Keeping Our Eyes on the Banner of Freedom
When the Americans first occupied Manila, many prisoners that had been imprisoned for "political offenses" were set free. One of these crimes, according to the Spanish government, which then ruled the Philippines, was reading the Bible. One day a man came to famed Christian missionary Dr. Homer Stuntz, and asked to see him in strict privacy. He then asked in a whisper if it were true that he could now read his Bible without danger of imprisonment. Dr. Stuntz took him to the door and asked him to look at the American flag floating near by. Then he said, "So long as you see that flag floating over your country, you can sit on the ridgepole of your house, if you want to, and read the Bible, and no one can molest you."
Surely the American flag -- the banner of our freedom -- can offer one measure of assurance. Yet there is an infinitely (and eternally) greater banner under which we can claim not just our freedom, but our boldness to excercise such freedom, and that is the Cross of Christ. It is the symbol of our freedom from the bondage of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And it is likewise the symbol of our calling to boldly persist against pressure, persecution, and even penalty.
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1, NIV).
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, NIV).
Man Sues Hospital After He Didn't Die
In 2005, a man named John Brandick went to the doctor with troubling symptoms. The hospital performed some tests, told him he had terminal pancreatic cancer and only one year to live. When Mr. Brandick heard this news, he decided it was time to live the good life. He quit his job. He sold his home. His sold his car and most of his clothing. He started spending his life savings. He traveled. He ate at expensive restaurants. He splurged.
About a year later, around the time he was supposed to die, he went back to the hospital to find out why he was doing so well. It turned out, he didn’t have cancer after all. He merely had an inflammation of the pancreas. He was not dying. He was going to live!
Think for a moment how you would respond if you thought you were going to die of cancer and then found out you were cancer free! Mr. Brandick’s response? He sued the hospital for misdiagnosing him!
Instead of suing the hospital, perhaps Mr. Brandick should have been thankful for a year of living his life to the fullest. How many of us ever really do that? It is interesting that it took facing a death sentence before John Brandick really began to live.
What is holding you back from living your life to the full? Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Have you experienced what Jesus promised you? If not, why not? Perhaps the answer is found where He also said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25).
In other words, the key to real life, abundant life, is death. Death by way of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Just as Mr. Brandick only began to really live be embracing his own death, so we find our lives by losing them.
Ironically, the meaning and purpose for which we were created can only be experienced in death.
Illustration Exchange
The Perfect Crime
Jacob Baynham,with VICE Guided Tours, writes:
The blood is still drying on Clay McCann's hands when he walks into a remote ranger station, slides a warm gun across the desk, and informs the ranger that he's just killed four campers.
"Do you want me to call a lawyer?" the alarmed ranger asks.
"I am a lawyer," McCann says.
So begins C. J. Box's 2007 thriller Free Fire, the seventh in a book series about a Wyoming game warden. The novel's plot spins on the premise that in an uninhabited, 50-square-mile portion of Yellowstone National Park, you can legally get away with murder.
The book's premise originates from a 14-page article called "The Perfect Crime" by Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt. The article describes a judicial no-man's land in the Idaho part of Yellowstone, where a person can commit a crime and get off scot-free due to sloppy jurisdictional boundaries.
... "I write about mystery, suspense, and crime, so the idea of a perfect crime anywhere, and especially in my neighborhood, was just really intriguing," Box told me over the phone.
His novel, Free Fire, made the New York Times extended best-seller list and continues to be popular.
The perfect crime seems a strange thing to call a violation of the law just because the perpetrator happens to find a loophole. The loophole might be perfect, but the crime? The only way to perfect a crime is to pay the penalty associated with it. Of course, in Jesus we find both. In HIm our crimes paid in full, having been nailed to the cross of Christ.
Thus, we find the loophole to end all loopholes, not in the Idaho part of Yellowstone, but before the Throne of Grace. It is the ultimate judicial no-man's land, where even those who are guilty of breaking the very laws of God can be released of responsibility. Not due to sloppy jurisdictional boundaries but due to the precious blood of Christ.
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).