file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db941108.txt
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OUR DAILY BREAD             Tuesday, November 8, 1994
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READ:  Proverbs 16:16-33



               "HOW TO BE FREE"

     "The wicked man...is caught in the
              cords of his sin."

               - Proverbs 5:22


The human spirit longs for freedom.  But for many
people, its pursuit actually leads to greater bondage.

Bible teacher Henrietta Mears once told her students,
"A bird is free in the air.  Place a bird in the water
and he has lost his liberty.  A fish is free in the
water, but leave him on the sand and he perishes...The
Christian is free when he does the will of God and is
obedient to God's command.  This is as natural a realm
for God's child as the water is for the fish, or the
air for the bird."

Although King Solomon didn't use the word "freedom" in
Proverbs 16, he understood that it comes only within
the sphere of honoring God and His Word.  By contrast,
bondage comes to those who ignore God's truth.  Liberty
results from practicing humility, trust, careful con-
versation, and self-control (vv. 19-24).  But bondage
inevitably enslaves those who are governed by willful
rebellion, pride, arrogance, strife, and malicious
troublemaking (vv. 18, 27-30).

Do you want to be free?  Jesus said, "If you abide in
My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"
(John 8:31-32).  Jesus is the ultimate source of true
freedom.

                                -- Martin R. DeHaan II

        What freedom lies with all who choose
             To live for God each day!
         But chains of bondage shackle those
                Who go another way.

                        -- Dennis J. DeHaan





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*        THOUGHT FOR THE DAY            *
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*                                       *
*     True freedom is not in having     *
*     your own way, but in yielding     *
*             to God's Way.             *
*                                       *
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*                                       *
*  THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  John 14-17   *
*                                       *
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Our Daily Bread, Copyright 1994, used by permission of
Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49555, USA.
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