I was teaching this week at Ignite (discipleship school in Toronto) on holiness and then helped with some worship at a women's retreat (anything for Jesus!)... where my good friend Denise was sharing about freedom. I was struck by the nature of both of those two concepts and how they connect... freedom and holiness collide in fullness. Denise was talking about how you aren't just 'set free' once and it's a done deal - but you grow into deeper freedom... and I was teaching about holiness being about 'fullness' - infectious Jesus quality at work in you and expanding outward...

Often spiritual freedom and holiness are thought of (or taught) as restrictive... it's odd. Because both are the most expansive things ever... we grow into more freedom and more 'wholeness' - we grow in our capacity for more of Jesus.

Now, Denise said this is a lot like a marriage (and used the analogy of a bride)... real love is expressed in covenant... solid, true promises that we make to love no matter what. After 40 years of marriage (or even 12) that kind of love looks and feels different... because it has deepened... it challenged me though. Am I content to let my love grow cold. Not just with Jesus but in my relationships too... I want to grow deeper into the wholeness of God and have that fullness expand into every possible area of my life and influence... let this fullness verse challenge you as it has me this weekend:

From Ephesians 3: "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."