Pentecost Provides Our Freedom

9:30AM EDT 5/24/2022 PETER AIELLO

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The Cross, with the shed blood, procured our freedom; whereas, Pentecost activated our freedom after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. The Spirit of our ascended High Priest was made available to humanity to free us from slavery to our impulses. We can now be carriers of His rest. The Holy Spirit contains all of the essentials for overcoming the law of sin.^[1] It enables us to be a habitation for God's agape love which is the fruit of the Spirit, with its elements of peace and strength to deal with our sin nature. This love can't be in us if we are attached to the things of the world by lust.^[2]

Without the resurrection and ascension, there would be no Spirit of Jesus Christ to inhabit us and to be the conduit for God's love to flow into us. A dead Christ wouldn't do us any good. Christ became a life-giving Spirit.^[3] He revives us in this life as well as in the next. We are told that "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life".^[4] This starts while we are still alive on this earth.

What does this newness of life look like for us? Because of the law of sin, we are all born with a weakened willpower. This is what makes us prone to doing the things that we don't want to do, and to not do the things that we should. ^[5] The old life is a life of slavery to the law of sin within us which saps our strength and ensures that we don't have the strength or willpower to overcome our proneness to excesses. The fruit of the Spirit lifts us to a place of peace and strength to overcome the law of sin. Without the Holy Spirit, this is not possible. It is important for us to understand that our own willpower, without the Spirit, is not sufficient; therefore, we yield to the Spirit in order for its fruit to be activated in our lives.

Unconditional trust in God is what moves us from self-reliance to reliance on God. When we realize that our own strength is insufficient, we need to stop trying to use it for overcoming excesses, and humble ourselves before God because this is how we receive the graces of God. We are required to cast all of our care on Him;^[6] then we are able to make choices from a position of strength. God does not reject a humble and contrite heart.^[7] The principle is simple: A humble and contrite heart is required; and then we can proceed with our other religious activities.

The man Christ Jesus, our High Priest intercessor and mediator, is meek and humble towards His Father.^[8] Because of this humility, Jesus can tell us to come unto Him and He will give us the rest that He has from His own humility. He shares His rest with us when we have His Spirit within us. This is the same rest that is called the peace that passes all understanding.^[9] It is also the fruit of the Spirit peace.^[10]

Who are we serving Satan or God?
1 Tim 1:1-18
 
1:1 Greeting Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, Paul begin the letter of 1^st Timothy as an Apostle which we all are. He was committed to making sure he was following the commandments of God his Savior. He understood the power that was in his hands, as will as in the hands of Gods Children, who are saved by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ as He loves us.  Without Jesus, the world was hopeless; the expectation of being saved can only come to mankind by his Gospel. He is called our hope, our life, our peace, our righteousness, etc., because from him hope, life, peace, righteousness, and all other blessings proceed.
 
2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. He is addressing Timothy a true son of faith that is some one that has proven he is a follower of the way, the truth and the life which is in Jesus Christ. That is the reason as a Church we need to make sure we desire to follow the Lord in all we do and say. With out faith we are not able to comprehend God grace for He loves all mankind, regardless of who they are, or where they were born. Grace has many benefits and one is mercy, for mercy gives us the ability to continue on knowing we can work out problems within relationships. Grace is experienced on a daily bases and when your married for 50 plus years you understand the term grace. It’s given by God and has its own rewards or certificate and that is mercy. We can over-look the minor things and concentrate on the major issues. No we learn to accept what we can’t change and deal with what we can change and that is our attitude and behavior. When Grace and Mercy are apart of our lives there is a peace that the world can’t buy. That is the reason you can’t earn your way into heaven. It is not what we have done, it is what the Lord has done in our heart and lives
3 No Other Doctrine 
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia -- remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, Paul was very concerned with people spreading bad seed, and even today we have a lot of minister spreading a lot of seed that has a lot of weeds in it. Lord helps us to stick to the truth of what is going on in our world. Satan is the master trickster and we need to make sure we try one another spirits like never before. Timothy was a person that Paul could count on to continue what the Lord wanted for the Church. It take a strong person to correct any wrongs with in the Church for we are taught to accept authority, we do not dare go against ministers or pastors. Abuse can not be tolerated in the home the Church, or the government even in the financial world. Let’s learn to speak up when someone is hurting with out a cause. Paul could count on Timothy to be honest, show piety or empathy and endure all opposition to the truth of Gods Word.
We have seen just last Sat on Fox TV Mosab Hassen Yousef, the son of one of the founding fathers of the Hamas renouncing Islam saying, “Islam is not the word of God. Islam is a drug and many people do not know what they are doing. Are you really going to heaven with 72 virgins after you kill 20 plus people?” The program was entitled, “Escape from Hamas”. “There is not peace with the Militant Islamic organizations just as we are seeing today”. “Is there any change for fire to co-exist with the water”.
The Lord is using this young man to bring a message of hope to the Muslim world just as Paul was bring hope to his world of Roman rule.