The Meaning of life, the meaning of freedom, and reversing iniquity

A great blog post from Kimberly Taylor. Here are some excerpts:

     Jesus gave us the meaning of life in John 17:3: And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent...

     We decide to cling to Jesus like glue every day and live for a purpose greater than ourselves.
One of the most powerful quotes I have ever read on this subject is by the late pastor Ray Stedman. Pastor Stedman wrote:

     ‘The glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the cross reverses our values. In its light we are able to strip away the devil’s lie, and to act upon a totally different principle of life. That principle is this: freedom is not having what I want; it is doing what God wants. It is the man who gives up who gains; it is the man who flings away his life in abandonment to what God wants, who finally learns to live. It is the one who tries to keep his life who loses it. Is that not what Jesus said? The man or woman who steps out upon this principle will discover that for him the devil is impotent. That man is set free to live the kind of life God intended him to live. He may not have some of the things others may have, for things do not produce happiness; but he has what God wants him to have: life lived to the fullest degree possible.”

In John 10:10, Jesus said that we have an enemy. This thief has come to steal, kill, and destroy.
He does this through worldly temptations. These temptations fall into 3 categories according to 1 John 2:16: For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. Lust of flesh=giving into bad appetites; Lust of eyes=greed; Pride=self-will, selfishness.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).