15 North 10th. St., Payette, Idaho 83661 (208) 642-2598
From the Pastor Desk
The Original Emancipation Man
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February is the month when we celebrate Presidents’ Day, the holiday that remembers George Washington’s and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays (the formers on the 22nd and latter’s on the 12th). History has proven both men were great and deserve to have their birthday’s recognized. However, I want to focus on Lincoln, referring to him as the Emancipation Man, because he instituted the Emancipation Proclamation. That piece of our history, enacted on New Year’s Day in 1863, declared that all slaves were free men, despite many still enslaved in the South. Lincoln’s writ stated that slaves in the South (Confederate States) would be free if they could make their way to the North (Union States). There is great significance to that last sentence.
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A runaway slave would need to travel any number of miles at great risk to cross into Northern State and become free. The slave who successfully did had to address two key aspects of their new found freedom. First, living a new life required a new manner of thinking. The freed slave had to accept a degree of responsibility to enjoy their freedom. Employment beyond the demands of the plantation might necessitate the acquisition of new skills. Second, the now free individual could not afford to look back, they had a bright future demanding the past be left in the past.
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Those emancipated men and women had much in common with us. For example, we too, were emancipated from a form of slavery (sin), and becoming spiritually free requires a new manner of thinking coupled with a relinquishment of former ways. And, we also owe our emancipation to a man – Jesus Christ, the God-man. Indeed, He is the original emancipation man. Jesus’ human flesh enveloped human organs and each would cease to function when He experienced a very mortal death on the Cross. That death, appointed to Him sometime in the eternal past, and accompanied by His mortally wounded body and shed blood set us free, just as violent lethality ended the lives of Union soldiers whose deaths aided the freedom of slaves.
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Regarding my words, “becoming spiritually free requires a new manner of thinking coupled with a relinquishment of former ways,” we can only be truly free as we put into practice two biblical mandates. One is found in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Literally, no longer have the form, or be shaped by, the world. Instead, have your form changed by a thorough brainwashing! In other words, we become genuinely free by the truth of God’s word (John 8:32) as it renews our old way of thinking to be aligned with God’s ways through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-7).
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The relinquishing of our old ways is accomplished through repentance (Luke 5:32). Repenting is not being sorry. It means turning away from worldly ways and returning to God’s ways. It too, refers to a new way of thinking. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia (meta= changed; noia = thoughts).
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On this February 12th, you might recall Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves. But, but much more importantly, reflect on the original emancipation man and how He set you free from sin’s deadly grasp. And, determine to live an authentic freedom through a renewed mind and a repentant attitude. I know I will.
Pastor Steve