FREEDOM!!

Ever had spiritual aches? When those spiritual muscles are tired of fighting that sin which so easily overwhelms you, and they are just sore? I get them a lot. I get frustrated when my eyes roam where they shouldn't. Or when my mind goes to that place that isn't fit for human thought. Or when my frustration with another person turns them into an object rather than a person with doubts, fears, and worries also. Then I read in the Bible that I should put away anger, wrath, and malice. You mean I am supposed to fight how I feel too? COME ON!

I have been reading through II Corinthians lately and I came to chapter 5. I have been stuck there for a couple of weeks now. I knew some verses from there, good verses too, but for some reason the entire thing just lit up my soul and has been burning within me lately.

Verses 1-4 read like this in the RSV:
     For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling - if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden , because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Oh my. The security of a house made by God's own hand that will never be destroyed, decay, or be taken away. The joy of a dwelling not plagued by sin. The freedom from that sin which so easily besets us. The freedom to worship God wholly and without reservation, but further still to worship Him while being face to face. That thing which Moses desired to see, God's glory, will be before us unhindered in its fullness. This sinful mortality which separates us from God, will be gone. Swallowed up by the life Christ has given us. Glory, honor, and praise be to Christ forever more.