No longer slaves

In our country, the free press is a part of government. Did you know that? One of the important tasks of a free press, as established by the first amendment of the Constitution is to shed light on things like Government waste, corruption, imbalance, even inefficiencies. No, you will not find any wording to that effect in the Constitution, but we see how much pressure a free press can put on Government and government officials when they blow it.

I'm not going to get into any specific issues on this, because right now our country is so divided that I don't know if it's all that healthy. I wish we could all see that we do really agree on one thing: Government has gotten too big for it's britches, and we the people - down in our heart of hearts - don't think that Government can do the best job of running our lives.

So what am I on about this time? Accountability. I have a love/hate relationship with accountability, as do many people who are trying to live according to the word of God. We are all sinners, some of us saved by grace, some of us living by our own wants, needs and desires. But we are all sinners. That represents a failure of function, not a failure of design. We were designed to live with accountability: we were designed to allow light to shine into the dark places in our lives, so that WE see them, and the people AROUND us see them. That puts the pressure on us to improve.

I have a scale on the floor of my office. I step on it every Monday. When I don't - I tend to gain weight. Funny how a scale could effect my weight - OK we know it doesn't actually change my weight, it simply shows it to me. And then I have the responsibility to make the needed changes to keep those little numbers from climbing any higher.

Stupid scale. I sometimes think that gravity is more focused in my office: I tend to think things are going fine until I actually step on the thing. Then I see - those sweets? They counted. Those slices of Pizza early in the week? Still with me. Those things I snuck so my wife wouldn't see me eat them? The scale knows.

Amazing how accountability can change things. Puts the pressure back on us - let's keep that tool working in our lives.

Romans 6: 5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.