True Freedom

Coral Ridge Ministries

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True Freedom

John 8:32

November 10, 2024

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

— John 8:32

The world boasts about its freedom all of the time. For example, there is a poem that starts like this:

It matters not how straight the gate,

how charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate.

I am the captain of my soul.

Hogwash! Luther put it much more accurately when he said that the will of the unregenerate man is like a dumb jackass ridden by the devil who turns it whithersoever he will. Or to change the metaphor, he is like a man chained to the oars below deck while Satan steers the ship laughingly over the precipice into the churning chasm beneath.

But the Christian has been set free…free to serve Christ, free to follow Christ, free to do great things for Christ because those shackles have been broken at Calvary.

It begins with repentance, a determination to turn from sin and to follow Jesus Christ. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6)—which is a continual repenting of sin and determining to follow Christ in all the ways of new obedience.

Somebody said, “There are just so many people in me. If I only knew which one I was, I would know what I ought to do.” But if we set our hearts on the determination to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves, then we are fulfilling the greatest command. True freedom is the choice to do what is right.

Oh, God of Truth, give us the strength today to live in the freedom which Your truth provides. Thank You for our freedom in Christ Jesus to live our lives in service and in truth. Let the truth continue to bring freedom and let us be faithful bearers of truth…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN WALK IN FREEDOM FROM SIN.

Lessons From Belshazzar’s Fall

November 18, 2024

“Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem…They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.” — Daniel 5:3-4 The grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar was the king who held a great pagan feast, using the goblets stolen from the Jewish Temple some decades before. Belshazzar went white when he saw God’s literal handwriting on the wall against him. Now that story of Belshazzar the king and the astounding events of that night of his great feast have lessons which are as fresh today as they were when they were first given: Here is a picture of the foolishness of those who trust in merely the things of this world. How foolish was Belshazzar to trust in the impregnable walls of Babylon—the walls that were so easily breached by diverting the river Euphrates. It reminds us that those who will not study history are doomed to repeat it. Belshazzar had a tremendous lesson from his grandfather of humbling oneself before God. Nonetheless, Belshazzar went on his way to his unexpected destruction. Belshazzar’s sin was not just drunkenness and debauchery, but the super-abounding sin of impiety and blasphemy. Lord, God of history, teach us to heed those who have gone before us and give us the strength to live a godly life in the midst of a blasphemous people. Help us to remember that all who mock Your name and flaunt their sin in Your face will be called to account and that it is Your people who will triumph… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN LIVE AN HONORABLE LIFE.

The Bible and Angels

November 17, 2024

“And He was there in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts. And the angels ministered to Him.” — Mark 1:13 We seem to be living in the time when angels are getting much attention, even in movies or television. One of the most common myths is the idea that an angel was once a human being and now is in the process of earning his wings by returning to earth and doing good things. But an angel never was, and never will be, anything other than an angel. And a human being never was, and never will be, anything other than a human being. They are separate orders of creation. All of the angels were made at once. They did not descend from original parents as we did, but they were all created at the same time and they do not procreate. Angels are far superior to us in almost any way that you can imagine. They are wiser and they are holier—at least those who have kept their first estate and are not fallen angels. The devil and demons are all angels. They are fallen, sinful angels that took part in a rebellion and now are loosed upon this earth, but they are still fallen angels. Angels are also much more powerful than we are. We realize that in the Old Testament we read of one angel who destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. The Bible makes it very plain that you are not to take on the devil in your strength, and only by Christ do we have any possibility of winning any contests that we may have with him. Jesus, King of the Angels, give me strength today to know my place in creation, a little lower than the angels, but crowned with glory and honor. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for having dominion over both Your angels, the ministering spirits who do Your will, and the fallen angels who seek to cause us harm. Thank You for Your angels who do Your will… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN WELCOME THE HELP OF HIS ANGELS.

You Can Trust the Bible

November 16, 2024

“…and Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his eunuchs. The king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.” — 2 Kings 24:12 Higher critics have done their best to destroy trust in the Scriptures. Yet, all of their efforts only confirmed the reliability of the Bible for those willing to look at the facts. For the last 150 years, archeologists have excavated thousands of sites in the Near East, sometimes with great animosity toward the Scripture, attempting to disprove it. Yet virtually every time they turned over their spades, they discovered another confirmation of the Bible. For example, one of the last kings of Judah, Jehoiachin, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon and thrown into prison, where he and his family languished for 37 years. Then we read that a later king lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison, spoke kindly to him, gave him new clothes, caused him to sit at his table, and he provided him with an allowance for the rest of his days. Well, the critics had a field day with that—no Babylonian king would ever treat anybody so graciously as that. But in the hanging gardens of Babylon, 300 clay tablets have been found. These were written from 595 to 570 B.C., and they list many of the nations that were brought captive into Babylon, including Judah. One of these tablets is called the Jehoiachin tablet. The Jehoiachin tablet confirms exactly what the Bible has said all along. God Almighty, Lord of the kings of the earth, grant me strength today to trust You in all things. Thank You for the reliability of Your Word. Thank You for the trustworthiness of all You say. IN GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN TRUST HIS ETERNAL WORD.