Freedom and joy

Posted on July 13, 2022 
Filed under Encouragement, Theology

“I have recently been reading the account of a Christian minister who, upon arriving in his new parish some time in the nineteenth century, found that there was little joy in that church and a tremendous lack of assurance. The people he spoke to could not be sure that they were the objects of God’s love in Christ.

Whenever he preached, whatever he preached, they seemed to hear only a demand that they should be what they were called to be. Even the invitation to put their trust in Jesus was heard to be simply one more thing they must do. The Christian life was, for them, burdensome, punctuated by doubts about whether they were really Christian at all. Freedom, confidence and joy seemed a million miles away from their experience.

Yet the Bible’s picture of those who come to Jesus is one of being freed and released, of having burdens lifted, new life given, life to the full enjoyed. …”

– Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson shares wonderful encouragement at SydneyAnglicans.net. Also in the current Southern Cross magazine.