September 19

Day 189: Access

(It's funny how I'm now to the point where my day doesn't seem activated until I've written something on this page. So here goes...)

Galatian 5:1 says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

Sermons delivered on this verse usually center in on the second part - Don't go back to your previous slavery. Meaning, if we've been freed from the wages of sin, the certainty of a forever death, and no hope, why go back? Why live like a slave (or a convicted felon on death row) when you've already been set free?

But it's the first part, "For freedom Christ has set us free." This freedom allows us to "stand firm," meaning, stand tall. Like someone who no longer carries a heavy burden. Hunters and backpackers know the freedom at the end of a hard day, but only after they've taken their pack off and set in on the ground.

Freedoms are both real, and perceived. Sometimes we can remain in a jail cell, even though the doors to that cell have been wide open for quite some time. Sometimes, we just don't envision our own freedom, and don't know how to live free.

The great Bible expositor, Charles Spurgeon, took this verse in a different, and I believe helpful direction. His effort to help us know more of what we are not only free from, but what we are also free toward.

Spurgeon said that we are free to have access. First, we have access to every one of the promises we read in our Bibles, available to us at any time, all the time. Like having a bank account, with no cap on withdrawals. A bank account filled with uncountable, limitless funds.

Secondly, he says that our freedom of access means we can go into the throne room at any time, all the time. Our access is accessed by means of prayer. We can approach our heavenly Father King at any time, and (unlike Queen Esther) we don't have to wait for Him to put out His scepter. His scepter is always out for us.

I have found myself reflecting on my freedoms of access this past week. I have reasons to. The necessity to. One, I have concerns I myself cannot fix. Where will our church be gathering on Sundays being primary. How can we be unified and connected as a church being another. These concerns weigh on me. Daily. Acutely.

Two, and not unlike you, I can easily slip into thinking and living like a slave, even though my emancipation is real, and not imagined. I want to live free. Free to access both the promises found in God's Word, and the relational presence of my heavenly Father found in prayer.

It's not that I don't have access. It's that I sometimes forget I have access. But aware or not, my access remains.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau