“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Romans 14:8

Just this verse alone could generate volumes of books and words. Its immediate context has to do with groups in the early church in Rome that were at odds because of food laws. More to the point, St. Paul points to the presence of the Lord carving a path of freedom away from ethnic conflict, territorial claims and counterclaims, blood feuds, and on toward a new promised land. Paul faces a challenge in this early church life: How can different cultures with innate taboos, prejudices, suspicions, memories, and wounds live together as family?

These kinds of disputes over food laws don’t mean a lot to us today, but his answer does. Whether we live or die, how we live or die, we are the Lord’s possession. We have the freedom in Christ and through the Holy Spirit to go beyond controversies and live into the supernatural breakthroughs—to hear God, forgive others, repent, and look for the best in others—because we live and die as the Lord’s.

Let me explain. Studies have been done on initiation rites whereby, especially, young men used to be scarred in certain ways—with a mark on the body or a tooth knocked out, etc.—that would lead to an encounter with God. The purpose is to experience the reality that life is hard, you are not that important, you’re not in control, you’re going to die, and your life is not about you. This is a significant maturing process of growing through childhood and adolescence. This is what the early Roman church needed to know, and so do we. Encounter God. We begin to live only in the measure that we discover what God wants us to do. It’s an adventure.

Some of the ways include the following:

• Freedom from shame and guilt

• Freedom from image management

• Freedom from fear and generational bondage

• Freedom from building my own kingdom

• Freedom from the lies of the enemy

• Freedom from fear

• Freedom from generational bondage

• Freedom from freemasonry

If it is true that in life and death we’re the Lord’s, we can hear God, experience His healing and love, and live for others because we aren’t our own anyway. Be quick to forgive. Be bold and courageous. What Paul clarified to the early church is essential to living a mature, adventurous, Spirit-filled life 2,000 years later—a life beyond ourselves and our controversies, one that accepts adventure.

Come and See.

+Philip