The signal broke through the ionosphere

 It's kind of like a radio signal breaking through the ionosphere and travelling through space into eternity.

Oh how awful I am to be a slave to sin! I try to be good but fail to all sorts of temptation. You want the truth? That's the truth of it. I'm addicted to sin and can't stop it. I hate it but I keep going back to it. I'm a slave to sin, to gluttony, to sexual desires, to murder of all sorts, I covet, I steal, I judge falsely, I break every one of the commandments in some form or another. I'm a slave to sin and that's the truth of it. 

Knowing my sinful self, I live in the fear of a God that is just the opposite of my sinfulness. God never changes. God always protects me and yet I know that God hates my sin more than I hate my sin. I deserve death and eternal damnation. That's the truth of it.

I look around and see that everyone struggles with sin. Some acknowledge the struggle, some run from the struggle, some give up and run towards the sin for even more of that good stuff. And then there are those that admit their sin, realize they are slaves to sin and turn to God.

Or did God turn to us? I hear the message of the Baptist in the wilderness to Repent! Turn around. See God! See God in flesh among us. Give God glory even in the midst of our sin.

Where is the Truth in all of this? I know I sin... that's one truth, but how do I deal with my sin?

Then I hear the Gospel of John 8:31-36. Jesus is Truth. Truth leads to freedom... my freedom comes through the Truth. And real Truth is revealed from above. From the other side of that ionosphere so to speak. The Truth came down to me beneath the ionosphere.  Only with Jesus can I break through and be free for eternity. 

It's on this "other" side and then on "this" side that Jesus frees me. He frees me from my sin beneath and upon this earth to a new life in eternity. Will I live in this freedom? Will I return to my sinfulness? 

Most likely. But I can return, repent, and live in the knowledge that my Truth, my Jesus, my Savior has a place for me on my journey towards his house and his Truth on the other side... even as I live here and now.

You see, it's not just about how I get there. I go along and grow. I go along in my truth of sin and look to what Jesus Truth has done for me. 

I can't do this... but Jesus has already done this for me. Jesus is the one that frees me, the slave to sin. Frees me to live a life in joy, happiness, love, honor, service and discipleship to the One who grants the freedom and to the other people God gives me daily who are all in the same boat with me in sinfulness.

So I rejoice that Truth and Freedom and Jesus come to me, not through some ritual or some automatic descendancy. Truth comes to me and frees me to live for one another and live in the knowledge that I'm free from sin. I can leave that sinful stuff behind and respond in the joy of eternal freedom.

The signal broke through the ionosphere... came to earth and gets sent right back freeing all of us to a live a life of freedom, on and on and on into eternity.

All thanks to God for loving grace and freedom and life!

Thanks be to God... today... tomorrow... and forever!