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Submitted by: Carl F. Hunter II, M.Div
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Read John 11:17-44
“When He had said these things, He
cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." The man who had
died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped
around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go." John
11:43-44
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made
us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" Galatians 5:1
There
is Greatness in You
In my previous submission,“There is Greatness in You”, I suggested that many of us deny, do not believe,
or fail to accept the greatness that is in “US”. This denial of our God given
potential stems from the invalidating paradigms that have rooted themselves in
our belief system about us. So, until those negative things that we have come
to believe about ourselves are somehow uprooted, we will live in conflict of
our divine nature.
Still
yoked to shame of my past
I don’t know about you, but
I have questioned my salvation. I confessed with my mouth and believed in my
heart that Jesus was Lord, but I still found myself yoked to the shame, guilt,
remorse, depression, anger, and fear of my past. I was under the assumption
that accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior was supposed to usher those things out
of my life right away. I found myself confused and frustrated because, in spite
of the fact that I GAVE MY LIFE TO THE LORD, I could not shake those feelings
that reinforced those negative infomercials that continued to go off in my
head... “If salvation was not enough then something MUST really be WRONG with
me.”
So, I still found myself
going back to the scene of the crime because salvation did nothing to anesthetize
the pain. In my case I went back to the drugs. In your case, it might be pornography,
jumping from one abusive relationship to another, infidelity, overeating, over-shopping,
being an abuser yourself or something else. All we are searching for is some
relief, even if the price that we have to pay is more spiritual degradation. Our
churches are filled with saved folk from the pulpit to the last pew still yoked
to issues and behaviors that have them in bondage. They sit Sunday after Sunday suffering in silence
“saved” but not “delivered”.
Hosea 4:6 (KJV) tells us
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Many of us fit in the category
of “saved” but not “delivered”. We are still yoked to our shame; still yoked to
our guilt; still yoked to our remorse and still yoked to our negative coping
mechanisms because we only know half the truth. The redemptive act of Jesus
Christ not only facilitated lifting the burden of sin, but it broke the yoke of
sin. In his death the burden was lifted and in his raising on the third day the
yoke of sin is destroyed. In other words, salvation is “Burden lifting and Yoke
destroying…”
Pray
with me:
Father God, We come today grateful for this moment in time and the opportunity
to thank you for where you have bought us from. When it seemed like the world
had let us down and given up on us, you continued to stand in the gap and be
our bridge over troubled waters. We stand here with our own evidence and our
own testimonies that your word is true…”That you have never left us or forsaken
us…” Even when we turned our backs on you, you continued to be strong in your
goodness and love towards us. So now Lord, we come before you asking you to
take the scales from our minds and our hearts that we might see and acknowledge
the greatness in us and use what you have blessed us with to move the agenda of
the Kingdom. In Jesus name, Amen
About the writer:
Reverend Hunter is an Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a graduate of New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Reverend Hunter is a frequent contributor to The Soul’s Remedy. His prior submission are entitled "Remembering Where God Brought you From" and “There is Greatness In You”. Reverend Hunter is a father and a grandfather, and resides in New Jersey.
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