The Truth Shall Set You Free

                                                                                                           By Marcia Zimmerman

The words of Jesus in Jn. 8:32 are very often quoted by many. They are words of hope in a sea of anguish and darkness.

  To understand Jesus words, we need to notice His declaration in Jn. 8:28-29of how He speaks and acts only as the Father directs. After He said those words, according to verses 30-31, many Jewish leaders believed Him and followed Him. Then Jesus says that His true disciples are those who live as He tells them to. Only then does He say that those who follow Him will know the truth and that shall set them free.

  As daughters and wives in the home, how does truth set us free? What do we need to be freed from?

  We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23). As wives and daughters, if we are not in Christ living the new life He gives all who truly repent and believe, there is no possible way we are bringing glory to God. The main thing we need to be set free from is our own sinful selves.

  When Christ gives us new life, noticeable changes begin to occur. We have a changed heart that desires Truth  and we begin to follow that truth as Christ reveals it to us. When Jesus was being interrogated by Pilate (Jn. 18:37  ) He told him that He was sent to bring truth to the earth and that all who love truth are His followers.

  Do we love truth? As women, perhaps we need to routinely ask ourselves questions such as the following:

   ~ As a women, God intends  for me to be under the authority of my father or husband if at all possible. How am I doing? Do I value his advice and desires for me? Do I love to serve him and fulfill God's plan for me to help him?

   ~ According to the Word of God, if I love Jesus I will be keeping His commandments. Am I? Do I love God with all my whole heart? Do I love my neighbor as myself? Am I careful to speak only words that are profitable? Do I lay up treasures in heaven or does my lifestyle reflect a love of temporal possessions?

  ~ Am I a willing vessel to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus? Or do I fritter away endless hours with shopping, surfing the internet, and gossiping with my friends?

   My answers reveal whether I love the truth or not - If we love the truth, then we will act upon it and Then we are set free.

  Being free does not take years and years, as those who mix humanism into their doctrine like to propose. No - this freedom comes as soon as we repent and allow the Holy Spirit to fill and guide our lives - Jn. 16:35 tells us that when the Spirit comes, He will guide us into all Truth. With this thought, I propose to you that true freedom in a woman's life will reflect the glory of God.

  ~ She will have a meek and quiet spirit, desiring to let the beauty of Jesus be seen in her words and actions.

  ~ She will be an asset to the kingdom of God in the proper role of Biblical womanhood where God has assigned her. This may be cheerfully blessing her parents and siblings in family life, being the joyful mother of children, a grandma who blesses the sisters in the congregation as needs arise, or a young woman who sets a positive example to the younger girls in her life by being careful to live soberly in step with Jesus.

  This is true freedom. It is God's gift, available to each one He has created no matter who we are or what we have done or what evil has been done to us. If we walk in the Light and take the Name of Jesus with us by living in reverence to Him in every word and deed, we shall be free indeed.

  Maybe it it take awhile for us to feel free. We do remember wickedness, whether manifested by us or by others, but I encourage us to love the truth and live lives according to the Father's will He left in His Word. This increases our our faith and helps us to realize with former conviction our freedom in Christ... freedom  - not to live as I want to live, but to live to show forth the praises of Christ - the Source of Freedom.
 
  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3:16-18

When this is the reality of our lives, then the words of this song will be our testimony:

    Once I was bound by sin's galling fetters,
    Chained like a slave I struggled in vain;
    But I received a glorious freedom,
    When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
          
    Freedom from all the carnal affections,
    Freedom from envy, hatred and strife;
    Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions.
    Freedom from all that saddened my life.
   
    Freedom from pride and all sinful follies,
    Freedom from love and glitter of gold;
    Freedom from evil temper and anger,
    Glorious freedom, rapture untold.
   
    Freedom from fear with all of its torments,
    Freedom from care with all of its pain;
    Freedom in Christ my blessed Redeemer,
    He who has rent my fetters in twain.

      Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom,
        No more in chains of sin I repine!
        Jesus the glorious Emancipator,
          Now and forever He shall be mine.