Freed to Obey

The first time someone told me about Jesus it intrigued me...and scared me. When I was in my first year of college, the Jesus movement was sweeping through Southern California and touching my home town. One Sunday evening a friend invited me to a Bible study/devotional. A student shared his testimony about how Christ had changed his life. Then we had snacks and visited. My friend sat down with me, opened her Bible and began explaining the gospel. My religion was threatened. My flesh resisted the message. I walked out of the house, out to my car while trembling inside. It seemed so clear that Christ was real and that I needed Him. But at the time, I wasn't ready -- I was fearful of giving up my life. And so I said, "No" to the invitation.

It would be about four years later before I finally accepted Jesus and let Him have His way with me. And what He showed me so soon was the joy of knowing Him and the freedom He gives us when we obey Him.

In my reading of Ezekiel this morning, I noticed how the Lord was broken hearted over His people's stubbornness, "They wouldn’t obey my instructions even though obedience would have given them life." Ezek. 20:13b (My emphasis)

What the Israelites so desperately needed, and what this Gentile needed back in the 1970's in California, was a changed heart. A change that only Jesus Christ can make in a heart that welcomes Him in by faith. And when He gives us that heart transplant, then He frees us to obey Him -- and experience that precious quality of life that Jesus calls eternal life.

What I've discovered in my faith journey with Christ it that obeying Him brings such life to my marriage, my friendships, my finances. I've stumble along and done this imperfectly, pulled away from Him through my flesh. And yet when I let Jesus have His way with me, although it sounds cliche, I have found that Spirit-empowered obedience truly does bring life. Praise the Lord for how He frees us to obey Him. All for His honor and glory.

Jim