GOOD NEWS FOR YOU: LIBERATION

It is important for us to hear good news, but the bad news is generally louder and more persistent.  We all have been captivated by the bad news of 2020 and 2021.   Tragically, bad news has the great power to direct our attention and direct our thoughts.  We are hungry for the Good News of joy and hope!  In the series Good News for You, we realize the power of Liberation.  We have been set free!  What does our freedom mean?  In our society we define it as being whatever you desire to be, but this can be its own slavery!  In Romans 8:1-9, the Apostle Paul tells us that we are free to serve a living God.  We are free to find a path to life and peace.  Yet, in order to find liberation we must fight the battle against our selfish desires.  The Good News wants us to grow in grace and peace and to become “full grown” in the image of Jesus Christ!    It is our prayer that during this season of Lent you are filled with the power of resurrection!  Let Romans 8:1-9 share with you the joy of being free from the power of sin in Jesus Christ.  Romans 8:1-9: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.