>
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
-- Galatians 5:1, 13-14 (ESV)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship:
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine:
He who is a slave to his desires possesses nothing truly, not even himself. For what does it profit a man to be called free while his passions rule him? True liberty is found only in submission to the good.
John Chrysostom, Homily on Galatians:
Liberty is not an occasion for the flesh, but a summons to greater service. He who has been set free and returns to his former slavery is worse than before. Stand, then, in the freedom Christ has purchased -- not as those who use liberty for indulgence, but as those who spend it in love.
Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of Saint Benedict:
The first step of humility is that a man keeps the fear of God always before his eyes and never forgets it. Let him remember always what God commands: that those who obey Him are set free, while those who disobey remain slaves to their own passions.
The nation celebrates freedom today. But are you actually free -- or have you merely exchanged one master for another and called it liberty?
Epictetus, Discourses:
No man is free who is not master of himself. He who is afraid of losing what he has is a slave to it; he who cannot endure hardship is a slave to ease. The free man is he who can say no to his own desires as readily as he says no to another's command.
St. Clair, MI -- Saturday, July 4 (Independence Day)
High 85°F, partly sunny. Rain showers likely through midday, then showers and thunderstorms through the afternoon. Winds W 2-7 mph. Chance of precipitation 80%. Tonight: mostly cloudy, low 63°F, storms tapering off after 8pm. Sunday: high 81°F, mostly cloudy, 40% chance of afternoon storms.