John 8:31 “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”

With this chapter we learn a powerful truth. Experiencing freedom in life is conditional on us fulfilling a simple yet profound process.
A process that goes like this:

We are set Free by the knowledge of the truth,
Our knowledge of the truth comes when we are committed to follow and obey Him who is the truth ( Jesus Christ ) – that makes us His disciples,
Holding to Jesus teaching is the signature of being a disciple,
We can only hold to His teaching if we take the time to read and meditate on his instruction to us.

Can you see a modern day problem starting to emerge? If we claim to be Jesus’ disciples and yet do not hold to Jesus’ pattern of teaching for lifestyle- Guess What!, we do not have the truth Which means, even though we might like to think we are, we are not free at all.

Sadly today many Christians are genuine authentic and sincere in the things they believe about life, but unfortunately what they believe is wrong and in error to what Jesus taught in the bible. This leaves them in the unfortunate position of being sincerely wrong. Friend, it’s one thing to be rebellious towards God, arrogant and wrong, but it’s another thing to be righteous towards God but lazy, uniformed and wrong.

God expects us to steward our lives well, living as ambassadors for Him! The reason a lot of people are suspicious of the church is for this exact reason. The greatest hindrance to the advancement of the Kingdom is not the devil, it’s the followers of Christ whose lives are lived in error of the Holy Scriptures. This is what is giving the church a bad name! Friends, if we don’t get this right everybody loses – we lose our liberty and freedom, God loses credibility through our misrepresentation of Him, and those outside of faith are hardened towards God by what they consider hypocrisy in Christ followers’ lives.

I think the two most important words in this scripture are IF and THEN

IF you will hold to Jesus teaching about lifestyle that makes you a genuine disciple
THEN – you will know the truth – the truth that will SET YOU FREE

I guess the only question for us to ask as a new year approaches is this: Will we continue to live our lives based on our own personal version of the truth and so comprise freedom and life again for another year. Or will we make the decision to daily read and study Jesus’ teachings and allow them to be the basis of truth and freedom in our lives?

Friends, if every Christ follower took this challenge seriously we would see a serious advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven in 2008. Lost souls wandering in the dark would again see the light of Christ in His followers and the name of Jesus would be lifted up from the earth to draw all people unto Him.

My Prayer: Father help us to take seriously the reading of our bibles and make the necessary adjustments to follow and hold onto Jesus’ teachings. Help us to become truly free people living such spectacular lives that others are drawn to the life of Christ is us