God is Freedom
Religious people have given God a really bad rep. He's often made out to be this angry, insecure, self-centered guy who imposes arbitrary rules on humanity. No wonder a lot of people don't want to have anything to do with him. A lot of bad Bible teaching hasn't helped the issue either. Leviticus, right? Most boring and confusing book of the Bible.
Unless it's not. Because God isn't that kind of person at all. What if God was like a kid running into the sunset? Free, full of hope and life and dreams and joy. How does that line up with your picture of God? Because it's actually the God that scripture shows us through Jesus. Playful, passionate, free. And he created us in that same image, to be free, and powerful, and beautiful and full of hope and life ourselves.
If your experience of Christian life feels like control, slavery, prison, or anything like that, if you've been made to feel small or dirty or untrustworthy, then my heart goes out to you. It was never meant to be that way. You are allowed to walk away from all that nonsense. You were created to be free, to pursue God and live in his love. To relish his affection and enjoy all of creation. You are no longer a slave to anyone or anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise has an agenda not worth following. There is an appropriate way to use your freedom, but that's a story for another day.
Be free!
“I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.”
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
“In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
“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.”
“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”
