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Written by Mel Wild for “In My Father’s House” @ https://melwild.wordpress.com

Original post @  https://melwild.wordpress.com/2021/03/13/breaking-chains/

Breaking Chains

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Mel Wild

I’ve been talking about the insidiously evil nature of Identity Politics and Critical Theories, and how these neo-Marxist offshoots are destroying our culture and nation. Seeing us go down this dystopian slippery-slope is a bit depressing, so I thought I would share a worship post to uplift us! Frankly, after all the research I’ve had to do with the ugliness of Socialism, I really need this respite! Time for good news!

The good news is, in God’s heavenly family there’s no such distinction between race, ethnicity, class, or gender, and there are no oppressors or oppressed. Everyone is equal and free in Christ’s kingdom.

²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal.3:27-28 NIV*)

From its inception, Jesus’ Church has been multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. We see leaders—men and women, black, white, Jewish, Greek, Roman, African, and from various Mediterranean cities—as integral to the earliest formation of the Church.

Here’s one example:

In the church at Antioch there were a number of prophets and teachers of the Word, including Barnabas, Simeon from Niger, Lucius the Libyan, Manean (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. (Acts 13:1 TPT)

Simeon was a black man from Africa; Lucius was of unknown ethnicity from Libya; Manean was from a royal background; and Saul was a Jew, a religious Pharisee from a Roman province in modern-day Turkey.

There were also great women leaders in the church like Phoebe, Junia, and Priscilla (Rom.16:1-7).

Many of the early church were made up of household slaves. This term is a bit misleading to our modern understanding since the word for “slave” can also mean “employee” or just “servant.” Many actual slaves were more like what we would think of as indentured servants.  Some were serving wealthy believers, like Onesimus was to Philemon’s household (Phile.1:8-16).

There are also no “generation gaps” in the Kingdom. Some leaders were considered very young, like Timothy (1 Tim.4:12), who led people much older than himself.

Credit: Destiny World Missions

The point is, in God’s kingdom there is only beautiful diversity without divisiveness—people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, because of what God has done in Christ!

⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, ¹⁰ And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”                  (Rev. 5:9-10 NKJV*)

This is Jesus’ universal Church, both in heaven and on the earth! Yes, wicked people have disgraced its beauty and majesty throughout history because of their small-minded bigotry, prejudice, pettiness, and religious mean-spiritedness. Nonetheless, this is the authentic “assembly of called out ones”—the eklessia—Jesus’ beautifully-adorned bride, His body, the beloved sons and daughters of God our Father!

⁴ But when the time of fulfillment had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. ⁵ Yet all of this was so that he would redeem and set free those held hostage to the law so that we would receive our freedom and a full legal adoption as his children.

⁶ And so that we would know that we are his true children, God released the Spirit of Sonship into our hearts—moving us to cry out intimately, “My Father! My true Father!” ⁷ Now we’re no longer living like slaves under the law, but we enjoy being God’s very own sons and daughters! And because we’re his, we can access everything our Father has—for we are heirs because of what God has done! (Gal.4:4-7 TPT*)

Jesus came to give us freedom, including freedom from religious bondage (Gal.5:1). He came to free us from all the chains that hold us—the lies we believe about God and each other (John 8:32). He has not called us to change the world through authoritarian activism, but to remain in His love, and to love others as we are loved by Him (John 15:9-12), so that the world can experience this freedom in His love.

We are called to be diffusers of this liberating experience in Christ’s love wherever we go!

¹⁴ God always makes his grace visible in Christ, who includes us as partners of his endless triumph. Through our yielded lives he spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go. (2 Cor.2:14 TPT)

On that note, I will include a New Song Café video from a few years ago with Tasha Cobbs and Will Reagan. They talk about and sing, “Break Every Chain,” a song that has become an anthem that has crosses over all ethnic lines in the Church today. Will Reagan, the author of the song, shares how the song came about, and Tasha shares her experience hearing it.

If you’re as weary as me of all the “woke” insanities and divisiveness going on around us, take a moment and let this song minister to your heart. No matter what’s happening in this world, Jesus is still the truth that makes all of us free.

Beloved, “There’s an army rising up”—the Church of Jesus Christ-—so let’s break every chain in His name!” Amen.

* All emphasis added.

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P.S. (from bruce) When there is no other place to turn…turn to God !!  If you’re not a “born again” Christian, is the Holy Spirit urging you to open this link ??  Here is the truth for this most important days writing, about how God’s grace is received to become a Christian in God’s eyes; through understanding and obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ…   https://godsmanforever.com

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, please feel free to share this message of the cross with those in need…

You say you are a “born again” believer…  BUT are you “ON FIRE” for the Lord ??  If not, open this link – https://godsmanforever.com/2020/08/01/are-you-a-christian-in-gods-eyes-and-on-fire-for-the-lord-or-not/

Picture credit:  https://www.google.com/search?q=image+there+is+power+in+the+name+of+Jesus+Bible&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwigg5iYo7LvAhWMZ98KHWQlCr0Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=image+there+is+power+in+the+name+of+Jesus+Bible&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoCCAA6BggAEAcQHjoICAAQCBAHEB46BggAEAgQHlCCzwNY37AEYIG1BGgAcAB4AIABUYgBsxOSAQIzNpgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=xk9PYKCIHIzP_QbkyqjoCw&bih=801&biw=1262&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS832US832#imgrc=wMg_bl53NYGVUM