DIVINE SLAVERY

Doulos is the most misunderstood Greek word in the English speaking Bible, being mistranslated “servant” approximately one hundred and fifty times, counting root derivatives. Now we know a servant is a hired domestic, legally entitled to tell his employer to “take this job and shove it”, but a slave is owned, lock, stock and barrel, to quote Kipling, and has no legal rights, much like a chair or a mule. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament states doulos is used exclusively to denote “slave” with a meaning so unequivocal and self-contained that etymology is superfluous. A slave is a possession totally subject to the will of his owner, bound to obey his will without hesitation or argument, having no freedom, autonomy  or rights, and is dependent upon his master for everything.

Whatever a person yields their Self to will enslave them (Rom. 6:13, 16), and whatever overcomes a person will enslave them (2 Peter 2:19). This is the crux of mankind’s dilemma: Without God, man yields to sin and is overcome by it and enslaved. Having neither the heart nor the will to say no to his self-serving nature, he steps into the trap of sin’s slavery, which was, as James stated, bated by his own desires. (James 1:14)

People are simply vessels in need of a master. Born in bondage to unrighteousness, we are born enslaved to sin. Our self-nature, Self, thinks it is in control of our vessel, but like marionettes in a cheap vaudeville side show, the strings are really pulled by the prince of darkness and his whoring hordes of fallen creatures who divert our time and energy from Kingdom life to Self life. Christ’s call to “Follow Me” is a call to depart from this slavery to our self-nature through its death, by willfully hanging it on the cross with Christ and reckoning it dead. In this way the enemy loses control of our vessel as we come under the lordship of God alone, by our submission to His indwelling Spirit-life. This is a change of ownership, a change of masters. Lordship is one side of the divine relational paradigm: Jesus wants to be our Lord and has purchased us out of the world’s slave market with His own blood, giving Him legal right of ownership. The other side, our response, is voluntary servitude: In submission to lordship we demonstrate the first and greatest commandment, becoming love-slaves of the Most High God. We had no choice in our bondage to sin, all are born in its clutches, but we do choose whether to stay in that slavery or to crucify our self-nature with Christ, finding freedom in His cross of death. (Rom. 6:1-23;1Cor. 5:14).

We were all homeless vagabonds adrift in the sewage of this world, with sin as our master and our future sealed in hell. Then Christ redeemed us, made us His slaves, befriended us, adopted us into His royal family, gave us an inheritance, and made us citizens of His Kingdom.  God graces us with the freedom to be all He wants us to be in this life, repairing our “Liker” so we like what He likes, and providing our necessities. The life He gives is eternally abundant Kingdom life, where “His slaves shall serve Him” forever. Divine Slavery is a choice; choose wisely and someday you will hear…

 “WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SLAVE”

(E-mail for complete study)

VESSELS

I look beyond, the empty cross

Forgetting what my life has cost

The nail scared hands, the crimson stains

The ruptured heart desertion claimed

It was for me, I am to blame

I caused the suffering and the pain

I put Him there, upon that tree

No greater cost to die for me

For grace and pride, they war within

This love of self is not my friend

Once rid of all, His love remains

My life to lose His life to gain

A vessel now, how clear I see

 A slave of His forever be

Oh Lord, my Lord, You are my God

Hold now my hand as home I trod

SUNDAY SERVICE, ANYCHURCH, USA

Congregation, please welcome Paul, formally Saul of Tarsus, as today’s guest speaker: “Before my message I would like to share my testimony. I am a slave of Jesus Christ. I have lost everything this life values, its power, position, wealth and influence, along with the glittering babbles of pride and self-dependence. All of this I consider to be as dung, worthless refuse, compared to the priceless privilege, surpassing worth, and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, to know the transforming fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. I have been scourged like our Savior five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned for death once, shipwrecked at sea three times and beaten countless times in cities where I have planted churches. I have been in danger from robbers, fought with wild animals, frequently imprisoned, and suffered constant hardships including lack of shelter, weariness and toil, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, and even nakedness. I have as my constant companion a demonic being... a messenger from satan, whose singular responsibility is to torment me with suffering and persecution. All of this has left me physically weak and infirm, and I have diseased eyes which require me to dictate all my letters. I have come to understand God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent in His power: His resurrection power dwells upon me because of my physical weakness and suffering. Therefore I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities, distresses, afflictions and adversity, for they are really only light afflictions preceding God’s glory. I rejoice in my suffering... glory in adversity, filling up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for I have been made to understand that troubles and affliction and hardship produce patient unswerving endurance which develops maturity of God’s character in me... approving my faith... trying my integrity. I find myself in a state of constant joyful confident hope in eternal salvation... as Christ’s life flows out of me... as His love is lavishly poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit. Yes, I rejoice in suffering. The title of my message is The Crucified Life.”  The point…

WOULD HE BE WELCOME???

ABBA FATHER

The father to child relational metaphor of God’s relationship to man is more than a metaphor. God, our Divine Daddy, loves us unconditionally, not because of what we are but whose we are, and He is, necessarily, much more than our earthly father. He is all knowing, all powerful and everywhere simultaneously, and His creation, of which we are a part, is moving and evolving according to the plan He purposed within Himself. With wisdom and power far above and beyond any earthly daddy, He is able to bring about our utmost for His highest, and He does just that! He has made us partakers of His Spirit... partakers of Christ... partakers of The Cross, that in this “Oneness” we might be transformed into the very nature of His Beloved Son. He punishes us when needed to guide and align our behavior according to His will. He lets us roam when we demand freedom from Him, and welcomes us back with open arms when we realize the cost of flying solo. He does not isolate us from the deceitfulness of riches or the glitter of the world’s pleasures, allowing us to overcome misplaced desires, learning in the process the cost of pursuing lover’s less wild then the eternal lover of our soul. He allows suffering and all the variegated hues of adversity... the pressures of this life: It is in adversity that Self walks the lonely road to Golgotha while patience endurance does its perfecting work, using that which purposes to overcome and destroy to unwittingly transform us, dying daily that the Christlife might emerge. His goal is our perfection... spiritual maturity... transformation into His very own character and nature, making us “perfect” for the abundantly eternal life He has prepared for us. He allows persecution, a measure of our Christlikeness, to further our transformation while condemning the evil that produces it, sharing in the suffering of our Lord and bearing in our body the marks of His Lordship. He knows what is best for us, and will never let our wants overpower His wisdom, giving us only good things... eternally good things, things that are truly good for us. He allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions, that in responsible reaping we may learn the power of our will to choose... that decisions have descendants, learning our need for His wisdom in all the decisions of this life, effectively drawing us into His Lordship. And in all of this He lavishly pours His love into our hearts... that we might in turn be loving, and teaches us to set our mind on things above... our Blessed Hope in Him. He allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent in His power, loving us too much to leave us the way we are. He holds our breath in His hands and owns all our ways, setting our feet in His stocks and watching each ordered footstep... lest we wander too far. He records our every thought and act in His book, collects our tears in His bottle, and sings over us lullabies of love. And, He never, ever leaves us forsaken – we are never, ever alone!

HE’S A GOOD, GOOD DADDY