Prov. 1:14 Join with us! We will all share equally in what we steal.
Charles Dickens’ character Jacob Marley said it best. “I wear the chain I forged in life, I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
Nobody gets away with anything. Num. 32:23b Be certain of this, that your sin will catch up to you! The prisons are full of people who thought they could and would get away with the crime they planned out. Who had these gullible people hooked up with or chained their souls to that caused them to choose friends who brought them down into the pit? You are either yoked to the Lord or you are chained to someone or something in the world.
Even though Judas was a disciple of Jesus, he never yoked or tied his heart to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He hung out with the Lord and managed the ministry’s finances, but Judas’ heart was still in the world. How is it possible to walk and talk with Jesus and not be swept away by the work of the Holy Spirit? This demonstrates how strong the personal will of man is that God created within each one of us. God made sure that we – through our personal choice – would choose the will of God for our lives. It had to be our choice because God gives us free will.
The Scribes and Pharisees were able to coerce Judas’ heart because his heart still belonged to the world system. When the proposal to betray Jesus was presented, in essence Judas had fallen in his heart for what the Proverb said. Prov. 1:14 Join with us! We will all share equally in what we steal.
What Judas and the Pharisees did not know was that the religious organization of the day could not steal what God was giving away through love. You cannot steal what is free. It is by our heartfelt choice we accept the love God has for us through faith in Christ. 1 John 3:1 Behold what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God–and we are! Because of this, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
At the mock trial of Jesus, the crowd shouted for the crucifixion of Jesus and the release of Barabbas. Mark 15:7 And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels; they had committed murder in the rebellion. Choices Barabbas made eventually had him chained to people just like himself. He had become what he put his heart and life into. He became shackled to those choices.
Here we have two examples of poor choices from different sides of the track per se. Judas hung out with Jesus and made a poor life-ending choice and Barabbas hung out with a bad crowd and made a lifetime of poor choices. The common thread is both of these men’s hearts were chained to worldliness and what was contrary to God’s law. Rom. 7:23 But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
There are people behind bars in prisons today who are free within their souls because they have accepted Jesus as Lord, and there are people who freely walk the streets who are chained up behind bars of their own self-made prisons. This is what Jesus delivers us from: our own self-made prisons. If we yoke our hearts to Jesus, no matter where we are in this earth we will be free. We may not always be comfortable, but we will be free. John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
What have you chained your heart to that needs breaking loose in your life? What shackles are keeping you from courageously moving forward in God? How long are the chain links that are dragging the spiritual life from your soul? It is time to let the Lord cause a prison break in your heart. Matt 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Be free. Be blessed. Make the choice.
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