Freedom

"I want to be free!"   Eddy Murphy  Queen

Some years ago I spent a holiday in London.   My first stop was the London Dungeons.  I found this experience quite horrifying, realizing the cruelty of mankind and the means of torture we seemed fit to use on our fellow man. A few days later, some famous man was released after being held captive by a terrorist groups for 18 months.  The thought then came to me how little appreciation we show for the day to day freedom that we all enjoy.   It is only when one loses one's freedom, that you truly appreciate freedom.

Jesus said that He is the Truth and when we know Him, we have the Truth and that his  truth will set us free.
In South Africa we have the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom of the press, but yet we do not not always feel free.   We have locked ourselves behind gates, bars and alarm systems.   We have become the captives and the criminals have been liberated.

But sadly, there is also another kind of captivity, the one we willingly and sometimes not so willingly spin around our daily existence.   From time to time we find it necessary to inspect our lives and determine what things we have allowed to hold us captive.

For me, my own lonely existence  is ever peeping over my shoulder and if I  give it any chance, it is always too eager to keep me locked up in my own world.   I convince myself that there is no place for me in my small world and that I am doomed to spend my days trying to survive in the silence of long passages and empty rooms. Often we are so wrapped up in our chains, that we miss the chains of others and the call of God for us to be instrumental in unchaining his dear children who find themselves in captivity.

There was once a woman of bad reputation that was brought to Jesus.   Her accusers saw her sin, but Jesus saw her chains.   He knew that unlocking the chains would mean locking away the sin from her life.  Because she was familiar with bondage. she could stay with Jesus when he became a captive of the sin of this world.   She went mourning to his grave, but left leaping with the knowledge that He too had been set free from hell and the ruler of this world.

God saw the sin that was keeping Nineveh captive and sent Jonah with His freedom message.   Jonah found himself caught up in his own set of chains called 'God's chosen people' and could not understand how God's grace could be extended to the heathen.   He could not understand that all people are God's creation and therefor all in need of saving.   He ran away and hid in the bottom of a ship where it was most probably damp, cold and dark and  in choosing this, he nearly left a city over to the  judgement of God.   Even when the lot was cast on him, he did not repent, but exchanged his hide out on the boat to the death that he thought he would find in the ocean.   God had other plans for Jonah and soon he realized that only God can set us truly free.

Jesus chose to leave his celestial domain and to be confined to this earth and a human form so that he could show me His truth.   He chose to be put in chains so that I could become free.   He chose death so that I could have Life more abundantly.   After my redemption was purchased, he left the confines of his human form and this world and all its sin so that I could one day experience with him the freedom from my own captivity here on earth.   At his feet I will fall and worship him without  the constraints of my limited understanding of his holiness, his glory and his love for me.

What a day that will be!   True freedom for me.