http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6:14&version=NIV1984
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8:36&version=NIV1984
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+4:7&version=NIV1984
The following is the reading for August 28th from Battlefields & Blessings: Stories Of Faith And Courage From The Civil War by Terry Tuley
“William J Anderson was a slave for 24 years. He was sold 8 times. In jail 6 times. Whipped 300 times. Anderson revealed the dark times of slavery in America and gave an account of the slave trade in Natchez, Mississippi.
‘For the sake of money, they are sold separately, sometimes 200 hundred miles apart, although their hopes would be to be sold together. Sometimes their little children are torn from them and sent far away to a distant country, never to see them again. O, such crying and weeping when parted from each other! For this demonstration of natural human affection the slaveholder would apply the lash or paddle upon the naked skin. The former was used less frequently than the latter, for fear of making scars or marks on their backs, which are closely looked for by the buyer. I saw one poor woman dragged off and sold from her tender child - which was nearly white - which the seller would not let go with its mother. Although the master of the mother importuned him a long time to him have it with its mother, with oaths and curses he refused. It was too hard for the mother to bear; she fainted, and was whipped up...I had an opportunity of seeing the distress of the poor slaves in Natchez, but in a few years afterwards God visited them with an awful overthrow.
When I arrived on the farm, and beheld the way they were fed, worked, clothed, whipped and driven, my poor heart faltered within me, to see men and women reduced to the hardships of cartelism.....The only money I possessed was one dollar. With this I purchased a Bible, but it was taken from me and torn up, and I was whipped for reading it. We had no preaching or meeting at all - nothing but whipping and driving both day and night - sometimes nearly all day Sunday...’”
Wow. I couldn’t hardly believe this when I read it. It seems so foreign to anything that I have ever seen or experienced. It’s hard to believe that one human being could treat another human being this way. For what? Just because they have a different color skin? Or because they were illiterate? Or because they were defenseless? The amazing thing is that this happened right here in the good, old U.S.A. Land of the ‘free’. Now while not every Southern master treated his slaves this way, apparently there were enough people who wanted to keep the institution of slavery intact to go to war over it. During which 618,000 men lost their lives. Fortunately, the North won. And slavery was abolished. It is an evil. It was an evil. It will always be an evil.
Unfortunately, slavery still exists today. In the spiritual realm. Where it has existed since Adam & Eve. For a single piece of forbidden fruit, for a momentary pleasure, they not only forfeited their own freedom, but the freedom of every human being since. They reduced themselves, and the rest of us, to slavery. Slavery to sin. And Satan. Slavery of a supernatural kind. Slavery that no human war or effort could break.
We see evidences of the terribleness of this slavery every day. People who are slaves to alcohol. Drugs. Anger. Sex. Greed. Lust. Hate. Money. And it isn’t very pretty. Money is squandered. People are used. Health is wasted. Opportunities are lost. Relationships are broken. Families are destroyed. The innocent suffer. Is it any wonder why the Bible says that God hates sin? Because sin is slavery. Of the worst kind. Then came Jesus.
Jesus came to earth essentially to die. To become the perfect sacrifice for sins on the cross. The sacrifice that would ultimately break sin’s hold on the human race. And set the slaves free. It wasn’t by accident that when Jesus went into the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19) that He chose to read the following passage from Isaiah 66:1 - “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Single-handedly, Jesus freed all of humanity from the slavery of sin.
The fact is that you no longer need to be a slave. You can be free. Sin’s power over you has been broken. Freedom is there for the taking. All you need to do is to reach out and take it. By faith. In Jesus. Why wait? Become free today!
Lord, I thank you for the great cost that was paid to purchase my freedom from sin. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. I rejoice that I am no longer under its control. I am no longer a slave but a son. May I continue to live in that freedom. And help others to discover their freedom in You as well. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“William J Anderson was a slave for 24 years. He was sold 8 times. In jail 6 times. Whipped 300 times. Anderson revealed the dark times of slavery in America and gave an account of the slave trade in Natchez, Mississippi.
‘For the sake of money, they are sold separately, sometimes 200 hundred miles apart, although their hopes would be to be sold together. Sometimes their little children are torn from them and sent far away to a distant country, never to see them again. O, such crying and weeping when parted from each other! For this demonstration of natural human affection the slaveholder would apply the lash or paddle upon the naked skin. The former was used less frequently than the latter, for fear of making scars or marks on their backs, which are closely looked for by the buyer. I saw one poor woman dragged off and sold from her tender child - which was nearly white - which the seller would not let go with its mother. Although the master of the mother importuned him a long time to him have it with its mother, with oaths and curses he refused. It was too hard for the mother to bear; she fainted, and was whipped up...I had an opportunity of seeing the distress of the poor slaves in Natchez, but in a few years afterwards God visited them with an awful overthrow.When I arrived on the farm, and beheld the way they were fed, worked, clothed, whipped and driven, my poor heart faltered within me, to see men and women reduced to the hardships of cartelism.....The only money I possessed was one dollar. With this I purchased a Bible, but it was taken from me and torn up, and I was whipped for reading it. We had no preaching or meeting at all - nothing but whipping and driving both day and night - sometimes nearly all day Sunday...’”
Wow. I couldn’t hardly believe this when I read it. It seems so foreign to anything that I have ever seen or experienced. It’s hard to believe that one human being could treat another human being this way. For what? Just because they have a different color skin? Or because they were illiterate? Or because they were defenseless? The amazing thing is that this happened right here in the good, old U.S.A. Land of the ‘free’. Now while not every Southern master treated his slaves this way, apparently there were enough people who wanted to keep the institution of slavery intact to go to war over it. During which 618,000 men lost their lives. Fortunately, the North won. And slavery was abolished. It is an evil. It was an evil. It will always be an evil.
Unfortunately, slavery still exists today. In the spiritual realm. Where it has existed since Adam & Eve. For a single piece of forbidden fruit, for a momentary pleasure, they not only forfeited their own freedom, but the freedom of every human being since. They reduced themselves, and the rest of us, to slavery. Slavery to sin. And Satan. Slavery of a supernatural kind. Slavery that no human war or effort could break.
We see evidences of the terribleness of this slavery every day. People who are slaves to alcohol. Drugs. Anger. Sex. Greed. Lust. Hate. Money. And it isn’t very pretty. Money is squandered. People are used. Health is wasted. Opportunities are lost. Relationships are broken. Families are destroyed. The innocent suffer. Is it any wonder why the Bible says that God hates sin? Because sin is slavery. Of the worst kind. Then came Jesus.
Jesus came to earth essentially to die. To become the perfect sacrifice for sins on the cross. The sacrifice that would ultimately break sin’s hold on the human race. And set the slaves free. It wasn’t by accident that when Jesus went into the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19) that He chose to read the following passage from Isaiah 66:1 - “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Single-handedly, Jesus freed all of humanity from the slavery of sin.
The fact is that you no longer need to be a slave. You can be free. Sin’s power over you has been broken. Freedom is there for the taking. All you need to do is to reach out and take it. By faith. In Jesus. Why wait? Become free today!
Lord, I thank you for the great cost that was paid to purchase my freedom from sin. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. I rejoice that I am no longer under its control. I am no longer a slave but a son. May I continue to live in that freedom. And help others to discover their freedom in You as well. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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