This picture came to me early one morning before I was fully awake.  This is the time I find that God speaks to me most clearly, and on this morning this is the picture God brought to my mind.  I’ve refined it over time, however the framework is the same.  The epiphany that I had, put so much of the world and its history into a proper perspective for me, as I saw “Freedom” at the center of all of our struggles.  Even our internal struggle that Paul so articulately described in Romans 7 between our fallen self and our self that was made in God’s image.  People groups all over the world long to be free if they are struggling under oppressive rule.

When we lose sight of God and take Him out of His rightful place in the center, we do what we think makes sense to us and everything falls apart.

I named this picture “Ideas Matter” because it’s ideas along with passion that drive what happens in the world around us and not all ideas are equal.  There are ideas that are good, ideas that are somewhat neutral, ideas that are evil and ones that are all in between.  But, it’s ideas that propel life forward and we must choose what set of ideas we’ll follow for ourselves, our families, our cities and our countries.  Your decision actually is a decision between life and death as it has been for so many who’ve come before us.  Ideas truly do matter.

What I’d like to propose to you is that the set of ideas promoted by Jesus truly are the best set of ideas for everything in our lives.  They’re the best for you personally, your family, your community, our country and the world.  And if you follow Jesus you’ll never force anyone to follow these ideas because you’re not loving if you use force.  Jesus never forced anyone to believe in Him.

One of the things Jesus said was this, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  His assumption was that we needed to be set free and that His word, the things He taught, if you followed this, you’d be set free.