True Freedom and Liberty

What is true liberty? It starts with Religion, yes, Religion, it is the foundation of all true liberty that we have as living souls, if we do not have the freedom to believe or not, as we choose, then we are never really free in any other sense of the word.It is our 'beliefs' that truly maps out our paths in how we live and work in this world. Our beliefs shape every aspect of who we are and how we relate to others, our beliefs are who we truly are in this world.
The true test of freedom and liberty in any country or government is the freedom to believe or not in God.
True Religious Liberty is the God-given and indefeasible right of every human being, to worship God or not, according to the dictates of one's own conscience; and, as long as we do not infringe on the rights of others, we are all to be held accountable to God alone, for all our religious beliefs and practices.

WE HAVE THE FREEDOM NOT TO CONDEMN

"God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." (NKJV ).
What I find to be the most wonderful element that is happening in Christendom these days,is that many Churches and believers are beginning to understand that it is not in the 'correct' liturgy of how a church should conduct services but how much love ,mercy and compassion can we show to ourselves , our loved ones, our communities, and our world. What is more important, from Jesus' perspective? The exact and most correct way to have corporate worship or how many ways can we love and care for each other?As believers we are all free in Christ to worship during whatever seasons and on whatever days we find fitting and appropriate. It is not the manner of how we celebrate Godde, but that we do. The correctness of the ways we do our worship is truly a matter between ourselves and Godde. The first thing that might help us get some perspective is to understand that worshipping is a human response to Godde—who S/he is, what S/he has done and what S/he is doing. It is an active, often spontaneous, celebration of Godde's work through Christ. It is in our worship as Believers and the fact, that we are participating with Christ in His work of human redemption. We must remember that to love one another does not require that we must abandon our own unique cultural values. It means we must learn to respect the cultural values of others, without feeling threatened ourselves. I believe that the main reason is their fear and the feeling threatened by different ideas which are truly hard for them to move through, and we must understand their fear and aid them in maturing in the faith and help them realize that Godde is more than capable of directing and guiding us in the way we should go. Of course, if a particular cultural value is sinful, we must abandon it. But most of our cultural values are not sinful; many are neutral and many are quite compatible with godliness in Christ.As Paul wrote to the church in Rome: "He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God" (Romans 14:6).
The question that we might ask ourselves is:Can we let this principle rule our attitudes toward one another? If our fellow believers in other congregations are gathering to worship the Lord, then surely we should not get upset about the particular choice of days they worship or the manner in which they worship, but the fact they they are worshiping and praising Godde as they know how to do at the time . What is truly the most important aspect of our faith? That a particular group worship as you believe they should? In all seriousness, how do you know that you are correct? From my personal experience especially in the area of religion ,is that many believe 'they' are the one's who are correct and 'they' are the only one who hear from Godde, but what is amazing is that all who say such nonsense are hearing supposedly from the same Spirit, and all are saying something different,how confusing is that ? So what are we to say or do in that regard? What we need to do is to make sure that what we believe and do is true to our own experience,conscience , and relationship with Godde,and let Godde deal with others in the matter of what is right or not,that is all we can hope do.How do we treat one another? Are we angry and judgmental? Are we considerate and patient? Do we try to understand and appreciate the feelings of those who differ from us? What is the real value of worshiping in a different fashion at all, if the fruit of our worship is judgmentalism and condemnation?Within the essential and central framework of Christian doctrines there is much room for diversity. Our Universal Godde is a lover of diversity which we all can see within the vastness of creation! For me , it shows a Godde that loves a variety of colors, smells, shapes, sizes, etc.. so therefore we can safely assume that our diverse ways of celebrating our faith in Godde ,leaves room for our differences in the ways we worship and in the applications of our services to Godde.We must have the unity in our worship of Godde, the faithful observance of the sacraments (the Lord's Supper and baptism,etc. )of our faith and the faithful proclamation of the Word.We have diversity in the styles and forms we use in administering the sacraments, proclaiming the Word and worshiping the Lord. The Holy Spirit makes us one in Christ, and our diversity in how we express that unity ,which is truly a gift of Godde.
I am encouraged that many Christians, Churches, and denominations have seen the error of their ways and are coming together in the spirit of love ,compassion, and mercy that has been and is continually shown to us by our Savior. We must endeavor to live by the words of Paul when he said:"One person considers one day more sacred than another; another person considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind" (Romans 14:5).
We must not go the route of the God Police and enforce what we think are the true rules of the faith, for the only true rule of Jesus was to Love Godde and ourselves and others, if we can endeavor to carry that out we will not be to far from the Kingdom.
Blessed be, be a blessing

WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM RELIGION.

Christian religions ,it would seem to me,depends on the religion of Christianity, for their existence, but True Christianity has never needed or has it ever depended on religion to keep it afloat. Christ said that "He alone is the way," He was not declaring a new religion! Nor did He ever mention that he was ever going to do so. He never stipulated that to believe in Him, that we must be Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, or any of the many denominations that have built their religions around HIM. to find the truth. Jesus Christ did not die for a religious cause. He died to lift all of His physical creation out of its darkness and to bring us, as human beings, closer to Him. For we have already been reconciled to God, it is just that many do not know this, and religion will keep many in the dark chains of ignorance about this, claiming that we must live a certain way, that we must strive on our own to be what we or the church thinks we should be, and that we must follow their dogma, doctrines, and traditions in order to please God and be who God would have us be, by our own pitiful efforts.

Many believe that once someone becomes a Christian , that they can no longer do that which is wrong, or sin. But you see Christianity is not living by the principles of right and wrong, good and evil. But rather , it is about life from the inside out! Watchman Nee, in his book The Finest of the Wheat, Volume I (pp 220-221) said "What is Christianity? Christianity is life. It does not ask whether a thing is right or wrong. It asks instead what your inner life says: it is a matter of how the new life which God has given us addresses the situation." The Christian life is about allowing the Spirit of Christ within to address all the situations we face in life, it is about yielding our wills to do that which the Spirit of Christ within leads us to do in each circumstance we are in. The Christian Life is about relearning and renewing our minds and thoughts to the truth of who we are now in Christ, not our bodies which belong to this world and which gets glorified at the resurrection at Christ physical return, but in our spirits which have been made alive and resurrected with Christ at His Resurrection 2000 years ago! and our spirits ,now are being formed into the image of Christ now in the progressive revelation we are now receiving in Him. It's about 'reprogramming' from the physical worlds identity, to the spirit's true identity found only in the life of Christ which dwells in every believer.We now are free from having to do anything to please God from our own self effort. God is well aware of our weaknesses, and as we become aware of our weaknesses, Christ will become more formed within us to do the Work that God would do through us.

We have been set free from all those religious rules and laws, oughts, shoulds, could's, that choke and chain us like slaves to a religious prison cell.

We have been taught that everything written in the Hebrew Scriptures is a complete and total revelation of who God is, but then Jesus/Yeshua Christ comes around to set us free from bad theology to reveal the true heart and Spirit of God. Jesus spent a good deal of time showing us the Father, and the Religious Leaders of that day as well as many today in the Religion of Christianity do not like the God as Jesus shows us he is and that is why true spirit believers in Christ will suffer as he did by their hands.
The real and true essence of God's character is love. The demonstration of His love is that He has provided a plan of salvation and reconciliation for all humanity through the death on the cross of His son Jesus Christ. He will ultimately achieve His desire of reconciliation with all people.In each of our spiritual journeys, our understanding of God will continue to evolve, not because God changes, but because in this journey we can only understand Him as He reveals Himself to each of us in the context of our personal lives and our personal growth. We know that we are limited in our understanding of God and are aware of our individual shortcomings. Therefore, we must strive to cherish the liberty granted to all of us by God and honor the ability of each and every one of us , to hear what God is speaking to him or her on an individual basis, affirming both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other in accordance with the Word of God. The primary mission of the 'church' which is the body of believers,is to encourage all people to participate in this glorious salvation and reconciliation given to us by and through Christ,during our lifetimes. [2 Cor. 6:2; 1 Tim 2:4; 1 Tim 4:10; 1 Tim 2:6]

The Scripture which was recorded by mortal and imperfect men both before and shortly after the time of Christ. Is divinely inspired and serves as the record of God's revelation of Himself to humanity. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It was authored by the Holy Spirit of God, to reveal His plan for the salvation and reconciliation of all humanity to Himself. We must believe that it is true and inerrant but only as it is interpreted through the person and work and LIFE of Jesus Christ who Himself is the revealed Word of God. We must never shove it down any ones throat, but keep in mind that it is only by and through the Divine Holy Spirit that the dead words are given and made alive to those who will take the time to meditate and contemplate , prayerfully digest it's words.

Christ came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He came to free us from the impossibly heavy weight of performing the laws and traditions and the responsibility of achieving righteousness through our own will and human effort. The Christian life is the process of yielding to the gentle work of Christ, which brings rest and peace and joy to our lives. [Galatians 5:1; Romans 8:2; Philippians 2:13; Galations 3:3; John 15:10-11; Colossians 3:15; Matthew 11:28]