It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

We need to stand firm and in liberty from all bondage of sin.

We should not be entangled with the yoke of bondage of the vices of the world.

Many rag pickers who are taken into refuge homes for care, sometimes go back to picking rags because they are so accustomed to doing so. Inasmuch the same way, we who are delivered from the bondage of sin, sometimes go back into sin because of the drawing of the engraved habitual sins. Most of us do not understand the meaning of freedom. Some of us abuse the freedom that Christ had given us. Some of us do not accept the freedom that Christ has given us and say that we need time. Before we know it, we have been in the same bondage for years and still asking for time to get out of that bondage.

Some people do not want to accept Christ and His freedom because they feel that the moment they accept Christ, they will have to give up their vices. It’s like the Eskimo story: “Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"”

It was at the point of suicide that I met Christ and received His freedom. Since then, I have taken His freedom to set the captives free. What is your bondage? Your freedom awaits you, for it is for freedom that Christ set you free! The good news to a SUICIDAL person is FREEDOM! My brokenness and humiliation has helped me bring healing to hurting people. Persecution brings humility and compassion. Just as Jesus was bound on the Cross, He can empathise with our bondage and the crosses that we carry… but even death could not hold Him. And as the Holy Scripture says, if we die with Him, we will also rise with Him and therefore, no bondage or death will ever be able to hold us. It is only when we are broken and wounded, can we understand others, with compassion.

The woman in John chapter four, knew what it was to live in bondage and what it is to live in freedom. When Jesus met her, He made it known to her that He knew she had five husbands in the past and that she was now living in sin. This woman was in bondage. The climax is that this woman acknowledged her sin in leading a miserable life and seeking love and comfort in the wrong places. When she acknowledged her sin, she accepted the Messiah and brought many to the truth. She was set free from the yoke of slavery and walked in FREEDOM for she knew that it is for freedom that Christ had set her free! The good news to a DEPRIVED person is FREEDOM!

When you give all you could give and could give no more, God will take over, only surrender to Him. When you surrender to God, He fills you with love when all seems spilt over. The Psalmist says in Psalm 63:3 “ Because Your love is better that life…” the Greek word of love in this context is khesh’-sed meaning ‘lovingkindness’  the love that is kind, patient and favourable and holistic. That is the love of God and unless that love enters into us, we will always be restless. As St. Augustine said: “For You have made us for Yourself O Lord, for you alone our God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.?”

Perhaps you are a victim of circumstances. You did not receive your father’s love because he was in bondage himself, and you sought love elsewhere, compromising on your values. Never let the circumstances of your life to rule you. Always know your boundaries and do not cross the fence of morality that will protect you and will save your virtue, because the moment you compromise on your virtue, your companion will never respect you. As G K Chesterton said “Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.”

Perhaps you’re a victim of a dysfunctional home that your life in now dysfunctional and you’re dead inside even though you’re a teenager, young adult a married person or even a senior citizen. Arise beloved and live for He died that you may live. Be victorious. As Norman Cousins said: “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” Don’t let your freedom die, let go of all that holds you captive! May this be your prayer as it is mine: “Lord, unless You build my life, all my efforts are in vain”

Being a full time, itinerant Evangelist and living away from family, as a matter of fact I have not seen my parents for the past ten years as they live in a different country and I’ve not been able to see them - Life sometimes gets extremely, bitterly lonely. Recently, while I was on the way to the airport to return to Bangalore , I got an sms that said my flight was late by half an hour. So we drove to a friend’s house to pray for them and then we proceeded to the airport. When I had gone to the airport, I missed the flight by five minutes. I had a very important Radio program later that day in Bangalore, but now that seemed impossible. As I exited the airport, my spiritual sister and a friend were so happy that I had missed my flight that they started jumping and dancing right at the exit door of the airport with giggles. At the exit, I looked at a female cop and jokingly told her that because of these girls, I had missed my plane. The cop stood up and smiled along with them and told me this: “this shows how much they love you” those words and the feeling of being loved, made me feel as a person who is loved and accepted. It didn’t matter to me if I missed the Radio schedule, missed my flight or missed anything. All that mattered to me was, I am loved. This, I will never forget as long as I live.

Jesus knew that we all need love and we need our loved ones to set us free from false love. That’s why when Jesus was on the Cross He said to His mother “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “here is your mother” (cf. John19:26-27) Jesus knew that we need Fathers and Mothers, Sons and Daughters, Brothers and Sisters in Biblical context that will fill the void with love that we don’t otherwise receive. God will give you the people you need, Even though you did not receive the love at home. As Bishop Desmond Tutu said: “You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.” It is for freedom that Christ set us free! The good news to a WOUNDED person is FREEDOM!

In the midst of your loss, ask God to fill you with hope and courage that you may live. As Robert Cody said: “Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.”

When the spies in Luke chapter twenty tried to trick Jesus and asked Him if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus replied “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied.  He said to them “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

I wonder why they did not ask Jesus “what is it that belonged to God?” If the next question was: “what is it that belongs to God?” Jesus would have replied “in what image are you made of? Therefore, give to God, what belongs to God – YOURSELF!” The good news to a lost person is SURRENDER!

He is your Holy Father. You are not a product of time + chance + matter which is evolution, but you are conformed into the image of your Creator God. You are not an orphan in this lost world.

You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. Ephesians 2:19

Imagine yourself a child, abandoned on the streets of a big city. Your parents died on the way to the city. You have no money and no relatives. You can’t speak the language, and you are left to fend for yourself.

Many orphans find themselves in exactly that predicament. They sleep in alleys, huddling for warmth inboxes or metal drums. To survive, they mostly steal, catch rats to eat, or rummage in garbage. Girls sometimes work as prostitutes.

In 1850, immigrants were flooding New York City, one of the largest cities in America, and no one had the time or money to look after the orphans – no one, that is, except Charles Loring Brace, a 26 year old Evangelist. Horrified by their plight, he organized a unique solution, the Orphan Train. The idea was simple: pack hundreds of orphans on a train heading west and announce to towns along the way that anyone could claim a new son or daughter when the Orphan Train chugged through.

Adopted into a New Life

You have learned to survive and fight off starvation. But one day, someone takes you and puts you on a smoke-belching train jammed with hundreds of other foreign-speaking youngsters. Three days later you are selected by a kindly middle-aged couple who introduce themselves to you. You are driven (in an automobile!) to the largest house you have ever seen, and they quietly explain that you are now part of their family. Everything they have is yours to use and enjoy. At long last, by some miracle you have a family and a home – and what a home!

Even today, we who are lost have a chance to get adopted in the Kingdom of light. God is inviting us into His kingdom, are we ready? No matter how much you have messed up or how your condition is, know this, you can become a Voice for the Lord. He will sanctify you so that you can go out and reach those whose lives are in a mess and reconcile families that are broken. God had brought out of situations such as these and that’s why I work towards reaching the broken hearted.

Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The face of Jesus is bathed with sweat, streaming with blood, covered with abusive spittle. Who would dare draw near him? A woman! A woman steps out of the crowd, keeping alight the lamp of our humanity, ... and wipes his Face and finds his Face!

Tradition calls her Veronica though that was not her actual name. She is called Veronica because it comes from two Greek words, Vera Icon meaning True Image. Indeed, we are in the true image of God! Many people are walking about looking at shadows and chasing after them. If you would only look to Jesus, you would see the true face and not the shadow - the face that will remove every shadow of doubt. Because you are in the true image of Christ, you have freedom in Christ.

Just as the good news to a hungry man is food, so is the Word of God to the depressed.

Just as water is good news to a thirsty woman, so is the Holy Spirit to the weak.

Just as medicine is good news to the sick, so is Christ to the lost soul!

For He who knew no sin became sin for our sake.

We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God loves those in bondage because He came for them. They will at the knick of time, break free and accept His Freedom. Let us not judge them yet, for it is for freedom that Christ SHALL set them FREE!

Dearly beloved, no matter what bondage you may be in, don’t settle for the crumbs of freedom that is thrown from the table of this world, but crave for the full menu of FREEDOM. For it is for FREEDOM that CHRIST has set you FREE!

REMEMBER, HE HAS PROMISED YOU HEALING “… I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you…” 2 Kings 20:5

PRAYER

A single step,
and peace could return to families,
a single step,
and the needy would no longer be alone;
a single step,
and the suffering could feel a hand
reaching out to take their hand
... and bring healing to both.

AMEN.