{"id":2909,"date":"2021-10-29T15:49:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T23:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2909"},"modified":"2021-10-29T15:49:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T23:49:35","slug":"devotion-831-33-free-indeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2909","title":{"rendered":"Devotion 8:31-33 Free Indeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 8:31-33<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,\u00a0\u201cIf you continue in My word,\u00a0then\u00a0you are truly My\u00a0disciples;\u00a032\u00a0and\u00a0you will know the truth, and\u00a0the truth will set you free.\u201d\u00a033\u00a0They answered Him, \u201cWe are Abraham\u2019s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how\u00a0is it that\u00a0You say,\u00a0\u2018You will become free\u2019?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cSo Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,\u00a0\u201cIf you continue in My word,\u00a0then\u00a0you are truly My\u00a0disciples<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019 quickly set aside the notion that these people did not have a saving kind of belief, a saving faith.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s simply just believe what the Word says here.\u00a0\u00a0First of all the original word came from the word \u201cpisteu\u00f3.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The same word for those whom the Word uses for those who came to believe in Him. (V30<\/b>) The Word says here that these people had move from non-faith, or nonbelief in Jesus, to faith and belief in Him.\u00a0\u00a0So these former nonbelievers had become believers, genuine saved believers.<\/p>\n

Further proof of their saving belief is Jesus saying that if they \u201ccontinue\u201d in their faith.\u00a0\u00a0So we see that these people who came to believe have the option to continue in their very real faith.\u00a0\u00a0We see that these new believers had free will to choose to believe in Jesus and afterward they had they had free will to not continue to believe in Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0A believer does not have his free will removed after coming to Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0In fact the glorious, beautiful wonder of the Lord bringing about the salvation of mankind, and keeping them, is such a grandiose, chest pounding, tear invoking wonder of how incredible is God that it is almost impossible to conceive.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God gives overwhelming reasons to remain in Him, in His love, there is no reason to remove free will after conversion. As scripture calls the man who steadfastly rejects God a fool, how much more so is the one who has walked with God for a time and then simply walked away.\u00a0\u00a0So Jesus says \u201cIf\u201d (not \u201csince\u201d) they continue then they are truly the disciples who will be with Him in Heaven.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIf\u201d they do not continue they will not be His disciples and will not have their eternal place with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd\u00a0you will know the truth, and\u00a0the truth will set you free.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0Once having known the Truth, then understanding and knowledge from above will belong to the Believer.\u00a0\u00a0Those who remain in darkness, out of The Light, cannot receive the heavenly truth that they have rejected when they rejected Jesus and His Words, which are also the Father\u2019s truth.\u00a0\u00a0Someone who is enslaved by lies and deceits of the world does not know that they are and the burden of slavery that holds them.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed it is hard for them to even conceive of its existence, as we shall see in the upcoming verses.\u00a0\u00a0A slave is abused.\u00a0\u00a0They think it is a normal part of everyone\u2019s existence.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But once the heavenly truth is received, and they realize the difference between the slavery of the evil one and the goodness of God, they understand that they no longer have chains upon them, that they can drop the tools of slave labor, and can walk unencumbered to do the will of the one who loves them.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, freedom to those who didn\u2019t know they had previously been slaves.\u00a0\u00a0It takes the Truth, delivered through Jesus, to have the change by receiving the Truth.<\/div>\n

\u201cThey answered Him, \u201cWe are Abraham\u2019s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how\u00a0is it that\u00a0You say,\u00a0\u2018You will become free\u2019?\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0The unbelieving descendants of Abraham who did not receive the truth and so remained in the dark, could not grasp that they were slaves to the evil one and to the world.\u00a0\u00a0Thinking they knew truth they couldn\u2019t understand what they did not know.\u00a0\u00a0Thinking they could inherit the truth by the blood of mankind when God declares that the only truth of salvation was the shed blood of perfect divinity.<\/p>\n

It is truth that prideful and ignorant people think they know but are blind.\u00a0\u00a0One of the obnoxious statements that people who own pets but are not parents say to parents is that they know what having a child is like because they have a pet.\u00a0\u00a0Often there is no explaining to them how wrong they are.\u00a0\u00a0I love our dog!\u00a0\u00a0But loving him has very little resemblance to how I love my sons.\u00a0\u00a0So people state they understand the Truth of God\u2019s word while looking through the storefront windows.\u00a0\u00a0So blind, so sad.\u00a0\u00a0We must yield completely to Jesus and grow in our love for Him.\u00a0\u00a0As our love grows our understanding and belief grows.\u00a0\u00a0We are stripped of the chains that once bound us and the poundage of dropped burdens free us celebrate our liberty in Him.\u00a0\u00a0Be free.\u00a0\u00a0Be who the Lord has created you to be.\u00a0\u00a0His beloved child.\u00a0\u00a0Once the chains are dropped we are free, free indeed.\u00a0\u00a0Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/i><\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 8:31-33\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,\u00a0\u201cIf you continue in My word,\u00a0then\u00a0you are truly My\u00a0disciples;\u00a032\u00a0and\u00a0you will know the truth, and\u00a0the truth will set you free.\u201d\u00a033\u00a0They answered Him, \u201cWe are Abraham\u2019s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how\u00a0is it that\u00a0You say,\u00a0\u2018You will become free\u2019?\u201d \u201cSo Jesus was saying to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[100,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2910,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions\/2910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}