Have you ever thought about the things that you were a slave to before you totally gave your all to Christ? Maybe you haven't done this yet so you are still in slavery to some things. I can remember things that I was enslaved to and they aren't going to be the types of things that you think of.
I was enslaved to sports. I was so eaten up with baseball as a teenager that it was all I ever did. I got up thinking about baseball, I sat in class thinking about baseball, I had practice or a game of some sort probably 75% of the time through out the year. If I didn't, I would think of some way to squeeze in some batting or throwing. I had a huge target built in the backyard, I had a dad who would come throw me batting practice after he got off work. I had it, and I was ate up with it.
Then, I got out of high school and I gave up baseball for the ministry. I decided I wanted to answer God's call on my life and become a minister. I began working with teenagers again and spending time trying to reach teens with the Gospel. Changing lives and being there for young people was my new gig. But that is what it was, just a gig. I began racing more, and soon I was so ate up with racing that every conversation had a chance of being turned into a racing conversation. I would work on my car during the week with my dad, work on my reaction times or study time cards during the week and try to prepare myself for the next weekend's race. I was good at it, I won several races, even made money racing one year(that is a rarity for anyone racing at our level).
You read this and you say, "Come on Jeff, none of that is slavery to sin." I beg to differ.
I was called into the ministry at an early age. I felt God's calling on my life as a young teen. BUt, I chose to worship baseball for a time. THen, after high school in my early college days I worshipped racing. I dare say I worshipped racing while I was doing ministry. BUt, it was half hearted ministry, and whole hearted racing. I came to this realization one day during a quiet time about 10 years ago. Right then and there I threw away sports and racing. I told God if I couldn't handle them correctly to never give me the desire to do them ever again, so that I wouldn't fall into the pit of idolatry that I had been in for so long.
Romans 6:19-22 "I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have becomes slaves to God, the benefit you reap is holiness, and the result is eternal life."
So I ask you now, was I living in sin? Was I a slave to sin? Yes, it wasn't impurity or drugs, or stealing or any such things. It was actually worse, it was idolatry. It was enslaving me, rather than being God's slave.
Today, I live as a slave to God. One who is in total and complete awareness of who and what I am to live for as well as who and what I am in debt to. I am in debt to a Savior, God's own Son who died on a cross for my sins.
Yes I still race, God gave it right back and has never threatened to take it away. It is what I do on Saturdays. I have less than 2-3 conversations about it a week when I am not at the track. God has rewarded me with racing. That is where I get away from the demands of ministry. Where I don't stress over how I am going to get more people through our doors, how I am going to get the church to grow, over how I am going to get the people we have to work hard with me to get this ship turned around. It's where I shut it out and enjoy myself, being alone with God in my race car and win or lose it's a blessing to have it back the way GOd intended it. As a recreational get away. I am not a slave to it, I am skipping races for family things, for graduations and weddings like I never would before.
So I ask you, what are you a slave to? Is it work, school, money, power, pride, what is it that is your idol? Give it to God and see Him give it new meaning as you become His slave.
Thanks for reading and have a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment