Day 5 – September 5: Genesis 12-16 and John 8-9

We see the covenant that God establishes with Abram. Abram becomes rich as a result of his lying to Pharaoh about Sarah who goes into the Egyptian court for who knows how long. It turns out poorly for the ruler and Abraham eventually get back his wife, but I had forgotten that Pharaoh in this version of the story actually has Sarah in his court for quite a bit of time. It is obvious that he considers her now his wife until she is given back to Abraham. The horror that she must have been under because her husband forced her to pretend that she was his sister.

But let’s look at my favorite verse in the entire Bible. With children you don’t have favorites, but with Bible verses, I think it is okay to have favorites. If you look at John 8:32 you will find my favorite: “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” the desire for freedom is ingrained in all of our lives, and certainly is one with which I resonate. The freedom that we have in Christ is something that is unparalleled in this world. Jesus tells us in these verses that while we pursue sin in our lives we may think that we free, but in fact we are bound to the actions and the results that come about as a result of our sin. We become slaves to sin and its impacts on our lives.

When we choose to follow Jesus then he is our Lord and we live with the repercussions of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Those repercussions translate into a freedom that we cannot imagine. We often think that being a disciple of Jesus means living a rigid legalistic life. No, that is what Jesus came to fulfill, not institutionalize. Being a follower of Jesus is not being a follower of rules. It is being a follower of the one who gives life and life abundantly. That is what happens when we follow Jesus we see our entire life stretch out before us in a way that leads to life. This is the amazing thing about who Jesus is, he gives us life and freedom. It is that freedom that I will always want to pursue.