Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1)

Freedom:  for Abraham, the first step toward freedom came with the Word of the Lord coming to him:  Leave your people and your father's house and come to a land I will show you.  Abraham first left "Ur of the Chaldeans" (Babylonians), where the sun, moon, and stars were worshipped as gods, and went to the land of Haran, in what is modern-day Syria, bordering on Turkey.  But the call of God was insistent; he had not yet arrived at "the land I will show you."  So, taking all he possessed, he started out again, stopping frequently along the way for worship and communion with the God who was leading him.

Freedom:  for the Israelites in Egypt, the first step came with the Word of the Lord to Moses, who carried within his heart a burden for his people in slavery to the Egyptians:  Let my people go.  Moses, as Abraham, did not know the way, but constantly had to be led by God.

Freedom:  in our own lives, we are all either worshipping false gods or in slavery to "the principles of the world," as Paul puts it in Galatians, until the Word of the Lord comes to us to lead us out of bondage and to set us free.  If we are listening and receptive, the Word will lead us "out of the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers" (1 Pet. 1:18) and into the freedom to be who God created us to be.  Had Abraham remained in Haran, he would never have become the Father of a Nation; had Moses not acted on the Word of the Lord, the Hebrews would have perished forever under the Egyptian desert. 

We will never know the plans of God for our lives if we will not receive His Word and walk in it.  Mary became pregnant with the Word made flesh, and the world was set free.  What could happen to our lives and families if we also allow the Word of God to take flesh within us?