Freedom!

I love being a teacher! Almost every time I open God’s Word to teach students I receive much more than I could possibly give. This week as I prepared for my 2 talks that I would present Sunday I was struck by the similarities in theme. The irony is that they did not come from the same text and at face value, have little to do with each other.

The AM lesson was from the all-too-familiar passage in Luke 15 where Jesus gives the parable of the lost son. We looked at the response of the father. It was really a study of forgiveness. We talked about the freedom that is found when we are willing to let go of past hurts (even legitimate ones).

The PM lesson was on a completely different track. We have been working our way through some of the classical spiritual disciplines of the faith. Tonight was a discussion of the discipline of simplicity. Learning to simplify our lives for the purpose of having a singular focus on the Kingdom of God. Our main thought came from Kierkegaard’s book entitled Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing. We learned to cut away superfluous (even sometimes good) things for the sake of focusing on what Jesus says ought to be the main thing… the Kingdom.

In both lessons I heard freedom. Freedom from anger and bitterness in the morning. And freedom from things that distract me from Christ in the evening. Lord, help me to live free!