Where's My Freedom?

From Psalm 119...

"...Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!...Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes....Oh, let me not wander from Your Commandments!....Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes....I will not forget Your word...Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law....Make me walk in the paths of Your commandments, for I delight in it...For Your judgements are good....I delight in Your law...I will meditate on Your precepts...

                                        "....Oh, how I love Your law!"

What does happiness have to do with obedience?

~

When I'm working in the kitchen, Mom wants me to do things a certain way. She likes me to clean up as I go, and to not run water forever and ever.
...Sometimes I wonder what it matters which side of the sink I put the dishes on...
Sometimes I want to do it my way...

Too often I brush off commands, not intentionally, not trying to be bad; I just don't make them as important as they should be. I do it a better way, an easier way. I do it my way...

I wonder...
How different is this from the parent who gives away his child to be brainwashed by the State?
 ...From the person who makes human sacrifices to his god?

 I realized, it's not really... 

When I make my own rules, I am practicing Autonomy. I am creating my own laws and worshiping myself.  This is so dangerous.
 My ways are not God's ways.

But rules are oppressive! Aren't they?

I might think, "I don't get room to express myself when I have to obey every single thing that Mom and Dad tell me. Where's my freedom?" Sometimes these words are expressed in something I do - or something I don't do. 

Our Constitution says that we have "certain unalienable rights." 

What are these rights? What are they based upon? 

Our Founding Fathers based our country's laws upon scripture, because they knew that this is our only basis for right and wrong. From where else can we know what is right and wrong, who we are to obey and not to obey?

But, what does happiness have to do with obedience?

How can King David sincerely say, "I delight in Your law?" 

"...a society which makes freedom its primary goal will lose it, because it has made, not responsibility, but freedom from responsibility, its purpose."
                                                                              R. J. Rushdoony

When I do not keep the kitchen clean, Mom takes away the freedom I had to honor her on my own--to enjoy cooking and being responsible--by 'watching' me to make sure I've followed through with my responsibilities and then applying consequences if I don't. It's not pleasant.
 But,
 when I say,
 "Yes, you know best. I will honor this," she steps back and lets me charge on,
knowing I'll do my best...
I think it's fascinating how it works.  

It's such a little thing
and seems so simple...
but I'm not perfect yet and I never will be,
unfortunately,
yet, I'm striving every day to do my best, and
I love to be in the kitchen and I love to see how things have an order and I love the laws I must follow, because God gives them to me.

If he did not, how effective could I be? We can't accomplish anything, except by knowing exactly what is expected of us and what our boundaries are.

And, only in the Bible do we find true law and order. 

 Law brings Freedom, and

then comes Joy!

We can't, as Christians, think that freedom is lack of responsibility....

Lord, teach me to love Your law!

Sola Scriptura!

~Taralyn Rose