freedom {n}

He is man that has major tatoos on his arm and wears black. He has red splotches in his black hair reminding you of flames. He has metal in his ears and has a rocker feel to him. His looks don't bother me but when his mouth goes off, you cringe. He seeks out your weakness and exploits it to get inside your head and throw you off your game. He claims to be an atheist yet he seems to know the Bible forwards and backwards. If he sences your weakness is your faith, watch out because he slices you to the bone and there you lay flayed with no structure to hold your ground. I sat there in horror as I watched him skin his victim. I in the safety of my covers began to talk back. How would I deal with such mental gymnastics? Could I hold my temper? Could I be quiet and soft but with a way about me that kept him safe yet put him back a few paces? Could I be a light that was soft and tempered like a candle? Could I be the salt that flavored the pot? If you can get around his verbage, you can see soft moments in him. Sometimes he goes to his victim and asks if he can talk. I think he smart and has feelings. I think he can really get a person. Pretty sure there is a wall of some sort holding back the truth of who he is. I have yet to see someone respond in a gentle but firm way to expose him in a safe place. Instead he gets curse words and religious verbage slung at him; he goes off smugly because he just proved another 'fanatic' is the same as him and no better. He's right again...

If only in the heat of tirade, you could stop the film and see what he brings to the table and work with that. Don't change him but be free to fill the cracks with love. Don't react! If he gets a response from you that is soft, smart, asking, just maybe he would be speechless and actually see the Jesus instead of hearing religious-words-without-deed thrown at him...

A believer has to be very deciplined with their speech and their love. The only way to have decipline is to keep your eye in the Word and actually do what God has requested of us. Our speech meaning the choice of our words and the tone we put behind it needs to embrace honor. How else is our very being going to reflect God's Glory? Nooooooo, we get defensive and abrasive, devouring others as well as ourselves...

Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:15-18

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. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Galatians 5:13-16

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:23-25

Through out the NT there are many references to freedom. It hit me last night and again this morning. What is freedom? Will it change how I conduct my life?

free from what?
* Free from anger!
* Free from old ways
* Free from sin
* Free from death
* Free from desires
* Free from fear
* Free from rejection

What really got me was that I wrote down that I am free from anger. The surprise for me is that when someone comes at me with their loud voices and their accusations, I am free from that. I do not need to react. I do not need to have a whole body melt down. I do not need to start kicking myself or fight back. I do need to cut with my tongue. So what am I free to do?

free to what?
* Free to love
* Free to be kind
* Free to be impartial
* Free to learn without rejection
* Free to try without fear
* Free to become my purpose

I am free to refuel in God's Word when I feel the pressure of anger. I can love the angry person by being tenacious in my kindness realizing what they are bringing to the table. I can defuse them by knowing I am free and giving them back their dignity and a bit of control. I don't need their approval or disapproval. Ultimate Control is in God's Hands. My control is being soft.

Again having the picture of the table for me is very helpful. I know there could be underhanded things going on under the table, but all I have to work with is what they bring to the table and my own God-Given Bounty...

Free from the chains of anger and free to actively lavish love...