Would agree with you Bob, only the difference between me and most people who have read a bible, is that I believe the devil has been done away with as their is no law for him to persecute people anymore because of the Lord Jesus Christ having nailed the ordinances to the cross.
Colossians 2:14 having blotted out the handwriting in the ordinances that is against us, that was contrary to us, and he hath taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross;
Jesus Christ came to free people from the bondage of sin and death.
Luke:4
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[
b]
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Amazing to read what is happening here. You can see that Jesus came to proclaim the good news to the poor, and God had sent him to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of the sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.
Is that something you experience today, upon hearing the good news? That is the Lord Jesus Christ, who brings forth freedom for people are in bondage, and to help those who are blind and in darkness see.
It is obvious when people do sin - by their nature - it always can lead to death. This sin can be doing drugs, sexual immorality, adultery, stealing, idolatry, and those like things. However it is only the Lord Jesus Christ who breaks that bondage that gets us into trouble into our life like you are saying, and yes bondage does cause problems, even if you get in trouble with the legal system here on earth; or quench the spirit with-in you which is Christ.
The freedom in Christ is where a person can ask God freely to help them in their times of troubles of struggles and tribulations they suffer with their body breaking down, with any hatred or greed or lust or things that come on the soul of the individual be it hatred, anger, wrath, strife, cause division, and other things that are mentioned in Galatians 5, which do not inherit the Kingdom of God; why? Because none of these can be with-in the kingdom of Heaven, because no darkness will reside in the Heavenly Jerusalem.
We are to respect our governing bodies, even supervisors, and co-workers, family, friends, even enemies, in Christ by faith through walking in Spirit, walking in faith, seeking after God, and to do what is right in the sight of the Lord allowing God to work in and through you.
There may people who can relate this to the Bible narrative - there are those who do forget, or have not understood that it is the Spirit we now live by which makes a person born-again who now has a mind set to seek after God in their own time if they choose to, and God is always open and ready to receive anyone who comes to Him. He is also long-suffering towards us, and even if people leave for a while they can always come back and restart because how the blood of Jesus has covered the sins of all the world, and the world has been reconciled to God though if you wanna be saved to the Kingdom of God it comes by faith in the gospel of Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection to grow in these things and remember them and learn them because that is part of Christian maturity.
To love God first, above all else
and to love others as yourself.
The hardest thing to do, but can be done in Christ name, to forgive and to help if possible by sharing spiritual things with others due to your faith and trust in God to help you in your life, to do what is right, as hard as it can be in this flesh itself, but the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
