{"id":5945,"date":"2022-07-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5945"},"modified":"2022-05-03T20:47:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T01:47:31","slug":"freedom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5945","title":{"rendered":"Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It Is Good to Be Thankful: Appreciation makes the world a better place\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having done a little travel, I really appreciate certain freedoms we enjoy in this country. Yes, we have major problems, but at least we can speak freely, worship where we choose, own a home, believe what we want, assemble, move from place to place, get an education, have a trial in a court, marry whom we choose, wear what we want, start a business, and chew gum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we aren\u2019t free to do whatever we want. Freedom shouldn\u2019t give us license to deliberately hurt others. It can\u2019t be used to abuse others, commit murder, steal, or rape. So we have some laws in place to protect our freedoms. We are free to drive a car and although we hate getting speeding tickets, we sort of like having those speed limits, traffic lights, and stop signs\u2014especially for others. We may trust ourselves not to misuse our freedom, but we aren\u2019t so sure about the other guy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also thankful for the freedom we have in Christ. Paul admonishes us to \u201cstand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free\u2026\u201d (Galatians 5:1). God no longer wants us to adhere to a long list of requirements to draw close to Him. There is no need for circumcision or being slaves to ordinances, sacrifices, and rituals. Righteousness is no longer measured by a list of dos and don\u2019ts. Lists like that provided a certain comfort level because just following them made one feel assured of pleasing God. No one had to think about what was right or wrong. They just looked at a list. That was the old covenant\u2014a physical approach to a physical law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new covenant is a spiritual approach. We have access to God directly. There is no need to jump through hoops to get His attention. He walks with us and talks with us. However, even though Paul reminds us to stand fast in this freedom, we are cautioned to use it wisely\u2014the way God intended (Galatians 5:13-15). We are told not to pursue works of the flesh such as \u201cadultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, etc\u2026.\u201d Rather we are encouraged to walk in the spirit of \u201cjoy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,\u201d and so on. (Galatians 5:19-22)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any kind of freedom is a special gift. How we use it is up to us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt is go<\/em>od thing to give thanks unto the Lord…\u201d ~ Psalms 92:1 (KJV)<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It Is Good to Be Thankful: Appreciation makes the world a better place\u2026 Having done a little travel, I really appreciate certain freedoms we enjoy in this country. Yes, we have major problems, but at least we can speak freely, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}