This series of articles shouldn’t be taken as exploring anywhere near all the aspects of freedom found in the Bible. Instead I hope they’ll encourage and inform you and motivate you to do some study on your own. The topic of freedom in the Bible is vast, and more meaningful than most give it credit for – hence my little effort here to raise our awareness of it.

I want to spend a little time looking at what some of the Prophets said about freedom before moving into the New Testament and exploring some of the vast riches of freedom we find there.

This is what God the LORD says– he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:5-7 (NIV)

I could spend three or four posts in Isaiah alone! What a marvelous book full of all kinds of spiritual riches! And when it comes to freedom, Isaiah overflows with all kinds of information, encouragement and predictions about it.

Here Isaiah starts out by reminding us again that all true freedom is linked to, and flows from, God. Yes, I keep repeating that point, because as a nation and a culture we are repeatedly trying to forget or deny it! But our Founding Fathers knew this to be true, and they drew that knowledge either directly or indirectly from the Bible.

It is God who wants to useIsrael– and by extension through the New Covenant we have in Christ you and I – to bring freedom to the captives. If you try and take God out of the picture you end up only with oppression and tyranny masquerading as freedom.

If you want a nice picture of that you don’t need to remember the Nazi’s or the Soviet Union, try looking at the average American College campus today! Political Correctness reigns supreme over most college and universities. The Keepers of Correctness rule from their high ivory towers, supreme in the knowledge that there is no God (or as they would write it g-d), confident that only their superior knowledge is capable of instructing their mindless students and the vast herd of deprived folk living in “fly over country.”

Most (but thank God not all!) of higher education today is a vast wasteland of PC, where no freedom of speech exists at all! You cannot say anything that is deemed offensive – and you’d better keep up as well – because the g-ds of Correctness can change their minds, or even add to the list at any time!

Everyday is a pop quiz, waiting eagerly to see if anything new has been handed down from the Golden Age of Greece, or where ever it is that these people draw their wisdom from!

Contrast the fear and loathing that exists there with the true freedom found in Christ. Here we aren’t looking around trying to make sure no one slips up or dare offend anyone! Instead as Isaiah says, we are reaching out to the oppressed and trying to free them from their captivity – whatever kind of captivity they may find themselves in.

So what are you being held captive by today?  As you struggle with it (and we all are involved with this struggle in one way or another) remember that freedom is part of your heritage as a Disciple of Jesus! May God bless us and help us to claim that freedom.

One of the ways that we often “promote” (evangelize, sell?) the Christian faith is to tell people that when they follow Jesus they are going to have a deep sense of peace. Of course there are many Scripture verses we can quote at that point.

I believe there’s just one problem with that approach, it’s almost always completely misunderstood.

Sure the Bible says that Jesus gives us peace, His peace, a peace that is beyond human understanding. But when we tell people God will give them peace, all too often what they hear us saying is that God will make us comfortable! And it’s not just non-Christians who buy into that either. How many times have you heard a Christian say something like this: “Well I don’t think God wants me to do that because it makes me uncomfortable (or unhappy)?  How many times have you said or thought that yourself?

The truth is being a Disciple of Jesus is all about being uncomfortable, and at times very uncomfortable!  The only way we grow is being stretched out of our comfort zones, pushed to face our fears and hang-ups. And that’s anything but comfortable!

True Biblical peace and comfort have very little if anything to do with one another. Peace isn’t comfort, peace doesn’t always make you comfortable, and being about people who are filled with the peace of Christ can be very uncomfortable because they tend to be so darn challenging all the time!

If you find yourself in a very comfortable spot in your spiritual journey today here’s my advice to you: enjoy it while it lasts, because God will shake things up for you, and will probably do so very soon!

That may not sell well, or fit into many of our evangelism plans, but it’s true, and in the end that’s all that matters anyway.