Independence and Freedom (pt. 1): Deliverance from Decisions

The celebration of Independence recently, proves to be a great reminder how coming together in numbers against an enemy will cause an oppressed people to become free. As this July 4th celebration has become an extravagant annual happening, there is another similar event in past history that shows a nation being liberated from an oppressive people. The Israelites, in the Bible, were brought to be captive slaves on multiple occasions and freed every time. But sometimes oppression is a direct reciprocity to actions of negligence by the receiver. For example, the Israelites, though the chosen people, were proving themselves unworthy of representing God and of receiving God's promised inheritance. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.(Psalms 106:39 KJV)

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.(Psalms 78:58 KJV)

As a Divine Parent, God can not allow his children to fall into transgression without there being any consequences. Though the discipline is difficult to administer, because it is a derivative of love, it must be done. The presence of trials at times may in fact be God's way of molding us and giving us the opportunity to learn once again how to trust him and to give him his due praise, before He delivers us. Independence and Freedom on any level is a gift from God and to take it lightly is, in essence, not appreciating it. As the phrase goes, ”We do not know what we have until it is gone.” It would be a terrible tragedy to experience the absence of God, so in order to avoid this, we simply must envelop ourselves in God and allow him to consume us as a fire. Then we will not need to be concerned with returning to God, because we will already be with God, waiting patiently, in safety, knowing that He will bring us out and back into his arms.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord , thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.  And I will be found of you, saith the Lord : and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord ; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
Jeremiah 29:11‭-‬14 KJV

Manhood (pt.3): Leadership as a Teacher

A very important duty for a man is taking on the responsibility as a teacher. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6 KJV)

The best type of teacher is the type that lives and acts out the lessons that they want for their students to learn.The lesson for young men would be showing them how to become a man. Respectful, knowledgeable, and strong in the Lord. He should honor his parents and seek to himself grow and take on his own family, and be the head of them. Learn the ways of God, so as to have a firm foundation with which to teach as well as discipline. Exhibit principles that show that strength is not always a product of large muscles, but of a full intellect that shows respect to all others even when it is not received. For the young woman he must teach her what type of man to accept into her life for a relationship. Show her how to respect herself and how to demand respect by he himself respecting her mother regardless of life's difficulties. Teach her that a woman's body is beautiful and as such, while it is enticing, it is a gift- a gift to her from God, and a gift to the right man. She is to take charge of herself in regards to her body, to protect it and keep it pure.

To whomever a man is teaching, he should be the example of what a man's role is in accordance to his Christianity. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.(Matthew 5:16 KJV)

But not only is a man teaching through his actions and his words but he is also teaching by the things that he denies or stays away from, and doing so with courage, persistence, and integrity. His Integrity towards his beliefs will show his true strength. The strength that matters in life when dealing with life's troubles, life's rewards, and every aspect of what we do on a day-to-day basis.Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; (Philippians 1:27 KJV) The places we go, the things we watch, the things we listen to, the words we say... All these things need to have a filter, if not for ourselves, then for those who we may be teaching inadvertently without knowing.

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:  Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord , and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.  For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:  That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:  That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:  And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
(Psalms 78:2‭-‬8 KJV)

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