070398 ...A Christian Bill of rights. Called to Liberty... Gal. 5

by Ronald E. George Jr.

Gala 5:13 (KJS) For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16 [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Human rights are fundamental entitlements that all persons enjoy as protection against state conduct prohibited by international law or custom. Here is the list of rights that we now enjoy as people of God. God gives us the opportunity to choose and the power to become who he has created us to be.

1. Right to serve one another: the right to give up your rights for the rights of another. The right to die so that others may live.

2. Right to love thy neighbor as thyself. Christianity begins when the sense of privilege in service becomes greater than both the rights and duties. For us to be Christian is to be more willing to serve a man than he is to demand it; to go the second mile; to forgive seventy times seven; to pray on our Calvaries for the man who put us there; to act, that is, as no one has the right to require of us and to feel about it all that our meat and drink are to do the will of him that sent us. The essential word of Christianity is love, and that means superabundant willingness to help. A man becomes really a Christian when the sense of joy in ministry overflows both rights and duties and submerges them.

3. Right to Walk in the Spirit and to be led of the Spirit. The right to join with God and with those who he has created. Empowered and Enabled to follow him through the Spirit of the Lord that lives within us.

4. Right to bear fruit of the Spirit

which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

*But the fruit of the Spirit.* The fruits named are not our fruits, but of the Spirit in us. If we bear these fruits we show that we have the Spirit. There are four groups:

(1) Love, the Christian grace which works out the whole law.

(2) Joy and peace, which are the normal state of the Christian.

(3) The graces which relate to other, longsuffering, gentleness,goodness, fidelity (faith), meekness.

(4) The last fruit looks to oneself, temperance, or self-control. It implies not only abstinence from injurious drinks and food, but control of the temper, the tongue, thedesires, the passion for money or power.

A MAN came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a handle for his axe. The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young ash-tree. No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from it, than he began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest. An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, "The first step has lost us all. If we had not given up the rights of the ash, we might yet have retained our own privileges and have stood for ages."

If we give Satan and sin even one inch of our lives, they will come and take it all and ultimately destroy us.

Invitation: Gala 5:13 (KJS) For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,