Page 22 - Harnett Life Summer 2018
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Free from Bondage
By Pastor Charles P. Locklear
Independence Day, also referred to as the Fourth of July The hearts and minds of many Americans are held captive
or July Fourth, is a federal holiday in the United States to fear, hopelessness and utter despair. This should lead us
commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of In- to an obvious conclusion. Man is incapable of securing or
dependence on July 4, 1776. The freedoms we enjoy as sustaining a meaningful freedom by the means of legisla-
Americans has been sustained, as much as possible, by a tion and war.
determined people who were willing to both fight and die,
to secure its place for future generations. American free- Those who embrace the Christian faith have come to the
dom represents for a vast majority of the world, a yet to glorious reality, that real and lasting freedom comes only
be realized dream. People from all over the world risk life from a genuine relationship to Jesus Christ. In Him, believ-
and limb in an effort to get to America, thinking that on her ers have discovered the freedom that delivers us from our
shores is paradise restored and freedom without measure. past, gives hope for each new day and settles the question
Unfortunately, this is not the case at all. While we do cel- of eternity beyond this life.
ebrate a great measure of freedom, the reality is that a vast
majority of Americans have created for themselves prisons John 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye
that limits the joy and contentment that should be found in shall be free indeed.” It is the Lord’s desire to set all of hu-
a free civilized society. The prisons of hate, bigotry, drug manity free from the bondage of sin, self and the destruc-
and alcohol abuse, violence and corruption and a thousand tive ambitions of Satan. Regardless of the prisons walls that
other vices drain individuals of the peace that should be a man may find himself behind, He who will place His faith
abundant in the Land of the free and the home of the brave. in the Great deliverer, can and will experience a freedom
Page 22 Harnett Life ~ Summer 2018
