I Will Walk at Liberty for I Seek Thy Precepts

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

How can you have more freedom by living with more restrictions?

It sounds counterintuitive.  It sounds like nonsense.

We want to be free to do whatever we want, whenever we want.  The more limits, the less freedom, right?  It’s a one-to-one ratio.

Yet we find a different concept in the Bible.

Psalm 119:45 says, “I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts.”

The precepts are God’s commands, His laws, His principles, His boundaries, His guidelines.  It’s God’s blueprint for how to live.

It says we can have liberty and freedom as we seek to live within His boundaries.

But there is something inside of us that doesn’t want boundaries.  Tell a man not to cross a line and some part of him is itching to do it.

And God lets us cross the line.  We have the free will to crisscross His boundaries all day long.

But there are consequences for crossing God’s boundaries, and one of the big ones is:  less freedom.

“No, Doug.  That sounds like MORE freedom.”

I know that’s what it looks like.  I’m trying to live within God’s boundaries, and let’s say someone else isn’t.  They can do things I won’t do.  They can say things I won’t say.  They can ingest things I won’t ingest, watch things I won’t watch, listen to things I won’t listen to, do things with their body I won’t do.  They sound way more free than I do, right?

And that’s what makes this Bible verse sound absurd, “I will walk at liberty for I seek Thy precepts.”

Now let’s look at what Jesus said in John chapter eight.  In verse 34 He said that whoever sins is a slave of sin.

Sin is anything outside God’s boundaries.  We are all free to exercise our freedom INSIDE God’s boundaries, but as soon as we step OUTSIDE of His boundaries we are now in a territory called sin.

And Jesus said that whoever steps into that territory of sin becomes a slave of sin.

And being a slave is the opposite of being free.

That’s why Psalm 119:45 says, “I will walk at liberty for I seek Thy precepts.”

When we seek His precepts, we are seeking to know God’s boundaries.  Where are the lines?  I want to know where the lines are so I can stay in freedom and out of sin so I don’t become a slave of sin.

Now when we think of slavery, we think of being forced to do things we don’t want to do.  Sin, on the other hand, is often what we DO want to do, so how is that slavery?

It’s slavery because listen:  sin always traps you in circumstances you don’t want to be in.

I’ll say it again.  Sin always traps you in circumstances you don’t want to be in.  That’s the slavery.

So yeah, you might think of a sin and how much you want to do it.  That’s called temptation.  It’s the treat inside the trap.  It’s the bait hiding the hook.  God said don’t do it, but you WANT to do it, and you want to be free to do it, and God seems like a killjoy when He says, “Don’t.”

You can go ahead and do it, but if you sin, you’re going to find that there’s always WAY more to it than the thrill on the surface.  Sin ALWAYS traps you in circumstances you don’t want to be in.

That’s why God gives us boundaries.  He wants us to be free, and His words help us to live free.  Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Verse 44 says, “So shall I keep Thy law continually for ever and ever.”

And verse 45 says, “And I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts.”

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Be the Big Stroller Wheel

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

Yay, it’s time to go to the festival!

Thankfully you have an umbrella stroller for the baby.  Just unfold it, strap him in, and off you go.

Watch out for rocks, though.  And uneven sidewalks.  And sticks.  

In fact, just watch out for everything, because the wheels on an umbrella stroller are so janky that even a pebble can potentially block the wheel.

On the other end of the stroller spectrum is the jogging stroller.  You can actually run with a jogging stroller and its big wheels will easily roll over all the little obstacles, giving baby a smooth ride.

This is a good illustration for life, because as you know, life is full of little obstacles that can stop you in your tracks.  But listen:  they don’t have to.

You can approach life as a little janky hard plastic stroller wheel, or you can approach life as a big shock absorbing jogging stroller wheel.

When little hard wheels hit an obstacle there is a noticeable lurch.  It can even stop you in your tracks.  And that’s how some people are with little offenses.  They take the hit.  It stops them in their tracks.  It gets them off course.  They get upset.  They get angry.  How dare you!

But some people have learned how to be the big stroller wheel.  When little offenses come their way, they roll right over them, hardly even noticing.  There is no lurch.  They aren’t stopped in their tracks.  They don’t get knocked off course.  They don’t get upset.  They don’t angry.  They don’t scream, “How dare you!”  They just keep going because, like a big stroller wheel, they had the ability to glide right over all the little offenses.

You can tell the little stroller wheels because they are prickly about everything.  All the little offenses stop them.  And they have to stop and talk about them, over and over.  “I’ll never forget what so and so did to me.”

It’s so much better to be the big stroller wheel and just roll past offenses.  You have things to do, places to go, missions to accomplish.  You can’t be stopped by every little offense, so like a big stroller wheel, just smoothly roll right over them.

Proverbs 19:11 says a wise man is slow to anger and overlooks offenses.  That’s the big stroller wheel!  It just rolls over offenses and keeps going.

If you want to make your life so much better, get rid of the umbrella stroller attitude.  Stop getting hung up on every little offense.  It’s not worth it, and babies get dumped in the process.

Instead, be the big stroller wheel.  Be the wise person from Proverbs 19:11 who knows when to overlook an offense and just keep rolling.

You’ll get farther.  You’ll go faster.  And no babies will be harmed in the process.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.