Searching through you tube one day I stumbled upon this video. It wasn’t a particularly popular video to say the least but I still gave it a few more seconds than I would usually give a video that didn’t have an interesting headline or one that didn’t have a great amount of viewers to its credit. It was a choir video of some massive church in New York, but instead of an entrance of sopranos, altos and Tenos dressed in gowns it began with this news reporter talking about the greatest gift, which in his opinion was the freedom that the people of the United States enjoyed.

I went on to watch a bit of the choir singing but strangely enough, the word freedom remained with me long after I stopped surfing the net. I guess the Holy Spirit began ministering that word into my spirit.

I would believe that the reporter in his context of the word freedom was referring to the freedom that Americans have of choice, you know the words they sing about in there beloved anthem or maybe some of what they quote in their declaration of independence. My looking at freedom though was on the basis of individuals. Many of us live in free countries where we’re free to almost go anywhere or do most anything yet in many ways we’re not free. We struggle with these undesirables in our lives that we can’t seem to get rid of. The young woman who has been molested can leave that home and end up in an entirely different life but yet still be constantly plagued by the thoughts of that situation. How many times have you heard of persons that maybe made it to the heights of Hollywood but yet still struggle with issues of the past? It some how seems as if the cage that they have been put in never leaves them.

There are many others who innocently ventured into their bondage of gambling, pornography or even drugs and are now the slave to one of these with freedom seeming to be nowhere in sight. We walk around in a free country everyday yet can’t seem to pass anywhere else but by the race pool or members club. The Internet allows one to view the entire World Wide Web with millions of things to see and learn yet the surf’s always up at another porn site. Despite the fact that society can see the degradation of an individual on drugs and the individual themselves can notice the stage in which their lives have reached yet food becomes second in priority to one disturbed by the incessant need to get high.

In an account I read recently though, a man was discussing with some Jewish men about their need for freedom which was strange in their minds because as far as they knew they were not enslaved by anyone. The man continued proclaiming that who ever committed some of the acts that we discussed before were the slaves to them and therefore needed to be made free, but he didn’t leave them there he gave the answer, which simply is “if the son of man shall make you free you shall be free indeed”. This man that was explaining is none other than the man Christ Jesus and he wants to set you free from that thing that has had you enslaved for so long if you would only ask.  Why not give him a chance to use his keys in the prison gate that has you bound. Like the centurion in the bible who put Jesus to the test that only his words could make his daughter well. You can put him to that test and see if he truly possesses the gift of freedom.

A friend of mine posted that status to Facebook recently. It comes from Matthew 5, and is a simple verse. I clicked "Like" without thinking, and moved on. I was glad to hear this person in particular quoting the bible, but didn't make an issue of it. I didn't think anything of it until I saw the comment posted afterwards!