You could have what you want, still worship God, still go to heaven, no guilt. Or you could die to the flesh. Do you want that?<\/p>\n<p>Ok now here\u2019s my next question. Do you think the world wants that?<br \/>\nI kind of think they do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lesson in church today was out of 1 Peter, and it began with a discussion question for the tables we were seated at &#8220;If you could be free from anything what would you want freedom from, What would that do?&#8221; it was pretty clear where the pastor was headed bless his heart. We were&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11,54],"tags":[224,222,225,223,226],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-culture","category-conversation-starters","category-theology","tag-free-for","tag-freedom","tag-freedom-to","tag-liberty","tag-righteousness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Freeeeeedom! - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/08\/freeeeeedom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freeeeeedom! - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The lesson in church today was out of 1 Peter, and it began with a discussion question for the tables we were seated at &#8220;If you could be free from anything what would you want freedom from, What would that do?&#8221; it was pretty clear where the pastor was headed bless his heart. We were&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/08\/freeeeeedom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-31T04:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-14T16:14:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/fearofwhales.typepad.com\/.a\/6a014e87f1cb84970d01538dfeae06970b-pi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rgaffney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Freeeeeedom! - A Fear of Whales","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/08\/freeeeeedom.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Freeeeeedom! - A Fear of Whales","og_description":"The lesson in church today was out of 1 Peter, and it began with a discussion question for the tables we were seated at &#8220;If you could be free from anything what would you want freedom from, What would that do?&#8221; it was pretty clear where the pastor was headed bless his heart. 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