Freedom Isn't Free - Guest Post by Jim Fontaine

“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5: 13)

     On Independence Day, we always celebrate the freedom that came hundreds of years ago to this country. Freedom was bought through the blood and sacrifices of many…and we owe those brave men and women a great debt of thanks. It is a reminder that freedom is not free, either for the one who buys it or the one who receives it.

     The same is true of the freedom Jesus bought for us 2000 years ago on Mount Calvary. The freedom Christians enjoy came at a very great cost since Jesus gave His life to make us free from sin. Through accepting the Name of Jesus in faith and receiving what He did on the Cross for our salvation, we have eternal life, full and free. Our behavior, therefore, should always reflect who we are, not who we were. Our behavior should reflect how grateful we are to God for His precious and undeserved gift.

     But, there are many who abuse their freedom as Christians, claiming that the freedom they have in Christ now allows them to live any way they want, even if that means living in sin, living the same way as they did before they were saved. They say things like, “I believe in Jesus! And since I do, I can live however I want because He’ll forgive me of all my sins!” The problem with that kind of thinking is that Jesus calls us to be more like Him (Romans 8: 29); to become holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1: 16); to put on the new self, which has been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 24).

     How can we say we are Christ-like when we are living in sin? Is that the kind of freedom Jesus has called us to? Can Christians sin as much as they want now that their sins are all covered by the blood of Jesus? The answer is an emphatic NO! Yes, we are called to be free! But, we are also called to be more Christ-like every day. We are not to live in sin anymore. Freedom in Christ is NOT the freedom to do what we want when we want; it is the freedom to do what God wants and to please Him because we love Him.

     After the evacuation of troops from Richmond, Virginia on April 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln walked the streets of the city with his son Tad. Former slaves gathered to meet the President, thanking the man who had set them free. President Lincoln stopped at one point to address former slaves. In his book, Life of Abraham Lincoln, author Clifton Nichols wrote down the President’s challenge:

“My poor friends, you are free – as free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it; it will come to you no more. Liberty is your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave it to others, and it is a sin that you have been deprived of it for so many years. But you must try to deserve this priceless boon. Let the world see that you merit it, and are able to maintain it by your good works. Don’t let your joy carry you into excesses; learn the laws, and obey them. Obey God’s commandments, and thank him for giving you liberty, for to him you owe all things.” [1]

Much of what Lincoln said to former slaves, Paul said to the Galatians and to us. If you have professed faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, you ARE free! God has given it to you as a precious, undeserved gift of His grace. Freedom is your Christian birthright!

     But do not use or abuse your freedom in Christ by continuing to live in sin. Do not dishonor the Savior who died for your sins by thinking that it is OK to sin. Freedom in Christ is NOT freedom to sin. Instead, show that you are free in Christ by living the way God wants us to live, in obedience to His commands; by loving and serving one another in the body of Christ; by loving and serving our neighbors as an outflow of the love of God that is in our hearts. Contrary to what the world would tell us, freedom is not the ability to do what you want, when you want to do it. Freedom in Christ is a gift from God…and there are boundaries to that freedom. Let us always glorify the Savior who freed us by living lives that truly honor the sacrifice He made on our behalf.

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[1] Clifton Melvin Nichols, Life of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, OH: Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1896), page 232.

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Jim Fontaine became the pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Brimfield, MA in July 2016 after completing a 13-year pastorate at Burncoat Baptist Church in Worcester, MA. Jim has been married to his wife, Paula, for 24 years and has four children.

Why Should We Join A Church?

Hebrews 10:25 - "Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

A few weeks I wrote a post asking if church membership really matters. You can read that post here. I was surprised how many people shared it and commented on it through social media. The post talked about churches that have a lot of names on their membership rolls of people who no longer attend and the reluctance to remove those names because it makes the church sound "bigger" than it really is.

In this post I want to touch on the same subject, but from a different perspective. In my previous post I focused on the perspective of the church who had all those extra names. Now I want to focus on the individuals who have their names on the rolls of churches they no longer attend. Here is a challenging question, why did we join a particular church to begin with? Was it to please our parents or grandparents? Was it because other young people our age were going through the confirmation/membership process and we just followed the crowd? Were we looking for new friends? Were we looking for business connections that a faith community might offer? Were we looking for a place to have a wedding, funeral or other family experience? None of those reasons are necessarily wrong. But they are probably not the purest motivations for joining a church. When we join churches for these reasons, we are seldom as loyal, committed, and involved as we should be. Joining a church for the wrong motivation often results in an attitude of what can we get from the church instead of what we can contribute to it. We might find ourselves gone for weeks, or months, at a time until a need comes up in our lives that the church might meet.  This is not healthy for us, nor is it healthy for the church.

So why should we join a church? The main reason to join a church is because we agree with their mission and purpose and we want to help move that mission and purpose forward. That does not mean we have to agree with everything in the church, but it does mean that we support the overall direction the church is moving in. It also means we need to do our part to help the church fulfill that mission and purpose. A church filled with people who have this type of motivation will be a healthy church and one that is making a real difference in the community.

Sadly, too many of us want all the benefits of having a church be there for us when we need it, but too few of us are willing to do the work to keep the church healthy between our times of need. That is not realistic. Though churches may be able to eek out some way to survive under those conditions, those churches will not be healthy or making the impact in their community they could be making. 

If we are going to join a church, we must be willing to rearrange our schedule so we are present more than we are absent. We must be willing to rearrange our budget so our financial contributions are enough to actually make a difference. We must be willing to rearrange our leisure time so we can volunteer. This is what it takes to make a church healthy. Yes, it is a big commitment. It is that very commitment that keeps many people from joining a church. But the challenging question we must ask ourselves is, why should we expect other people to do all the work to keep the church there for us so we can just pop in from time to time, enjoy the service, and then disappear for another 3 months? We need to be givers, not takers. We need to be contributors, not users. 

If we have found a church whose mission and purpose we agree with, then we should go through whatever process is required to become members. Then instead of just being a name on a roll, let's be the best members we can be. If we have not yet found such a church, then keep looking because when we find a healthy church and join it, it is a powerful experience worth all the adjustments in time, giving and volunteering.

Lord, help us find a great church and make a genuine commitment to it. Amen.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England. He has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Our Schedules Can Be An Idol

Ephesians 5:15-16 "Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil."

Time is perhaps our most precious commodity. For a growing number of people time is actually more precious than money. Many of us fill our days running here and there trying to keep up with our overcrowded calendars. Sometimes I wonder if Americans have made an idol of being busy. We tend to think that the busier we are, the more important we are. We often equate activity with productivity. Too many people have come to believe that their level of activity equals their level of value. Christians are as guilty of this as our non-believing friends.

I think it is a mistake to equate our schedules with our self-importance, our productivity, or our value. Sometimes we are busy doing all the wrong things. Sometimes our activity actually accomplishes very little because we approach it in such a disorganized way. We should most definitely not equate our level of activity with our value as a person, because our value comes not from how busy we are, but in the fact that we are created in God’s image, and that Christ died for us to be reconciled to God.

This does not mean that we should throw out our calendars and become couch potatoes. What it means is that we should evaluate our schedules and determine if there are things we can cut out to make our lives less busy so we can focus on the things that matter most. It means we must evaluate how our schedules are impacting the things that matter most, such as our spiritual walk with God, our family health, and our overall personal happiness. At some point we must ask ourselves if the things that fill our schedules really have meaning to us or did we just sign up for them because everyone else did. Do those activities really add value to our lives or are they merely attempts to convince ourselves that we are important? We may not like all the answers we come up with when we ask ourselves these questions, but in the end, the result will be a less hectic life that is full of value, meaning and purpose.

For those of us who are Christians, we should determine that before we add one more thing to our schedules, we should take time to ask if that activity fits God’s plan for our lives. Will that activity draw us closer to Christ or push us farther away?

I recall a young family in one church I served as pastor. The wife was a Sunday School teacher. At the time the husband was not a believer though he did come to church fairly often. As their children got older, the children became involved in a variety of extra-curricular activities. The mother volunteered for a lot of extra activities at the school where the children attended. She also volunteered for leadership positions in two community groups. None of these various activities were bad. In fact, some were quite healthy and it was good for their family to be involved in them. But as they continued to add things to their calendar, their schedule got so full that the family’s church attendance went from almost every week to about once every 6-8 weeks. At the end of the Sunday School year the mother gave up her Sunday School class because she was just “too busy to do everything.” I vividly recall her husband’s comment after she resigned. He said, “I think she is giving up the wrong thing!” I found his comment quite insightful since he was not yet a believer at that point in his life. Clearly something needed to be eliminated from her calendar, but it should not have been her service to the Lord. That family eventually dropped out of church altogether and is no longer active in the life of any church. Overcrowded schedules pulled them away from their faith, and did little to enhance their family bonding. All it did was overstress them. Sadly, I see it happening more and more in the typical American Christian family.

We must decide what is important to us. Then we must allocate time, our most precious commodity, to reflect our values. If we fail to do this, we will find ourselves busier than ever but with little or nothing to show for it.

Lord, help us evaluate our schedules and make adjustments that are healthy for our spiritual walk and our family life. Amen.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention ofNew England. He has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

The Right Ingredients for Life

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (HCSB)

I will be the first to admit that I am not a very good cook.  It is not for lack of trying. My kids often remind me of some of my efforts to create culinary sensations. Perhaps my most disastrous meal was an ill-fated attempt to make au gratin potatoes. The recipe called for milk. We did not have any milk in the refrigerator, but I saw a can of sweetened condensed milk in the cabinet and decided to use that instead. In my naiveté, I wrongly assumed any milk would work. As you can imagine, it did not turn out so well. Imagine candy flavored cheesy potatoes! Yes, it tasted as bad as it sounds! I think my kids only ate one bite. My brave sons might have managed to get two bites down. But the whole family realized pretty quickly that it was not a combination of flavors that we were going to be able to consume. The whole concoction ended up in the trash. And my kids have never let me forget it!

While that was definitely my worst culinary disaster, there were many more. I guess I am a bit thick headed and have to learn the hard way. In retrospect, almost all of my cooking disasters were because I was missing one or two ingredients for some recipe I was trying. Instead of going to the store and getting what I really needed, I would either leave those ingredients out completely or substitute something that I thought would taste the same, but it never did.

Though I have never really learned how to cook well, along the way I did learn an important life lesson. We need the right ingredients for a meaningful life. When we leave something important out, or when we try to substitute something else for what we really need, life just never works out like we had hoped.

God’s Word has given us a recipe for living a meaningful and fulfilling life. As we study it and apply it to our daily lives, it gives flavor and meaning to our relationships, our activities, our goals and our dreams. But when we start ignoring things we read in the Bible or when we try to substitute something in the place of what God’s Word tells us, it always ends up in a mess. How many times do we have to make the same mistakes over and over and over again before we start following the recipe of life that God has given us?

As we start this new year, perhaps it is time to make a commitment to get back into God’s Word and return to living by the principles found in it. Those ingredients will make a great life.

Lord, help us find fulfillment in following Your Word in our lives instead of substituting the things of this world. Amen.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England. He has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY