Free From To Be Free For

I was walking into the office today to get my third cup of coffee because for some reason, I was totally dead. Usually after being at work for a lil bit I’m good, but today was different. As I walked with my empty Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mug toward the coffee pot, I head a very familiar tune. “Nothing but the blood of Jesus” There was a lil ‘ol lady sitting at the receptionist desk proof reading the bulletin for this sunday and just singing her heart out (at a low volume). She didn’t care what people thought, she was just living out the love she has for God. It made me smile :)

In his book, Seizing Your Devine Moment, Edwin McManus talks about living a life totally sold out to God:

“We have put so much emphasis on avoiding evil that we have become virtually blind to the endless opportunities for doing good. we have defined holiness through what we separate ourselves from rather than what we give ourselves to. I am convinced the great tragedy is not the sins that we commit, but the life that we fail to live. You cannot follow God in neutral.” He goes on to say “God created you to do good. And doing this requires initiative. There is a subtle danger of hiding apathy behind piety.”

BAM! What a shot in the mouth! It makes you think how concentrated we are on not screwing up when instead we should just be so sold out to the mission of Christ that the other stuff doesn’t matter and isn’t an issue! This lady wasn’t concerned with what people thought because she was sold out to the way of Christ! 

So many times  our fear restrains us. I am the chief of all sinners and allow my fear to take control way to much! I suppress my yearn and desire to be the hands and feet of Christ and let my fear take over. I let it say “A fool you will be made” and “A failure you will be for success you will reach not!” Yes, my fear speaks to me like Yoda. I expressed this to my mentor and you know what he said? “In order to lead, we must be free from to be free for.” WHAT? Yea, he totally had to break this down for me.

To be free from - God has to be free from us, to be independent of us

To be free for - it is because of God’s independence of us that He can be free for us, free to love us, free to forgive us, to be merciful and gracious to us

I was still a lil lost so he put it in Jeff terms. Here is what he said:

“Jeff, you are a worship leader. How can you lead people in worship if you depend on the approval of the people you lead?” You must be free from the people you lead, see the approval of the audience of One by doing your very best with a pure heart. By doing this, you are free for the people you lead and can lead them into a freedom giving relationship with our Creator.” Yea, I got it that time. 

So what does this all mean? Simply, it means I gotta focus on The Way of Christ. When I do that and let not my fear decide my actions and instead follow the desire of my heart, which is the renown of Jesus, than I am free from the world so I can be free for the world.