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Instead, He sent Jesus to purchase our freedom. As Galatians 3:13-14 says: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” This is good news! As believers, you and I are the redeemed! We don’t belong to the devil anymore. We aren’t under the curse of sin so we don’t have to live like we are. We can be holy like our heavenly Father is holy. We can live and act like God. Living like He does is the opposite of being in bondage—it’s freedom. It’s a joy and privilege. Why don’t Christians always see it that way? Because, just like in the Garden of Eden, the devil has lied to us about it. He’s used the voice of the world to tell us that every lifestyle is all right. That it’s cool and fun to cater to the lusts of the flesh, and there aren’t really any negative consequences to it. It seems to me the closer we get to the end of the age the more the world believes such lies and the more acceptable sin becomes to society. I remember the days when adultery was considered a serious thing, not just in the church but in the community. I remember when even non-Christians acknowledged that sexual perversion was wrong and harmful. But today people actually applaud it. Every time you turn on the television it seems like the media is pushing the envelope of sin, glorifying something that’s immoral or ungodly. They try to make it look good or like it’s no big deal, but it is a big deal because although what’s socially acceptable may change, the truth doesn’t change. And Romans 6:23 is STILL the truth: “The wages of sin is death.” People in the world, for the most part anyway, don’t know that. They haven’t read the Word, so they think sin is normal. But we, as believers, know better and we’re called by God to act like it. As Philippians 2:15, "AMP," says, we’re called to live as “innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless, unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation…as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the [dark] world.” The World Is Crazy “But Gloria,” you might say, “if we live differently than unsaved people, won’t it make them uncomfortable? If we stick to what the Bible says, won’t they accuse us of being intolerant and unloving?” Most likely. But we can’t let that bother us. We just have to keep on being sweet and kind to them, and remind ourselves that although we love everyone and want to help them, we have to stand on what God says. We can’t change what we know is right just because the world says we should. If we do we’ll be in trouble because the world is crazy. They’re deceived. They’re following the wrong god and trapped in a lifestyle of sin. As Christians we’ve been delivered from that trap. We’ve been set apart from sin. It no longer has dominion over us because Jesus has “secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us)” (Hebrews 9:12, "AMP"). He shed His own blood to cleanse our conscience from dead works so we can “serve the living God” (verse 14, "New King James Version"). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We’re not under the devil’s thumb anymore. We don’t have to do what he says. We have the nature of our heavenly Father and He has set us free to walk and talk and act like Him! To do that, however, we have to be diligent to yield to our spirit and not to our flesh. We have to seek the Lord daily in His Word and retrain our minds to think like He thinks and not like the world. Otherwise we’ll be overtaken by the darkness around us. I don’t mean we’ll lose our salvation and we won’t go to heaven when we die, but we’ll find ourselves getting trapped in the devil’s snares while we’re here on earth. +++ article continues on next page +++ ****ADVERTISEMENT**** God has a work for you to do on earth. There’s a significant place that only you can fill…but before you move into that place, you have to learn to walk confidently with the Lord every day. In "Walk With God," Gloria Copeland shows you how to walk with confidence in all you do—with the Lord by your side—so you can accomplish all He has for you in the earth. Don’t spend another moment walking alone. "Walk With God" today! "Walk With God" paperback $7.99* #B150803 kcm.org/mag 1-800-600-7395 U.S. only +1-817-852-6000 *FREE standard shipping included. Offer price valid until Aug. 31, 2015 ******************************** 30 : BVOV

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