Christian Living

From Autonomy To Self Destruction

by Brother Carlton 
09/02/24
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For a culture that values freedom think about this;
Suppose I came to you and said, “What if I could promise you total freedom - that you could do anything you wanted and there would be no consequences?”

Yeah, essentially, you would become your own God. You are your own authority. You see, you make up the rules as you go, day by day. You don't have to answer to anybody and the greatest thing about it is, there are no consequences. Nobody can ever accuse you of doing the bad thing, because there's no such thing as bad - what you do is right.

Well, that's essentially what the devil promised Adam and Eve: “In the day you eat of it - the forbidden fruit, you shall not die, but you should be like God,”  knowing, that is, determining for yourself, what is good and evil.

Boy, if we don't have a generation of young people and old alike today that have bought into that lie, then I don't know what we have. But we have mass deception, don’t we?

So, we really need to think about our relationship to God, that we find our freedom in Christ, actually.

The Bible says,” If the Son shall set you free, you are free indeed.” And that freedom consists mostly of our freedom from sin; freedom from the penalty of sin, freedom from the power of sin, though not yet freedom from the presence of sin. We still have sin in our lives.

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

But we no longer live in it. We no longer live in it’s power. We hate sin. As the Word says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things have passed away, behold all things have become new.”

And so, let this dwell in you.  Let this truth permeate your being as you find a meaning and purpose for your life. It's only found in Christ. Apart from Christ we can do nothing  but wander.  Wander. Wander in an endless, aimless way in a universe of chaos. You see that's what I did for many years even though I professed to be a Christian. I was always searching for that best job.

I had over 40 jobs in my lifetime. It wasn't until I actually had my junk hauling business that I found satisfaction and some independence. I certainly had variety and I made more money than I ever made at anything else.

But I think that God wants me to do something else now, and that's work on my books and evangelism.

We really just don’t know how long we have to live. We’ve got to get busy and work. We’ve got to keep busy.  We’ve got to be productive.

The thing about a lot of these self-help gurus and self improvement people is that it's usually based around what they want, and what they can do, apart from God. I don't hear these motivators mentioning God too much. It is always about a belief in yourself.  You gotta believe in yourself.

No, we've got to believe in God  We've got to believe In Christ.

He says, “Without me you can do nothing,” in John Chapter 15. Yeah we have to abide in Him, or we’re fruitless and if we are fruitless, he's going to cut us off and cast us into the fire.

That's a picture of hell.  Think about this and may the Lord richly bless you. Until we meet again.

Brother Carlton ministers the gospel to the Los Angeles area. Formerly a Hollywood actor (SAG member) and junk removal expert, he now spends most of his time studying the scriptures, writing articles, hymns, and poems, and doing street preaching. See all his videos on YouTube brother Carlton.