Romans 12
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Yah, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Yah, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Yah.
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as Yah hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
THE BURDEN OF FREEDOM
It is a fact no one can deny-today freedom stands unchallenged as the supreme goal and value of the Western world. Scholars and philosophers have investigated and debated it endlessly; it is the catchword of every politician, the secular gospel of our economic free-enterprise system and the foundation of all our cultural activities. Freedom is the one value for which many people, by their words and actions, often seem prepared to die. During the era of the Cold War, leaders of the West divided the world into two regional camps-the free world and the unfree world-and were willing to fight a nuclear war to defend this sacred ideal.
For many years now I have traveled throughout the world as a conference speaker, seminar teacher, university lecturer, government consultant, pastoral counselor, motivational speaker and trainer for many organizations. Whether it was in Africa, South America, Asia, North America or the Caribbean, it was amazing to discover that people are all the same. In the poorest village of Brazil or the wealthiest country clubhouse of the aristocracy, every human heart cries and yearns for the same thing: a chance to fulfill his or her dreams and desires. Even the poorest man has a dream. All humans possess the same desire-to be free to pursue the vision and dream in their heart.
However, for most of the over six billion people on Planet Earth, this dream will end in a hopeless nightmare, not because of their lack of desire or willingness to see their dream become reality, but because of man-made circumstances and self- imposed limitations that gravitate againstthis desire and prevent the discovery, release and maximization of their potential. The human spirit was endowed by its Creator with the need to be free to pursue its purpose and to experience the fulfillment that comes with maximizing its potential. Freedom is the pursuit of the human spirit.
The word freedom has become common, overused and abused, like the word love, but little understood. Much of what we call freedom is but a corruption of our desire to have license to live without laws and accountability. The echoes of the cry for freedom are heard throughout the halls of history as individuals, generations, communities and nations seek to throw off what they perceive as restrictive yokes and burdens of oppression.
Throughout history the accounts of peoples and nations fighting and paying the ultimate price for this illusive quality give evidence of its value to the human experience. Millions have died in wars, civil unrest, uprisings and rebellions in pursuit of its promise. More human life has been sacrificed in the name of freedom than any other passion. The French Revolution was born out of the desire to throw off the yoke of monarchal oppression. The Russian Revolution was ignited by the same spark. The breaking away and formation of the Republic of the United States was fueled by the hope for freedom. The death-wish commitment of notable men like Mahatma Gandhi to see the great nation of India throw off the yoke of colonialism was propelled by the cry for freedom to determine one's own destiny. The great Civil Rights Movement of our generation, inspired by the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., was also conceived in the womb of the desire for freedom.
Even now after entering the twenty-first century, the struggle for individual, community and national freedom continues. However, despite thousands of years of human effort to achieve an enduring and stable state of freedom,most of humanity finds itself still enslaved to bondages that hold it back and suffocates personal and national dreams. The flower children and hippies of the sixties demanded their brand of freedom, and became prisoners of the drug culture and slaves to materialism. These baby boomers produced a generation of children after their kind who fell prey to a more diabolical drug web, which strangles the life out of their purpose for life.
We now enter the age of computer technology with its promises of freedom of communication, information advancement, increased productivity and cyberspace travel over the Internet. This explosion of technological progress has rendered the twenty-first-century technocrat an overburdened fish caught in the worldwide web of confusion in an ocean of excessive information. Oh, to be free!
Why is freedom so difficult to achieve? Why does international freedom evade our experience? Why does the scientific advancement and progressive technology of our world produce more bondages than freedom? Why do we become prisoners of our own inventions and victims of our modern products? Could it be that we have misunderstood the principle of freedom? Could it be that we have confused freedom with something else?
After over forty years of study and exploration of the complex nature of human development, helping countless thousands to learn the principles and skills to improve their lives, I have come to the conclusion that the greatest pursuit in the human heart is the pursuit of freedom. The human heart has a passion to fulfill a meaningful purpose-but only a few find it.
Everyone cries for freedom and desires to be free. However, most of us who cry for freedom do not understand freedom, or the nature of liberty. It is a tragic reality that we do not understand the qualifications of true freedom. True freedom demands great responsibility, accountability, a spirit of stewardship, maturity, wisdom and character.
This teaching series examines why freedom has become the most powerful value for mankind and why we have such an extraordinary commitment to it. Freedom is a natural concept that is foreign to most human spirits. For most of human history, and for most of the non-Western world, freedom has not been considered a value worthy of consideration or a desirable goal. Other values were and, in some cases, still are more important than freedom-values such as the pursuit of power, glory, honor, nationalism, imperial grandeur, militarism and valor in warfare, hedonism, material progress, altruism-and the list continues. But in most of these cultures, freedom was never included as a value.
In fact, most human languages did not possess a word for the concept of freedom before contact with the Western world. Japan is typical. The current Japanese word for freedom was only introduced during the nineteenth century when the country opened to the West.
Freedom is the central theme and value of the Hebrew walk. Being redeemed and set free from sin, bondage and fear is the goal of the Hebrew Walk.
In this teaching series, the basic perspective and argument is that freedom was generated from the experience of slavery. This includes all forms of slavery and oppression. Freedom became a principal value in human experience as a powerful, shared vision of life-a response to and result of the human experience of slavery. This oppressive spirit of slavery manifested itself in other forms such as serfdom and the roles of masters, slaves and nonslaves. In fact, slavery did not produce freedom, but rather awakened this sleeping characteristic of human nature.
The basic premise of this teaching series is that freedom is more difficult than slavery because it demands more of us than oppression demands. We will explore the definition and misconception of freedom, and examine the nature and effects of oppression. This work addresses the concept of freedom and its implications for the individual, the community, the state and the nation. This subject will be addressed using the biblical model of the Hebrew exodus and theIsraelites' transitional development from slaves throughout the creation of a sovereign free nation under the leadership of Moses and Joshua. We will discover that there is no greater burden than freedom, no heavier load than liberty. We will understand why personal freedom and national freedom are so difficult to achieve, and why oppression is so attractive. We will come to conclude that freedom, like love and beauty, is one of those values better experienced than defined. Join me on a journey to freedom.
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