You Have To Serve Someone or Something....(1 Cor. 6:19-20)!

To be a Christ follower is to be a slave, not to your own desires and lusts, but to the Lord Jesus Christ! The basis for experiencing the joy of the Lord is to understand and embrace Jesus as your owner and master, who reserves the right to command how you should live, how you should spend your money and time, and even how you are to think! Your whole way of life should be focused on bringing pleasure to Him and doing His will as His slave! In his article (Philippians, An Expositional Commentary, pg 21) James Boice brings to our attention, that in antiquity, there were three ways a person could become a slave: by conquest; by birth; or, by reason of debt. He goes on to say that we all are slaves of sin by these same causes. Sin has conquered us, so that we're not free to do what we know is right. We're born with a sin nature that's hostile toward God and bent toward pleasing self. We also are sinners by debt, having "run up" an unpayable debt toward God who tells us the wages of our sin is death! However, many folks are not even aware of their position as slaves to sin! They are not aware of the gigantic debt they have "run up" before the righteous and holy God. Actually, they're like the Jews who contended with the Lord that they had never been enslaved to anyone (John 8:33). But, notice the words of Jesus, "Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.....If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:34,36)! Only the Lord Jesus, by His substitutionary death, can set us free from the hard control of sin! He does so only when we recognize our need and call out to Him for deliverance. Then, having been freed from sin by simple trust in Jesus, we become enslaved to the Lord God and begin to grow in godliness! Praise God forevermore! I don't know about you, but that brings to my heart joy and contentment! I'm totally satisfied with this arrangement! Many call themselves Christ followers, but the truth is, they live every day for themselves. There's no contentment in that arrangement! Let's understand and embrace this truth. You'll be so glad that you did! There's no joy like that which comes from pleasing the Father God! Your move. Be encouraged!