Romans 5:8-10 Amplified Bible

⁸ But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the ^[a]wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved [from the consequences of sin] by His life [that is, we will be saved because Christ lives today].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

The lonely—widows, orphans, prisoners, homeless

Psalm 68:5-6 Amplified Bible

⁵ 
A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
⁶ 
God makes a home for the lonely;
He leads the prisoners into prosperity,
Only the stubborn and rebellious dwell in a parched land.

The lonely—widows, orphans, prisoners, the homeless—the sinner without Christ as their Savior, what can be done to ease their sense that no one cares?

Ultimately, God in his love is our dwelling place. As “a father to the fatherless,” he adopts us as his children. He defends the widow, cares for the orphans, sets the lonely in families, frees the prisoners, and puts a new song in their mouths.

When God led Israel through the desert wasteland of the Sinai Peninsula after freeing them from Egypt, he scattered their enemies and refreshed his weary people with manna from heaven and quail. And in his law he made special provisions for widows and orphans, for foreigners, visitors, all who were poor.

To be a part of the people of God, the church of Christ, heirs of the promise, recipients of salvation—this is a great, great blessing. There are people who think and believe of Christ’s church as boring, divided and a waste of time.

They go to worship once or twice and soon give up – they are not refreshed.

But they miss the fellowship that they could enjoy—the fellowship of all who share in God’s deep love and grace, made possible through Christ’s sufferings for all who believe. God’s caring people have a heart for those who are suffering.

Are we following God’s example, caring with His compassion for others today?

“Exactly, what in the hell has God ever done for me?”

“Exactly, what in the hell has God ever done for me?”

That question was the response I heard from the homeless veteran sitting in my office, who curtly delivered it as I offered him a place to recover from alcohol. I tried to strike up a conversation about our veterans programs, spiritual things.

“Let me tell you this,” the man went on. Getting emotional, the man said to me, “I laid on a battlefield in Vietnam, bleeding. If anything could atone for my sins, it was my own blood as I lay there in a country I did not care enough it existed, nearly dying in a jungle swamp for a country that obviously didn’t care for me!”

It was hard to decide which was more shocking: The pain this fellow carried for some many decades, or his apparent indifference to God. We ended up having a fairly cordial conversation, he seemed genuinely touched as I thanked him for serving as he did. I asked him to grasp God has proven His love; The Father demonstrated His love by sending the Son, Jesus, to set us free (Romans 5:8).

I do not know if he believed me or ever got around to believing in God as he left the program after only a month, long enough to get another temporary job. I heard several years later that he had been shot, killed on the streets in robbery.

Homelessness, loneliness, abandonment, betrayal are hardened prisons for the souls to survive – they are hardcore, ruthless, merciless environments to live in.

There’s no sense of safety, or freedom, no sense of confidence or independence, no reason for anyone to have any measure of faith in anyone but your own self, limited to no reason to believe in God in a place where you know that if God was about being God, loving and having compassion on everyone, why am I a wreck?

Why is everything and everyone and everywhere around me a prison, a wreck, an uncaring, dispassionate, soulless, mocking, scornful mass of humanity, is there any reason for anyone to believe in God and the freedoms He promises?

As Independence Day approaches and we thank God for the hard-won freedoms this country enjoys, because so many were willing to give their everything, up to their very lives, to lay the foundation of a radical dream, of founding a nation under the providence, protection and care of God, with liberty, justice for all.

A Declaration of Independence, a one of a kind Constitution To set a standard of true liberty and independence and freedom for everyone for the last 248 years.

It is also important to point out the freedoms we have through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ’s life giving sacrifice, on the Cross gives each of us these five liberties:

1. Freedom from the guilt that all inherit.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “In Adam all die.” Physical death — and the risk of spiritual death — are universal realities because of the sin we inherit from Adam and Eve. In Christ, we are forgiven, not condemned, promised a home in heaven, and set free from guilt. (Romans 8:1 – 4)

Escape from Bondage

8 Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior]. ² For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For what the Law could not do [that is, overcome sin and remove its penalty, its power] being weakened by the flesh [man’s nature without the Holy Spirit], God did: He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man as an offering for sin. And He condemned sin in the flesh [subdued it and overcame it in the person of His own Son], ⁴ so that the [righteous and just] requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not live our lives in the ways of the flesh [guided by worldliness and our sinful nature], but [live our lives] in the ways of the Spirit [guided by His power].

2. Freedom from sinful deeds we personally commit.  

We have all known the right things but done the wrong things. Sinful actions not only put a big wedge between us and God, but they also result in numerous negative repercussions. Confessing Christ as Savior, He forgives our sins, and the indwelling Holy Spirit can give us the strength to overcome temptations.

Romans 7:14-20 Amplified Bible

The Conflict of Two Natures

¹⁴ We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am a creature of the flesh [worldly, self-reliant—carnal and unspiritual], sold into slavery to sin [and serving under its control]. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. ¹⁶ Now if I  habitually do what I do not want to do, [that means] I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good (morally excellent). ¹⁷ So now [if that is the case, then] it is no longer I who do it [the disobedient thing which I despise], but the sin [nature] which lives in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. For the willingness [to do good] is present in me, but the doing of good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, I am no longer the one doing it [that is, it is not me that acts], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

3.  Freedom within ourselves over personal struggles.

If we are willing, God’s Spirit can even help us overcome sinful habits that may have held us in bondage for years. Whether the issue is gnawing remorse over past bad decisions, feelings of worthlessness, emotional pain from abuse, or just fear about tomorrow — Jesus gives us peace within. The Gospel is our way to an abundant peace with God and is also the key to peace with ourselves.

4.  Freedom from judgment that is ultimately coming.

Jesus is in the process of restoring a broken world. “Eschatology” is an 85-cent word that refers to what the Bible says about “last things.” One day, the entire world and universe will be made brand-new (Revelation 21:5). Just as there is a global, universal eschatology — Jesus gives us a joyous personal eschatology. This fallen world is under judgment, but Jesus has made the believer exempt.

5.  Freedom to face eternity—our soul’s final destiny.  

“It is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment.” – Hebrews 9:27

We may not want to or like to think about our own pending mortality, but it is unavoidable. There is a date that we will leave this world, and God knows when that date is. It is very freeing, liberating to know that we are ready to face God! 

Several years ago, I was asked to visit the neighbor of a friend who had been arrested and put in jail. As a minister of the Gospel, requests like this come along more than you might imagine.

It is an honor to do such things, and when people find themselves in the deepest of valleys, with prison bars between them and their independence, they are very often quite open to allowing Jesus Christ to become Lord, Savior of their lives.

The facility was very bleak, with rough gray concrete everywhere and seemingly endless hallways of bars and flaking paint. Not surprisingly, an air of gloom and hopelessness permeated the place, and reflected on the faces of all the inmates.

The particular jail where I visited the inmate in question had a very small, dark courtyard in the middle of the building. There were a few concrete squares in an otherwise dirty, rain soaked and muddy courtyard.

Suddenly, I noticed a small flower growing up against the concrete wall in one corner. It was the only bit of vegetation in this otherwise dank, lifeless place.

Invisibly, some minimal breeze had carried a seed over the roof and into this small open area within the prison facility. The bleakness of the surroundings made that one little flower all the more vivid to those who cared to notice.
 
When you think of the prison bars, bondage, sufferings, and entanglements that permeate this world, the freedoms that we have through Savior Christ appear all the more precious. Jesus is the flower of beauty in a muddy place.

Luke 4:16-21 Amplified Bible

¹⁶ So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ 
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah),
Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy),
¹⁹ 
to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].”

²⁰ Then He rolled up the scroll [having stopped in the middle of the verse], gave it back to the attendant and sat down [to teach]; and the eyes of all those in the synagogue were [attentively] fixed on Him. ²¹ He began speaking to them: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.”
 
Jesus absolves the guilty, the homeless sinners, who are imprisoned by sin. The heart and soul cries out in silence, longs for freedom — and finds it in Christ.

Acts 4:8-12 Amplified Bible

⁸ Then Peter, filled with [the power of] the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people [members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court], ⁹ if we are being put on trial today [to interrogate us] for a good deed done to [benefit] a disabled man, as to how this man has been restored to health, ¹⁰ let it be known and clearly understood by all of you, and by all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you [demanded be] crucified [by the Romans and], whom God raised from the dead—in this name [that is, by the authority and power of Jesus] this man stands here before you in good health. ¹¹ This Jesus is the stone which was despised and rejected by you, the builders, but which became the ^[a]chief Cornerstone. ¹² And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation].”

For there is salvation in no one else, no other name under heaven … Acts 4:12

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). May I reach out with your love to people who are lonely. In Jesus, Amen.

Psalm 42 Amplified Bible

Book Two

Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.

42 As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks,
So my ^[a]soul pants [longingly] for You, O God.
² 
My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and see the face of God?
³ 
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴ 
These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul;
How I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song],
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.

⁵ 
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become restless and disturbed within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
⁶ 
O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear];
Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
⁷ 
Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
⁸ 
Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song will be with me,
A prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ 
I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰ 
As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me,
While they say continually to me, “Where is your God?”
¹¹ 
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
Why have you become restless and disquieted within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him,
The ^[b]help of my countenance and my God.

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