CSN - LightWing Messages - Sunday - Love of Liberty in our Legacy - 7/28/2024

Jul 28, 2024

Transitioning From Old to New Covenant - For His Glory TX

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:1-18 (NIV)

2 Corinthians 3:17 - Freedom Wallpaper - Christian Wallpapers and Backgrounds

FOUNDER’S MESSAGE:

This past Sunday, the LightWing Messages focused attention on God’s Hand in thwarting the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump. CSN - LightWing Messages - Sunday - Reflecting on God’s Grace - 7/21/2024 This event was an act of domestic terrorism and perhaps it may be more than that. The fallout, the investigations, and the political reverberations from such a crude and heinous act continue, and since this event, there has been much turbulence in the political arena regarding the 2024 elections. Our CPR edition yesterday (CPR Lifeline Advisory) focused on a portion of the switches by seemingly giving Kamala Harris a featured seat on the bus they

just threw Joe Biden under. The question remains as to who is really driving the bus.

It is simply to say that these are incredibly turbulent times, and Americans need to buckle up as we are in for a very rough and tumble roller coaster ride in this election year as the stakes are so high. Yet, despite the genuine hatred and desperate measures of the wanna-be tyrants, American citizens are realizing that the hatred is not just directed at an opposition candidate, that hatred has been, and is increasingly, targeting any Americans who begin to ask legitimate questions about the heavy-handed activities of our security agencies, and why it seems to be considered illegal to freely assemble, or speak freely, or worship God freely. And, when such situations of unquestioned state-dominance target ordinary citizens as the enemy of the state, the proverbial handwriting on the wall becomes apparent. These are stages of descent into tyranny – they bear no resemblance to the spirit of freedom.

Along this slippery slide toward an authoritarian state, in the presence of evil, amidst clear and present danger to the life of a true leader, millions of faith-filled Americans witnessed the Hand of God on July 13. This changes the dynamics of the culmination of the long march toward the Communist takeover, or the essential destruction, of America at the hands of domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic. God made His presence manifest in the presence of evil. He is not abandoning America just yet, and it is likely because of the people of faith who are striving to preserve the Land of the Free.

Obviously, there are many who do not believe in God, or they may doubt God’s capabilities, or they are so totally ignorant, they do not know what to believe in. Such a situation for this nation is truly unfortunate because Freedom does not hold much value for such people. It means they prefer slavery to Freedom. This is because they would not be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. Selfish and self-centered people have trouble believing in something beyond themselves because they are usually so full of themselves there is little room for much else. Or, so-called people of faith cannot comprehend God’s capabilities because they merely pretend to have faith. In either case, both extremes become candidates for slavery. They choose to enjoy the fruits of freedom, but tend to shy away from working to retain our freedoms, let alone fight for our God-given rights.

Human history is a history of human slavery, or slavery by other names. History is filled with such examples of those who would rather remain in slavery than risk their lives for Freedom. It is so as many Hebrews who followed Moses out of slavery in Egypt, complained that they would have been better off if they had never followed Moses. Many slaves brought out of Africa to the different parts of the world preferred to remain in slavery rather than risk their lives for freedom.

In our nation, when Harriet Tubman risked her own life to go back to bring her three brothers to freedom, they chose to remain in slavery.

In this time, there are many misinformed and ignorant people in America who prefer to do nothing to fight against the powers that be that are seeking to enslave us under the current dominion of Satan’s minions in whatever way they manifest. As Americans, we have come full- circle to the spiritual quandary America’s founding generation faced. For the most part, they were aligned with the proposition Patrick Henry boldly proclaimed: “Give me Liberty or Give Me Death.” This is in alignment with Jesus’ proclamation of: “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

For our LightWing Messages edition today, we offer a single message again from Rev. Charles Finney (characteristically long) – a message he delivered in 1843 about Liberty. It is appropriate for spiritually mature audiences primarily, but those who are seeking humbly after God’s Will, it can be quite insightful and relevant for our own spiritual growth and maturation. We last shared words from Rev. Finney in June regarding repentance. CSN - LightWing Messages - 6/23/2024

It is our hope that by sharing with our readers words from Rev. Finney that they can read it all at once, or they read excerpts when they have the time. What Finney shares is a lot to consume in one reading anyway – it is truly a lot to digest. It is even more important to take ownership of the points he makes. IMHO, it would seem to me, for those who identify as Christians, instructions such as Finney offers could count as a strong standard of measurement for our lives of faith in such times as these.

For those who are new readers to the Citizen Sentinels Network of newsletters, please know we use an online platform for Monday virtual meetings to discuss the message(s) in the LightWing Messages that comes out on Sundays. “MeetN” is the name of the platform, and link information will not change from week to week. There is no need to send an email request to get added to our distribution list. We highly encourage our readers to join us in our MeetN calls.

Those readers who are able to join us this Monday evening may participate in our call (or just listen). Readers can join and check in with other like-minded readers for mutual support in such turbulent times. There is no need to request a link each week to the MeetN call.

To join these meetings click this url: https://meetn.com/vroom (room name is vroom)

For questions about the discussion group, please send an email to this address: d.jamzon@gmail.com

CSN LightWing Mission – Monday “Meetn” call - 7/29/24 at 5:00pm PST

Every Monday at 5pm PST (6pm MST; 7pm CST; and 8pm EST).

We hope our readers enjoy this LightWing edition as well as the aggregated messages we offer today. Please read, enjoy, absorb and share, and practice letting God’s light within you. We also hope our readers would consider becoming Citizen Sentinels’ messengers and pass this edition of the newsletter on to those who could welcome it. Or simply, invite them to go to our Substack platform and get a free subscription – Citizen Voice on Substack

These words are being sent to you as part of an effort that commenced based upon genuine inspiration from Heavenly Father. The LightWing Messages are the latest evolution and are intended to shine light onto our paths, as it was written: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 - KJV

May God bless all of our readers!

May God Bless America!

May we humble ourselves in the understanding that God has not forsaken us, nor has He given up upon Americans. Indeed we are less than reverent, often ignorant of His Will or His ways. May we rid ourselves of false pride and strive for self-mastery through genuine repentance. May we seek His face to continually help us in the rectitude of our ways. May we seek God’s vision, live daily in His righteousness and help to build His Kingdom.

GOSPEL LIBERTY

By Rev. CHARLES G. FINNEY. The Oberlin Evangelist

August 16, 1843

“Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” --Galatians 5:1.

I. What is intended by the yoke of bondage?

The Apostle had immediately under his eye, the ceremonial law of the Jews. This is evident from the whole context. Judaizing teachers had come in, and were trying to engraft the cumbersome observances of the Jewish ritual upon the gospel. This the Apostle was so grieved at, and felt to be such a departure from Christ, that he declared they were fallen from grace in complying with such instruction. But it was not simply because he rejected the ceremonial law, and regarded it as useless, that the Apostle thus resisted the observance of it, but because he had his eye on a principle of the last importance to the Church. Why was the ceremonial law a yoke of bondage? Because it had no tendency to reform the heart, and thus render its own observance a matter of choice. Any precept given us, contrary to the state of mind in which we are, is a yoke of bondage. And this is true, whether it be a precept of the Old or New Testament. The principle is universal. You may see it in the conduct of children. Impose some requirement upon them, contrary to the state of their hearts and you will never fail to see that their obedience is not cheerful, but constrained--a mere servitude. Every requirement, then, the spirit of which we have not, is to us a yoke of bondage.

II. What it is to be entangled with it.

1. To see a rule of duty, and feel our obligation to comply with it, and yet have no heart to enter into the spirit of it, is certainly to be entangled with a yoke of bondage. The obligation presses on the one hand, and the heart rejects it on the other, and the condition is one of restless distraction. The law given at Mount Sinai, was a galling yoke for this reason. The Apostle says--'it gendereth to bondage.' Previous to a distinct perception of its claims, men may not be aware of its influence. Paul says--'For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.' Seeing the thing it required, to be duty, and yet having no heart to perform it, it was a snare unto him. You can easily see how it was. Let anybody be practising any injurious indulgence ignorantly, and there is no sin in it; but let light be thrown into his mind on the subject, and the true nature of the indulgence made known to him, and that moment the struggle commences. Before, he could practice it without compunction, but now his conscience is awake; his appetite still demands it, and the more clearly he sees the law, so much the more is he entangled, until his heart goes fully with the requirement.

2. To take pains to conform to the letter of a law, while destitute of its spirit, is to be entangled. A great many persons set themselves with great punctiliousness, to keep every point of the law, and yet, after all, never feel themselves any better off. Why is this? Because it is mere letter service; there is no heart in it; and the more of such service is rendered, the more exacting is conscience, and the farther is the mind from peace.

3. To strive to satisfy the demands either of the law, the gospel, or the conscience, without faith and love, is to be entangled. The case supposed in the 7th of Romans, represents an individual as setting himself to obey the moral law without its spirit, and the result was a perfect failure. The same is true of persons setting themselves to obey the gospel, without its spirit. They are like a man in a horrible pit of miry clay. Every effort towards obedience, only seems to render them less disposed to obey, and to create greater enmity to the service. The same is true of all attempts to satisfy the demands of conscience, while the heart reluctates [archaism from 1600s: “to show reluctance”] from the service.

4. To undertake and assume responsibilities to which we are not equal, that is, to undertake to do anything in our own strength, is to be entangled. Let an individual go about any duty, or assume any responsibility without the spirit of it, and in his own strength, that is, by dint of his own resolutions, without faith, and he will find himself the more entangled, the farther he goes, just as long as this is his condition.

5. Covenants, vows, promises, &c., where Christ is not consulted and depended upon, only serve to entangle the soul. Sometimes, persons write down covenants of the most solemn and binding character, with the design to hedge themselves in, so that they will not dare to sin, but it does no good, and only brings the soul under a more dire condemnation.

6. Undertaking to do or to be anything to which the spirit of Christ does not lead you. No matter whether this is obligatory on you or not, if you undertake it without love, it will only be a snare. Thus the law 'gendereth to bondage.'

III. What is the liberty here spoken of?

1. The word liberty is used in two senses.

(1.) As opposed to necessity. In this sense, it consists in the power to choose or refuse any object of choice.

(2.) As opposed to slavery. Slavery is not, as some have supposed, a state of involuntary servitude, for strictly speaking, there is no such thing. Every act the slave performs is really as voluntary as the act of any other man. His muscles would not move without will. Slavery is a state, in which a man feels constrained to choose between what he regards as two evils. He selects between two alternatives, both of which he abhors. He knows he must labor or be whipped, and he prefers labor to suffering, as the least of two evils. Slavery then, is where a person feels himself shut up to take a course, which on the whole, he does not love, but which he takes rather than to do worse. For example, a person in the marriage state without love, may discharge the outward duties of that relation during life, rather than to separate and sustain all the evils attendant on such a course. So a person may live under a government which he abhors, and yet, rather than subject himself to its frown, may meet all its requisitions. This is acting on the principle of slavery. A person might be compelled to act on the principle of slavery here in New York, as absolutely as in the South, and may as much abhor the service. The difference between one here and one there, is, that there he fears the lash or some other physical infliction, while here, he fears some other evil, which is equally efficient, as he views it, to drive him to the abhorred tasks. Legal professors are slaves in this sense. Their duties are not something which they love, but which must be attended to, or a greater evil endured. Their service is not performed from a love to the end for which it is required, but as the only way to escape the rebukes of conscience, or the wrath of God.

2. This liberty is that of faith and love. When persons come to love, then they delight in acts of love as a matter of course. So much are they free that in obeying God, they do only, what they on the whole, prefer to do, and what they would do whether there was any command or not, could they only see its relation to the good of the universe.

3. In short, this liberty is benevolence. It consists, not in the annihilation of obligation, but in possessing the S[s]pirit of the requirement. Turn to the 13th chapter of the first Corinthians, and mark the characteristics of love which the Apostle there lays down. 'Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.' This description of charity or benevolence, shows that the free man naturally acts according to the requirement. It is spontaneous with him. He acts from a principle within himself rather than from a law without. He does not act from restraint, but obedience is with him, what it was with Christ. Christ did not need the sanctions of the law to induce obedience, but what the precept required, was just what, above all other things, he loved to do. So it is with those who are in this liberty. They do not act under the rod.

4. They are not governed by authority, but act spontaneously, from choice. They only need to know what will please God, and they do it willingly and of a ready mind. They do not neglect to do what is required of them, but they do it from love, and that is the perfection of liberty. When a man is able to choose in any direction in all circumstances, and does just what he has a mind to, that is the highest liberty in the universe. That is freedom in its highest sense.

IV. How Christ makes us free.

1. Not by abolishing the moral law.

2. Not by discharging us from any obligation to fulfill any or every duty.

3. Nor by relaxing the claims of any moral precept, in either the Old or New Testament.

4. But as it respects the ceremonial law, He fulfilled and abolished it, so that nobody is under farther obligation to obey it.

5. And as it respects the moral law, He makes us free by writing its principle, and all its spirit in our hearts. And what a sweet way this is! Suppose we should thus govern our children. What delightful families we should have. All our commands the very thing they chose, so that for us to intimate our will, would be to see it sweetly done. When Christ begets the spirit of the law in us, and then shows us the outward precept, the precept is just what we are pre-disposed to do, and of course it will be done by us cheerfully.

6. He makes us free by making the course of conduct prescribed in the whole Bible, as natural and spontaneous as it is with Himself; and therefore, we are free in the same sense that He is free, and that all in heaven are free. God, no doubt, feels bound to be benevolent, but his will is just what his infinite reason requires, and He is, therefore, infinitely free, and so is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is just the freedom He seeks to bestow on us.

7. He accomplishes this by his indwelling Spirit. He comes to reside in us, that He may beget in us the same state of mind there is in Christ, whom it is his office to exhibit to us.

8. He does it by so revealing Christ to us, as to gain the implicit confidence and affection of the soul. It is not accomplished by any physical force. How do we, if we want to get the confidence of persons, exhibit to them such views of our character as to win their confidence and love. So Christ, by revealing Himself in those traits of his character, which He knows are adapted to win the confidence of men, brings them into the same state of mind with Himself. He shows them that He is love, well knowing that this is the readiest way to make them love. There is no other way to make men benevolent. Weep yourself, if you want others to weep. Suppose a father is benevolent, and he wants to make his children so too. How can he do it? By using the rod? Or drilling them in the catechism? No. But by acting it out before them. One great reason why the children of professedly religious parents are so seldom converted is because the parents so constantly command them, without sufficient manifestations of benevolence. They are commanded to read the Bible, to go to Sabbath School, to get their tasks in such a way, that it becomes irksome to them, instead of attractive and interesting. Let parents only temper all their commands sufficiently with benevolence, and it would not be so. It is thus that Christ wins the hearts of sinners, and makes them free. When He came, the idea of true religion was almost lost in the world, but He acted it out in his whole life. His disciples looked on and wondered, till finally they caught the flame. And what then? Why, they shook the world with it. And it is the exhibition of this spirit alone, which can consummate the victory, and liberate our race. It is thus He makes us free from the yoke of bondage--from obligation to keep the ceremonial law--from the penalty of the moral law--from the spirit of bondage, by writing his law in our hearts--from the dominion of sin and from the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is the glorious liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free.

V. The danger of becoming entangled again.

1. The least unbelief brings bondage. Let a wife lose confidence in her husband in any respect, and in that respect, her obedience will be constrained and stiff. So it is in religion. If there is any want of confidence, instead of your service being free and out-gushing, it will be forced and heartless.

2. Grieving the Holy Spirit will beget bondage. Whenever He withdraws his presence from the mind, then it falls right into bondage.

3. Admitting the least selfishness, naturally leads into bondage. Observe, religion is benevolence. The least selfishness, then, is bondage of course.

4. Any abstraction of the mind from Christ, of course begets bondage. No person, as a matter of fact, lives a spiritual life without Christ. We must feed on Him. We need Him as much as we do our natural food. We maintain our liberty only by thinking on Him, and communing with Him continually.

5. Any attempts to coerce the mind by oaths, vows, covenants, and resolutions, beget bondage. If a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not need these, and if he has not, he can never get it in this way. I have known persons to pray all night, and screw themselves up to the most solemn vows and covenants which they could frame, and yet it availed nothing. There was no religion in it; not an atom. And when persons attempt to coerce themselves in this way, they universally fail of success.

6. Taking upon your conscience, an obligation to conform to any particular forms and ceremonies not prescribed by Christ. It is truly astonishing to see to what an excess the Jews loaded themselves down, in adhering to what they supposed were the requirements of the ceremonial law. They multiplied days, and traditions, and tithes, and purifications, almost without end. So it has been in the Church of Rome. She multiplied her vows, and pilgrimages, and fasts, to such an extent as could result in nothing else but a mere outside show, and work the destruction of souls. Even undertaking to conform with those that are required, in your own strength, is enough to bring any soul into terrible bondage.

7. But the multiplying of holy days, and religious observances and ceremonies, cannot result in anything else. Even among Protestants, how many regard it as a duty, to observe Christmas. I have been afraid our Methodist brethren were becoming entangled. They seem to consider it a duty to watch out the old year, and in the new, and no matter whether sleepy or not, they must be there to satisfy both custom and conscience. Even monthly concerts come to be a yoke. The truth is, we are bound to resist such things, whenever they come to be regarded as binding on the conscience. These holy days in the Romish Church, became so numerous as to take up a great part of the time, and now, in many of the Catholic countries, if you employ a man to work, you get but very little out of him.

8. Binding yourselves by church covenants, especially if there is anything in them contrary to the law of reason and of love. We hear of no such thing in the Apostles' days. The truth is, I am jealous of them. One embraces one thing, and another, another; and the first thing you know, you are reined up. "Why you are a violator of your covenant." Am I? "Yes." I have known several cases of this kind. Let no one be bound but by the law of love, which is the perfect law of liberty.

VI. When Christians are in bondage.

1. When the duties of religion are a burden. While we are in liberty, they are no burden. As an old writer says--"I sought all nature through, to find something like the burden of Christ, and could find nothing till I came to the pinions of the dove, which instead of weighing down, bear

up the soul on high."

2. When the form is observed, without the spirit and power of godliness. Many have, and keep up the form very scrupulously, when the life and spirit have gone. But their piety is like a mere lifeless corpse, or hollow shell.

3. When driven by conscience, instead of being drawn by love. Oh, how many are attempting to live by mere resolutions forced up by conscience, without one particle of love to Christ!

4. When they don't find their heart spontaneously doing what is required. When the waters of life do not flow spontaneously out from them--when it is not nature's promptings to pray, to give to the poor, or perform any other duty. When persons have the spirit of religion, instead of needing a command, they feel an inward going of the soul in the right direction, and the performance of duty gives them sweet enjoyment.

5. When the soul has no peace, and no enjoyment in religion, it is under the yoke of bondage. True liberty is essential peace and blessedness.

VII. What is their remedy?

1. Persons will never get into liberty by any legal, heartless efforts. That is beginning exactly at the wrong end; it is beginning on the outside to work inward, instead of beginning at the inside to work outward. People often become prodigiously excited, and go to doing, doing, doing, under the pressure of obligation; but where is the relief? This is particularly the case in many protracted meetings and special efforts, but when the meetings stop, where is their religion in a vast number of cases? I am not saying anything against such meetings, but against the manner in which the truth is too often preached, and the meeting conducted. The process is just such as to set the sensibility all on fire with powerful excitement, and leave the heart unsubdued to love. This is all wrong, and only adapted to foster mere heartless legality.

2. But the only remedy is faith in Christ, and application to his blood. 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.' Cast the whole soul upon Him, to receive the spirit of obedience. I have often seen persons striving and pushing for months, but all to no purpose. They were not one whit better, and it was not till they saw that it would not make them better if they should continue thus a thousand years, and until they cast themselves wholly on Christ, to receive the spirit of obedience from Him, that they entered into gospel liberty. 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'