Welcome from Pastor Patrick Curley

“True Freedom Through Christ”

I know we all like to think of ourselves as free spirits.  We come and go as we please.  Eat what we want, dress how we feel and pursue our own definitions of happiness.  Yeah, we like to think that but in truth we are more at the mercy of whims and forces than we’d care to admit.  More often than not our choices are made up before we even know they are in front of us to make.

Take, for example, the subtle but omnipresent influence of advertizing that creeps into our psyche and tells us we really won’t be happy unless we wash our hair with this or that shampoo.  There is a whole science behind where products are placed in stores to make us buy them.  Everything from colors used on packaging and those catchy rhythmic tunes we hum to ourselves control much of what we eat, wear and dictates what we think will make us happy. Then there is peer pressure, parental/societal expectations, fear and guilt and trying to be like our role models. We aren’t so free after all but this is only the half of it. Our very will is bound by sin. 

Free will is something Adam and Eve had for a brief time in the Garden of Eden before they succumbed to Satan’s temptation and disobeyed God.  After that, there is no free will.  Man’s will is held in captivity to sin; a slave to it.  This is known as concupiscence.  We are bent from birth to choose our own way over God’s which is no choice at all when you understand we can do nothing else.  Sin makes us love ourselves most and try as we might, we find that power and influence at work in our life decisions.  This path, of course, leads finally to hell.  But even though we have no choice in the matter, God maintains His right to choose.  And in His loving grace, He has chosen us.

Lent is a season to remind us of this fundamental truth.  We are reminded of our sin and the effects of our reckless, selfish choices.  We are told again of the pointlessness of trying to find God through our power of choice relying instead totally on His love and grace to save us from sin, death and hell. But we are also comforted that He has chosen us from eternity to be His own.  Through the gift of faith He has given us we can seek His will now.  We can make choices that are pleasing in His sight while always resting on His choice to send His Son to atone for our sins.

I hope you choose to join me each week both Sundays and Wednesdays.  But do so not because I tell you or others expect it.  Come as the Holy Spirit calls you.  Come as a hungry soul wishing to be fed. Come seeking the true freedom that comes by living by grace through faith against the bondage of sin and selfishness.  See ya’!