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RCM前任牧师告诉我们一个可卡因成瘾的男子的故事。当这人的妻子离家上班时，他要求妻子把他锁在地下室。被困在那里的他，往往能够消除任意变卖屋里家产来满足自己毒瘾的渴望。有时他仍然会撞烂一道门或打碎一扇窗户跑出来，然而大部分时间，当妻子回家时，都会见到他在长椅上正睡得香甜。

我看到过一种说法，人们视自由为不受任何限制；但另有一种观点，自由并不表示没有任何限制。自由乃是能够选择正确的节制。

假若我们从来没有归信基督，我们便不会被那么多的责任约束住了。然而我知道，那不是真正的自由。

在教会里侍奉所拥有的一个特权，就是施行洗礼。在洗礼仪式中，大家共同作出三个承诺：神承诺信实的保守和护理、承诺家人会培育和教养受洗的孩童、立约的群体承诺给予受洗者鼓励和支持。我的朋友们视这些承诺为将我们连系在一起的约束，而那些约束会带给我们真自由。

在基督里，你有归属神和属神共同体的自由，并且这种自由按神的呼召使你成为合祂心意的人。

The former pastor of Roseland Christian Ministries tells a story of a man addicted to cocaine who asked his wife to lock him in the basement when she left for work. Locked in, he was often free of the hunger that drove him to sell anything in the house to feed his addiction. Some days he would still beat down a door or smash a window. But other days his wife would return and find him sleeping peacefully on the couch.

I read somewhere that we tend to define freedom as an absence of restrictions. I read somewhere else that freedom is not an absence of restrictions so much as choosing the right ones.

If we never belonged to Christ, we would be free of many obligations. But I know that would not be freedom.

One of the privileges of serving a church is to officiate at baptisms. In baptism, three promises are made: God promises to be faithful, the family promises to disciple and raise the baptized child, and the covenant community promises encouragement and support. A friend of mine thinks of those promises as tethers that bind us to each other. And those tethers give us freedom.

In Christ you are free to belong to God and his community, and to be the person God has called you to be.