It is for Freedom

It's February 1st which not only means it's the start of my birthday month but Feb 1st is also National FREEDOM day a day where we commemorate Lincoln signing a joint resolution to outlaw slavery and I thought this would be the best way to start my newsletter because honestly, freedom has always been something of great importance to me.

I remember God using the story of Moses and the Israelites for a long period of time in my journey. Honestly, for YEARS I unpacked this story. The theme of enslavement and freedom was a storyline God really used for me as I navigated 'freedom in Christ' leaving a life of drugs, sex, and alcohol.

At first, I thought the freedom I needed was from substances, later I realized that it was a superficial coping mechanism I used to fix the trauma I experienced as a child… and that was the REAL place I needed freedom from.

Something that always struck me about the Israelites in the Moses story was how 2.5 months into FREEDOM they longed for things they had in bondage.

It says in Exodus 16 that the Israelites grumbled against Moses saying “if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, But you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death”

Wow right?

Like God really brought them out of slavery to just starve to death?? Let's not forget the mighty works the Lord did to free them from the Egyptians, plagues, plunder, and parting the Red Sea... Yet they literally said they thought it was better to die “by His hands” IN slavery vs experience his provision of freedom.

How inclined are we to be just like this?

With so many things, how often do we just align ourselves with enslaving ideals? Whether it's a way of thinking or a relationship, a substance, or a platform...Gods like I have freedom for you over here but we are so inclined to staying enslaved because it's feeding us in some way.

I am starting to realize that there is a freedom God has for us in all things and I'm really in a space of rethinking where I am aligning myself.

Conviction you could call it.

Especially after being de-platformed and censored in such a discourteous way on Twitter Instagram and Facebook for unreasonable "community standards".... Standards that actually hindered life-saving preventative medicine during a pandemic, methods that can delete whole accounts for a hashtag or "hate speech" yet Child Porn runs rampant. Silencing something as simple as a differing opinion.

It really begs us to question: am I really experiencing freedom on these sites?

Because if I were to be honest…. It doesn't feel too free….

Galatians 5:1 says:It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

As a kid, I didn’t know what YOKE meant. I seriously thought egg yoke but in actuality, its the binding together of 2 things as described in the photo below it typically was used with oxen for agriculture purposes

but this YOKE, the YOKE of slavery is an actual thing that was used as means of ownership and control to those enslaved.

So on this National Day of Freedom when we recognize Lincoln's amendment to outlaw slavery.

I ask you, do your activities on these specific sites feel like freedom?

Enslavement has a funny way of creeping in… if it's done well without rejection it's done one compromise after another until you are seemingly trapped.

I’m really starting to question these things myself and like you, I have used FB as a way to scrapbook my life. I’ve found so many wonderful friends on that platform that I would’ve never met in real life, and if I were honest there really are things I can look at fondly and be thankful for but in this new season of protecting God-ordained freedom I can't in good conscience still say it feels free…

So with this line of thinking, I wonder, if you would just start to consider what we are aligning ourselves with. If we stand for freedom but still operate in this oppressive place are we actually standing firm against the YOKE of slavery?

I think it's time to consider leaving those platforms for ones that won’t negate the truth or facts, platforms that won't silence or discredits OUR belief system.

So with that, I would like to put an intention out there, and maybe you would feel inclined to join me but I want to separate from ideals that don't align with freedom.

And because I feel so strongly about freedom I plan to leave FB on the 4th of July as a way to declare my independence from THEIR oppressive community standards. I am tired of those standards not reflecting my own.

It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free, Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the YOKE of slavery

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