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Psalm 27:11, 13

"Teach me Your way, O LORD.... I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD...."

Proverbs 10:16

"The labor of the righteous leads to life."

Beth Moore, Breaking Free

Ten Commandments = plan for staying out of slavery.

God's commands = boundary stones. "Those who live beyond the boundaries will not only return to bondage they will leave a well-trodden path for generations to follow in their footsteps."

- All bondage begins with sin.
- All bondage promotes sin.
- All bondage highly intensifies the pull toward sin.

The cycle of bondage/sin:

move the boundary > follow my own rules > bondage > sin > more bondage > move the boundary, etc . (84)

God's commands... were given, not to enslave me, but to keep me free. His jealousy is for me, not against me. God does not punish children for their parents' sins (85).

Parents/Grandparents must be very careful what they sow because it may bear wind in their lives and a whirlwind in the lives that follow. "[E]nslaved parents teach their children how to live in bondage even with the best of intentions to do otherwise " (86).

Gilda Radner, as quoted in Moore, BF:

"When I was little, my nurse Dibby's cousin had a dog, just a mutt, and the dog was pregnant. I don't know how long dogs are pregnant, but she was due to have her puppies in about a week. She was out in the yard one day and got in the way of the law mower[,] and her two hind legs got cut off. They rushed her to the vet[;] and he said, 'I can sew her up, or you can put her to sleep if you want, but the puppies are okay. She'll be able to deliver the puppies.'

"Dibby's cousin said, 'Keep her alive.'

"So the vet sewed up her backside, and over the next week the dog learned to walk. She didn't spend any time worrying, she just learned to walk by taking two steps in the front and flipping up her backside and then taking two steps and flipping up her backside again. She gave birth to six little puppies, all in perfect health. She nursed them and then weaned them. And when they learned to walk, they all walked like her" (86).

"Even a thin chain can strangle the life out of you."

"God wants whole hearts, not big heads."