It's Your Independence Day!

This is your Independence Day!

"For sin shall not have DOMINION over you,

for you are not under law but under grace."

(Romans 6:14)

Our forefathers, who found themselves under

the dominion of England, decided that it was

time for them to declare their Independence!

For them, this decision led to a bloody war.

Victory DID come, but not without great cost!

It’s the same for us believers: Jesus has set us

free from the DOMINION of the devil,.. and the

cost was: The very life of Jesus!

I used to believe that it was MY job to fight the

devil,... to win the victory, through God’s power.

But, the Bible clearly states that the devil is a

defeated enemy! (I Peter 5:8) Jesus already defeated him at the cross! There is no NEED for ME to try to

defeat an already defeated foe!

(Lions don’t "wander around roaring." Lions must

depend on stealth! They sneak up on you! That

is their main weapon! That’s how they get close

enough to you,... close enough to pounce on you!

If a lion is roaring,... you will hear him coming and

run away! The devil’s a "roaring lion" because

he was wounded at the cross!)

Although satan is still alive, and trying to lead you into sin, he does NOT need to be obeyed! He tries to convince me that little sins are o.k., and he

tries to make me afraid of him, and, if I DO sin,

he’s right there to accuse me before God!

But, his power to control you is gone! Jesus has

"condemned sin... (destroyed sin’s power) in the

flesh" (Romans 8:3) The power of sin over you

has been destroyed,.. and condemned! It’s no longer

your master! You are NO LONGER it’s slave! It no

longer has control over you! You now have a NEW

Master. You are now a slave to righteousness. You

have "the gift of the Spirit,... self-control."

(Gal. 5:22-23)

This is YOUR Independance Day! If you’ve never

understood this before,... YOU don’t have to fight

the devil,.. Jesus already fought him and won! You

and I NO LONGER have to SERVE sin! We have

been set free to serve the Savior,... not out of an

obligation, not out of a duty, but, out of love!

Although we are INDEPENDENT of sin,.. we are

to be DEPENDENT on Jesus! We are to believe

in HIS victory for us! We are to trust HIM to live His life through us! We’re to REST in His finished work!

Imagine a baby inside of its mother,.. if he could

talk, he might say, "I am IN MOM!" He might say,

"My Life is MOM!" That baby is totally dependant

on his Mom! He depends on her for oxygen, for

blood, for food,... for life! Apart from his Mom, he

can do nothing!

That’s us! We are IN JESUS! HE is our very life!

We depend on Him for victory,.. for peace,.. for joy,.. without Him we can do nothing!

Look at John 15,.. where we are told by Jesus that

"I (Jesus) am the vine,.. YOU are the branches!" The

duty of the baby is to DEPEND on the Mother! The

duty of the believer is to DEPEND on the Savior!

He told us, "Without Me you can do nothing!" (vs. 5)

Notice, He didn’t say "without My power, you can

do nothing." No,.. He said "without ME you can do

nothing!" Notice, He didn’t say "without prayer you

can do nothing"... He didn’t say "without fasting you

can do nothing".. He didn’t say a lot of things,.. but, he DID say, "without ME you can do nothing!"

Jesus wants to be OUR VERY LIFE! He was the

ONLY One who has ever successfully lived a life

totally pleasing to God! How can you or I be able

to match that? WE CAN’T! Jesus must do it in us

and through us! The Life of the Baby is the life of

the Mom! The Life of the Branch is the Vine!

Return to the Garden of Eden, for a picture of how

it was meant to be,... How God set it up to be, and

how NOW, through Jesus, God brings us back to

the Garden! Adam and Eve were free,.. there was

no list of rules, no laws to govern their thoughts or

actions,.. there was just God and them, "walking

together in the cool of the evening." (Gen. 3:8)

Yes, there was ONE restriction,.. don’t eat of that

one tree. That was it. For all they knew, that tree

was poison! God did tell them, "the day you eat

of it, you will die." (Gen. 2:16-17)

But, God intended for His two new creations to be

in fellowship with Him,.. to enjoy their time together, to get to know each other,.. and to