Praise and Glory to God our Father who sent His Son to us! Merry Christmas. We had a glorious service Christmas Eve at a new church I am attending. I know it's good there because I have Holy Ghost tears every time I sing there and the third verse of O Holy Night really got me! Please check out that verse. We no longer have chains and the slave is not our brother.
I have been intrigued with the term of "yoke" lately.
Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.
Matthew 12:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened , and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
2 Corinthians 7:14- Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
These three verses really pull us in different directions. The first verse (Galatians) speaks so much to new believers. I very well remember my yoke of slavery. It just lifted from me this spring. I felt that pull and weight for my entire life. I thought it was normal to feel guilty as a Christian. To ask over and over for forgiveness from God for the same sins, yet still feel ashamed . And the #1 question I couldn't answer: "If you died today, Melissa, where will your soul go?" I could not answer that question until this spring/summer. Now I can answer that it will be with my Father in heaven (Amen, precious Father).
Galatians warns us not to fall into the satan trap of religious rituals to free us again. The other trap is to fall back into our fleshy ways. Numbing ourselves with substances, buying our happiness with possessions, and in general: Letting the world tell us how to be happy. Others: Sexual sin, Hollywood obsessions with the elite, falling into marketing techniques that sway our "feelings", idolizing people including our children, husbands and wives. Falling in love with power and importance at work. All of these things can put the feeling of a yoke back on our shoulders.
The second verses from Matthew are so well known. My mom was an artist and was taking lessons in South Carolina from a well known water color artist near her community. She had a painting she gave to me and it depicts slavery. It shows slaves and slave owners both, going to Belin's Black Mingo Church near Hemingway, South Carolina. (Black Mingo is a creek also) I visited this church once. The church was burnt down a few years later. We visited the site after the destruction. The tomb stones are still there. The structure is not. The painting shows this church in slavery times. The slaves can go to church with the white folk, but they have to sit in the balcony (this is according to history my parents understood. History they learned of the deep south, living there from 1987 to 1998). The verse is written on the painting. The Belin Black Mingo Church stood tall and strong from 1843 to 1993. No one had worshiped there for years prior to the burning. But, we would go there to walk on the grounds, to see the graves of the slaves and their masters. The "good" slaves would get tombstones. If they were the "best" of slaves, they got an inscription such as "Here Lies Bill Smith's Loyal Slave, David".
The third verse can raise a few eyebrows (2 Corinthians). I think it takes a more mature Christian to understand this. I am starting to understand it. Do you? Do you think you can continue to spend hours a week with friends and family that are negative, don't believe in Christian growth, use "innuendos" to cut you down? (Oh, but don't take things so personally..........). I love the word innuendo now. It completely describes what so often happens to us tender hearts. And they say it's all in good fun. It is not. Not on my end. Words either instruct, question, build up, or tear down.
Do you think you can continue to spend time in arenas that encourage flirting, gossiping and over indulging? I found, myself, that I was getting more and more perturbed at only getting face time with friends and families at bar/restaurants, parties or beer gardens. You can't hear the conversation, someone in the group has too much to drink and insults or ruins the evening. I backed out of these gatherings more and more over the last three years. Now, primarily if someone wants to get together, I try to offer a coffee shop or a restaurant without alcohol. I guess you find out who your true family and friends are after you make a move like that. I did.
So there are the three yoke references I found quickly in the Bible. That is alot
I will tell you; the guilt that lifts, the grime, the scarlet letter, the divorce decree, the DHS report, the bruise you had to hide once upon a time, the regrets, the religious people that shamed you. These will all float away.
And now, when you are born again (pray for this to happen), you will sin, and you will now repent quickly (I do either in writing to my Father, or say it out loud to my Father and usually the person I sinned against) and THE GUILT GOES AWAY AND DOESN'T BUILD UP. It can't. You are living in the light now. And you are in God's precious, strong hand.
Please, pray a Believer's Prayer if you have not. Do this even if you are a Christian and you still feel a yoke of burden. There are many forms of Believer's Prayers, but essentially you need to admit you are a sinner. You also need to confess your sins and then repent for them. You should state that you know the only way of rescue is through a relationship with Jesus Christ, not religion and not rituals. You need to submit to Him, your life now. And ask for direction on how to walk in the light now that you have done this.
Go out and buy a Bible you can understand. My suggestion in a Life Application Study Bible in the NIV version. Go to the books that the apostle Paul wrote. They are so easy to read and will make sense. You will find so, so many references regarding being born again. It will amaze you. You will understand what your prayer you just said means and that those written words in the Bible describe God's love for you. Selfishly, you!!!!
Grab a hold of Jesus! He is so in love with you. He already did the work for you that you are trying to do, to be good enough for Him. You don't have to do that. You will naturally want to please Him after you are born again, and it becomes easier to not sin. I promise. I am an example of a Christian sinner, born again after 43 years. Yoke bearing, trying to do it all by myself, while my world kept crumbling around me.
My general prayer now is for you to look at all of this differently now that I explained it from my perspective. I was in your shoes. Now, I share my yoke, which is light, with my Creator. And it is so much easier!!!
PTL!
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