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How does the Truth set you free?

What does it mean when Christians say the Truth will set you free?

How do you feel the Truth has set you free? In what way?
 
The first thing the truth sets you free from is sin. You certainly can still sin, but you are no longer a slave to sin. God will give you the grace to make the right choice, it is up to you to take it. You MAY sin, but you don't HAVE TO sin.

It also sets you free from low self-esteem. Many people have low self-esteem and don't even know it. I used to think I was worthless before I got saved. Now I know I am a child of God. That is not pride. I don't think I'm just a better person because I've got some new inner quality that I am responsible for, it is God who has made me a better person. I always felt terrible for my sins, even before I called them sins. God has set me free from most of them.

It will set you free from pride. When you understand who God is, how glorious, magnificent, loving, merciful, holy and good, you realize how small you are and you see your faults more clearly. Again, you may feel infinitely better about yourself knowing that you are a child of God, but you also will be very humbled.

It sets you free from caring so much about what other people think of you. When God approves of you...what else matters? :)

I know I will think of other things to post, but I am very tired right now and will have to come back later! Good topic by the way.
 
I think it has, at least something, to do with learning the truth about oneself.

EG - One can't be found until one realises one is lost.

One can't find a solution to a problem, until one realises and accepts that one has a problem.

I have come to realise that knowing the truth and accepting the truth (about most anything) are two intirely differnt things.

I think much freedom comes through acceptance.
 
When you come to terms with the fact that you are not self sustaining in either body mind or soul.....I think then anything is possible. I feel like I am still trying to do that fully.
 
This is a bit of a story much of which people won't like but it will explain how I expect truth to set free my wife's cousin, an 18 year old girl. A guy my wife and I introduced her to lied to her and myself repeatedly to get engaged to her but his lies are now revealed. This all involves some explanation which is what people so often find offensive.

My wife of 13 years is from the Philippines where we now live. She has an extended family which includes many young women including a gal named Net of all things. These gals tend to go to my wife when they come of age and ask her to find them a nice American man, so she asks me. I post at a few gaming sites and shared with them my problem and posted pics of our Sunday family gatherings at the beach. Well, Net is a beauty and one of the regular guys was interested. His family is Mormon but he doesn't believe in God. Great! I figured. A chance to witness PLUS marry off one of my wife's cousins! What a deal! Anyway he lied to her about his ability to bring her to the US, and she got engaged to him. He lives at her parents house but she is watched constantly so there's no hanky panky. Virtue is still very important in the main stream of this culture. Chaperons, the whole bit. In her small town all the girls tell her she's got a wondeful guy, all the mothers say the same to her mother. So time went by and still no paperwork showed up. Turns out though he's 32 years old he's never worked enough to have tax returns, and you need to show 5 years tax returns to bring over a gal on fiance visa. He has not even one year. So now they found out he lied and has done so three times to them, more to me. Trouble is, she loves him. So, I have her sister, my wife and our house keeper that will all do what? "Girl talk" They will tell the girls and mothers the truth about him, and they will tell others etc etc. Eventually the talk about how wonderful he is will change to questions about his lies. So, I'm hoping the truth will set her free. That would be the good news.

If it works I still have to try to find her I nice guy. :sad

So you see what bothers many people who have the luxury of having enough for dinner and too much time on their hands to judge others.
 
Hi faithtransforms,

I appreciated your post and the way it was so fluidly articulated.

It reminded me of the words of Jesus, "I am the way, the truth and the life"

When we start living the way of Jesus, it brings us into ultimate reality because that's the way God originally created us to live. When we are honest, when we help others, when we have mercy on those around us, show patience, kindness and general concern for others, we begin to enter into the truth of how things truly are and we experience a harmonious relationship between humanity, creation and God which is abundant life.

The opposite I believe, is a view centered around self where greed, lies, self righteousness and deception becomes the guardian of the psyche and we keep ourselves from the truth, because we have not yet found the way that brings us closer to our heavenly Father.

Net Bible:
Genesis 4:6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast? 4:7 Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.â€

Grace and Peace,
Jeff
 
anthony123,

I feel that the truth has set me free in so many ways. When we live in lies that other have told us, or that we've told ourselves, then we limit the joy that we are able to experience in relationships and by relationships, I mean how we interact with the objects around us as well as the people we come in contact with on a daily basis. Some of us have been told that we are not good, or that we're worthless. We've been told that we'll never amount to anything or we've learned through past relationships that the opposite sex is evil, that sex is dirty or that one can't trust another person or that we could never love another. None of this is ultimate truth and it holds us back from living and experiencing life.

Some feel that drugs or alcohol brings joy and happiness, and it's simply not true. While it's true that it may bring a laugh or two throughout the night, it's short lived so they have to do it again and again and again... and as the years progress, they become miserable, shallow and empty. The truth of the matter is, scripture tells us to be drunk not on wine, but on the spirit because the way of Jesus brings an everlasting joy, even in troubled times.

Anyway, I could ramble on and on and on... But let me leave you with this. God, I believe is in the business of transforming lives and as a result, we are saved both now in the present world, and for eternity.

God bless,
Jeff
 
Lance said:
This is a bit of a story much of which people won't like but it will explain how I expect truth to set free my wife's cousin, an 18 year old girl. A guy my wife and I introduced her to lied to her and myself repeatedly to get engaged to her but his lies are now revealed. This all involves some explanation which is what people so often find offensive.

My wife of 13 years is from the Philippines where we now live. She has an extended family which includes many young women including a gal named Net of all things. These gals tend to go to my wife when they come of age and ask her to find them a nice American man, so she asks me. I post at a few gaming sites and shared with them my problem and posted pics of our Sunday family gatherings at the beach. Well, Net is a beauty and one of the regular guys was interested. His family is Mormon but he doesn't believe in God. Great! I figured. A chance to witness PLUS marry off one of my wife's cousins! What a deal! Anyway he lied to her about his ability to bring her to the US, and she got engaged to him. He lives at her parents house but she is watched constantly so there's no hanky panky. Virtue is still very important in the main stream of this culture. Chaperons, the whole bit. In her small town all the girls tell her she's got a wondeful guy, all the mothers say the same to her mother. So time went by and still no paperwork showed up. Turns out though he's 32 years old he's never worked enough to have tax returns, and you need to show 5 years tax returns to bring over a gal on fiance visa. He has not even one year. So now they found out he lied and has done so three times to them, more to me. Trouble is, she loves him. So, I have her sister, my wife and our house keeper that will all do what? "Girl talk" They will tell the girls and mothers the truth about him, and they will tell others etc etc. Eventually the talk about how wonderful he is will change to questions about his lies. So, I'm hoping the truth will set her free. That would be the good news.

If it works I still have to try to find her I nice guy. :sad

So you see what bothers many people who have the luxury of having enough for dinner and too much time on their hands to judge others.

I think your problem stems from looking for suitable partners for your family member on internet gaming sites. If I was you, I would quite while i'm not ahead.
 
Yes thank you there is someone home. Guys from that site sent donations to me which I used, along with my own money, to build two homes for poor people here. Three of those people have visited me and stayed in my home and toured the houses they helped build and met the folks they built them for. One turned out to be the guy I mentioned in the above post but the other two are great people. One was a union lawyer from LA who is retired now and I'm helping him build a house on the beach for himself.

So these are my friends and only one turned out badly. I'll work through that though, because truth will set her free.
 
The statement that the truth will set you free is only given to disciples. I have understood it to mean that you will be free from error and its consequences.
 
I believe the statement 'the truth will set you free' is a truism, scuse the pun, that it applies to everyone. Its like the trees, everyone can walk under them. If the devil is the father of all lies then the truth will set you free of him. That's the situation of our cousin who btw is a catholic, goes to church and believes in God. However even if she weren't I believe that the truth would still set her free. Even the guy that lied his way into the situation, the truth would set him free as well if he ever adopted it.
 
Lance said:
Yes thank you there is someone home. Guys from that site sent donations to me which I used, along with my own money, to build two homes for poor people here. Three of those people have visited me and stayed in my home and toured the houses they helped build and met the folks they built them for. One turned out to be the guy I mentioned in the above post but the other two are great people. One was a union lawyer from LA who is retired now and I'm helping him build a house on the beach for himself.

So these are my friends and only one turned out badly. I'll work through that though, because truth will set her free.

My humble appologies - I thought they where random people on a website you had never met. Which I am sure would agree, would be pretty dumb.

That said, I think it's best to leave the match making up to God, unless you want more headaches for yourself down the track.
 
Of course, thank you for your apology Panin. Still, I would accept someone I never met to come over since that's pretty much the only way to meet them unless I happen to be back in Oregon and they want to fly to meet me from wherever they live, not likely. The maybe 50 or 60 guys and gals that contributed to those houses sent the money without ever having met me because we had gotten to know each other at the site. I met three of them later on.

It sounds a lot more amazing than it is, each house cost maybe $3000 and we had to buy land for one which cost $700. Its really cheap to live here and fairly cheap to build though materials still cost.

Anyway, I'm wandering.

If my wife and I didn't do anything the one cousin of hers, BingBing, that is married to a buddy of mine would never have happened. She now works and sends money to her family which allows these poor people to eat better food. Net's family has actually gone without food for days as had my wife's family before I got here. God still can effect the outcome of the guy and gal meeting as he can with everything and I'm hoping he's doing exactly that with Net. Besides, we pray about this stuff too.
 
Lance said:
Of course, thank you for your apology Panin. Still, I would accept someone I never met to come over since that's pretty much the only way to meet them unless I happen to be back in Oregon and they want to fly to meet me from wherever they live, not likely. The maybe 50 or 60 guys and gals that contributed to those houses sent the money without ever having met me because we had gotten to know each other at the site. I met three of them later on.

It sounds a lot more amazing than it is, each house cost maybe $3000 and we had to buy land for one which cost $700. Its really cheap to live here and fairly cheap to build though materials still cost.

Anyway, I'm wandering.

If my wife and I didn't do anything the one cousin of hers, BingBing, that is married to a buddy of mine would never have happened. She now works and sends money to her family which allows these poor people to eat better food. Net's family has actually gone without food for days as had my wife's family before I got here. God still can effect the outcome of the guy and gal meeting as he can with everything and I'm hoping he's doing exactly that with Net. Besides, we pray about this stuff too.

Fair enough, none of my business. Great work on those houses. God Bless you.
 
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