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Today we read another one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Verse 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Because Christ died for our sins, we are no longer condemned. Our life, as a believer, began when in unity with Christ, we died to our sins. We can not take this for granted. Regardless of how we choose to live our lives, we must remember that this is the foundational truth of what makes us believers in Christ.
Daily Devotion 
Freedom, freedom, freedom. If I could wrap up Paul’s message in one word, this would be it. And it’s no surprise that he focuses on this all the time! He was raised the strictest of the strict. He followed every rule in the law. He spent his entire life making sure he was doing the “right” thing…and he realized how futile, how empty it was. He knew what it felt like to be enslaved. And when you know the difference between enslavement and freedom, you just can’t stop talking about it. I became a Christian when I was a kid. Jesus got a hold of me at a young age (my parents weren’t believers at the time. Kinda ends the argument of childhood brainwashing with my non-believing friends:)). All that to say, I’ve felt that freedom my entire life. Sure, I got wrapped up in legalism etc…and God really has set me free from it, but I forget that there are people out there who live enslaved to a moral code, then live in shame about the fact that they can’t meet that moral code, so they try harder and this vicious cycle starts. Anyone in this group (that might just be you, Dino!) come to Christ later in life? Anyone have a story of being set free?
It’s interesting, but I grew up in a Christian home and became a believer very early on, but I didn’t really have a true relationship with God until much later in life. What is interesting is that I did not feel like I was actually set free until I actually had a relationship with Him. It’s kind of like seeing that beautiful person across the room. You make assumptions about what that person likes, what they want, what kind of person they are attracted to. Then once you walk over and start talking (not hitting on them) and getting to know them you realize (most of the time) they are much different than you had imaged. The same applies to our relationship with God. We need to get to know Him before we can make judgement calls about what He really wants from us.