JR. Forasteros - October 7, 2018
Providential Relationships
We have all encountered people who impacted our faith - for better and for worse. Relationships are important - and inevitable. How can we be wise about our relationships? How can we be intentional both to see how God is working and to be ready to partner with God?
From Series: "5 Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith"
How do we discover life-changing faith What would your life look like if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt God was real? How would your relationships be different? How would your job be different? In this series, we'll explore the five things God uses to take our faith to the next level. We'll learn how we can partner with God to have the kind of faith we thought was only for spiritual giants. God wants you to have big faith. Saying YES starts here!
More Messages From JR. Forasteros...
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I’m not sure there’s a higher American value than personal freedom. Nearly any conversation in civil discourse, from gun control to economic policies to public speech and religion often end up coming back to this “Don’t Tread on Me” mentality that fed the American Revolution.
“Don’t Tread On Me”… We want to be selves without limits. We want no boundaries, no borders, no limitations. We want to be free, unboxed, uncaged, unrestrained.
We recognize that purely unrestrained freedom isn’t realistic.
I remember learning in elementary school that ‘freedom of speech’ doesn’t mean we can, for instance, shout ‘Fire’ in a crowded movie theater. When our freedom of expression puts others in harm’s way, it becomes toxic to a society.
Similarly, in our relationships we recognize constraints. Our marriage vows bind us, reduce our freedoms (which is why the more cynical among us call marriage a ‘ball and chain’ – an image from prison). We identify friends who take and take and take and never contribute to the other person’s good a toxic friend. Having children involves a complete overhaul of priorities and involves the loss of many freedoms – including the freedom to sleep whenever you want.
And yet we recognize these relationships as good – good for us and good for the world.
Maybe freedom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Maybe it’s a good, but no the highest good. If that’s true, it could change how we engage in conversations over personal freedoms.
Let’s explore in a bit more depth our desire for freedom and what’s behind it. We’ll see that a quest for freedom can become a kind of idolatry (and we’re not the first people to fall for it).
