107 Sermon Illustrations on Freedom

Jesus Christ not only called Lazarus into life, but he commanded the grave-clothes to be taken off him, that he might have liberty in life. Life, without liberty from the grave-clothes, would scarcely have been a blessing. So Jesus Christ not only gives life to the soul which believes in him; he also commands the Spirit to descend upon him, to set him free from all enslaving habits. "If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Bate.

John Milton, the chief of poets, held the post of Latin secretary under Cromwell. At the Restoration, he was dismissed from his office. He was now poor and blind; and, to these afflictions, Charles II. added political persecutions: he fined him, and doomed his writings on liberty to be publicly burned. Nothing daunted by these fierce and multiplied trials, the great poet retired into private life, evoked his mighty genius, and produced "Paradise Lost." But, after he had endured the ills of poverty several years, Charles, feeling the need of his matchless talents, invited him to resume his former post with all its great advantages. Milton loved liberty so well, that he spurned the splendid bribe, chosing rather neglect, poverty, and a good conscience.

In time past, a slave, starting in the darkness and stillness of the midnight hour, and taking the north star for his guide, toiled on his weary way, resting by day and travelling by night, until he reached Vermont. He was pursued by his alleged owner, and seized, with the intention of returning him to slavery. The case was brought before Judge Harrington: and the slave-owner, in proof of his claim, called the attention of the judge to a bill of sale; but it was returned, with an intimation that it was not satisfactory. The indignant Southerner asked what would be satisfactory to his Honor. The judge replied, "A bill of sale from God Almighty."

— Dr. A. Webster

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When Patrick Henry concluded his well-known speech in March, 1775, in behalf of American independence, “no murmur of applause followed,” says his biographer. “The effect was too deep.” After the trance of a moment, several members of the assembly started from their seats. The cry, “To arms!” seemed to quiver on every lip, and glance from every eye. What was the secret of his power? The spirit of freedom so completely filled him that it overflowed into all other lives with which he came in contact.

Every Christian is given a message that makes for eternal freedom. With what earnestness ought we to advocate this much greater cause. (Text.)

God, having made man a free moral agent, is a wooer, not a coercionist. If the knowledge of the sacrifice made for man’s redemption will not win man’s love, God will not apply physical force to compel acceptance, love, and obedience. A military chieftain, tho holding the lives of his soldiers in his hands, exhibits his greatest power by refusing to exercise compulsion, and realizes that the best service rendered is that which is prompted by love of the commander. Thus God shows His almighty power.

What a remarkable invention is the airship! In it are wrapt almost boundless possibilities for good or evil. The Christian bound on his sacred mission may yet be able to use the viewless air for his highway, transport himself through its soundless solitudes, hundreds of miles before the dawning. He may transport himself with ease from place to place and behold all the marvels of creation on earth, having cut loose from gravitation and being free in the infinite ocean of starlight and sunlight.

The ideal of man is perfect freedom of the soul. (Text.)

R. H. Haweis gives an experience that would be good for all learners:

He (Oury) taught me Rode’s Air in G--that beautiful melody which has been, with its well-known variations, the _pièce de résistance_ of so many generations of violinists and soprani. I was drilled in every note, the bowing was rigidly fixt for me, the whole piece was marked, bar by bar, with slur, _p_ and _f_, _rall._ and _crescendo_. I was not allowed to depart a hair’s breadth from rule. When I could do this easily and accurately, Oury surprized me one day by saying:

“Now you can play it as you like; you need not attend to a single mark!”

“How so?” I said.

“Don’t you see,” he said, “the marks don’t signify: that is only one way of playing it. If you have any music in you, you can play it in a dozen other ways. Now, I will make it equally good,” and he took the violin and played it through, reversing as nearly as possible all the _p’s_ and _f’s_, “bowing” the slur and slurring the “bow,” and it sounded just as well. I never forgot that lesson.

Chang Fen was a Chinese who became a Red Guard. But his father had served in the Nationalist Army and Fen became identified with a "Black Family." Put in prison, escaped, recaptured, escaped to Russia. Recruited by KGB, sent on missions to China. Wanted freedom, escaped from KGB in Africa (on way to Hong Kong) and flew to U.S. Gave info to FBI, went to church, got married.

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Whittaker Chambers was a Communist spy for 13 years and abruptly left the Party in 1938. Through his testimony, Richard Nixon charged State Department official Alger Hiss with being a Soviet spy.

In Chambers’s autobiography, “Witness,” he describes his reasons for leaving communism. Originally, he had found in the party the two certainties “for which the mind of man tirelessly seeks: a reason to live and a reason to die.” He believed Marxism represented the last great hope on earth.

Why did that hope crumble? Chambers quotes the daughter of a German diplomat, trying to explain why her father had suddenly turned against communism: “He was immensely pro-Soviet, and then one night in Moscow he heard screams. That’s all. Simply one night he heard screams.” Chambers read about the execution of a Soviet general he knew and realized the killings would go on and on. Lady Astor once asked Stalin, “How long are you going to keep on killing people?” “As long as it is necessary,” he replied.

Watching his daughter in a high chair, he noticed the perfection of her ear and realized such an intricate design could not happen by chance. His daughter must have a soul. Later, reading Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables,” Chambers encountered a faith that combined two seeming irreconcilables: Christianity and revolution. The revolution was not imposed from above, through a gun barrel, but from below, through service to the poor and oppressed. He read the journal of George Fox and was influenced by the Quakers.

Chambers died a sad and mistrusted man. Yet communism has been abandoned around the world. Why? First, they heard screams. Finally, the authorities themselves had to recognize the bankruptcy of a system based on humanity alone. Almost 40 years ago Chambers wrote:

“Political freedom, as the Western world has known it, is only a political reading of the Bible. ... The crisis of Communism exists to the degree in which it has failed to free the peoples it rules from God. ... Economics is not the central problem of this century. It is a relative problem which can be solved in relative ways. Faith is the central problem of this age. The Western world does not know it, but it already possesses the answer to this problem -- but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as Communism’s faith in Man.”

Variety of articles on the passages concerning weaker brothers and stumbling blocks. Liberty on non-essential issues is explored.

#903

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Sermon in 1 Corinthians series.

Non-essentials in doctrine should not be allowed to harm the essential of salvation of others, even if they are "weak."

1. Focus is on salvation, not nit-picky issues.

2. Food sacrificed to idols.

3. Strong Christians.

4. Weak Christians.

5. Love is more important than knowledge.

6. Don't confuse essentials and non-essentials.

a. Don't drive people from God.

Utah was Brigham Young’s community. He was absolute master of its every detail. He knew every Mormon in Salt Lake City, his name and family, his assets and problems. When he visited St. George, the Mormon settlement near the southern Nevada border, he entered every home, embraced every Saint. When he ordered a thing to be done, it was done: Tabernacle, temple towns, schools, roads, library…

Plays appearing in the theater had to have his approval. Marriages required his consent, and courtships as well. If a man wanted to enter a business or trade, Brigham Young had to approve. … When he told a man to enter into plural marriage, that man took another wife. Whatever he said was the religion of the Mormons; when he said that a man or group was apostate that man or group was excommunicated. Heber Kimball, Young’s first in command, told the congregation: “If Brother Brigham tells me to do a thing, it is the same as though the Lord told me to do it.”

If it seemed that the Mormon was not overburdened with personal decisions, Sir Richard Burton, who visited them as a friend in Salt Lake in 1860, said that Brigham Young’s policy was based upon: “The fact that liberty is to mankind in mass, a burden far heavier than slavery.”

Booker T. Washington describes meeting an ex-slave from Virginia in his book "Up from Slavery":

"I found that this man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labour where and for whom he pleased.

"Finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio, he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars. Not withstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his hands.

In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that he did not have to pay his debt, but that he had given his word to his master, and his word he had never broken. He felt that he could not enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his promise."

Terry Fullam, in his sermon "Life on Wings," tells how mother eagles force their young to fly. If he had spoken in generalities, he would have said, "When their fledglings are old enough, eagles actually destroy their own nest to force the offspring to fly." But Terry used specifics:

"'Mother, what are you doing?' Mother eagle pays no attention. She takes out the interior of the nest. She takes the great sticks, and with her strong beak she snaps them in two. She turns them up on end - pulls the place apart.

"'Mom, what are you doing?' She pays no attention. She begins to disassemble the nest, and the branches go plummeting down the face of the cliff.

"'Mom, we're not old enough to go out in the world.' But she doesn't pay any attention. Is she trying to break up housekeeping because she doesn't like her children anymore? Not at all. She understands something they don't know. They weren't made to perch in the nest. They were made to soar, and they will never soar as long as they are in the nest."

#2092

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Excellent series of articles on codependency from a Christian perspective. Positive aspects of the "12 Step" movement are given, but also warnings about tendency to eliminate morality and use "disease" as a scapegoat. Acquired habit patterns are more at fault. The tension of powerlessness and responsibility is discussed.

Used in sermon on 11/15/92:

I. Codependency.

A. Families form a web of behavior patterns.

B. The addict's destructive behavior is denied or minimized.

C. Rigid boundaries are formed concerning communication outside the family.

D. Feelings of anger, shame, fear, and sadness are hidden.

E. Roles are reversed: children function as adults...

II. The ultimate addiction. Exodus 20:5-6

A. Codependency sounds a lot like the Christian definition of sin.

B. These learned behaviors are passed on generation to generation.

Fourth of July sermon. 1 Peter 2:9-17

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ARE YOU INDEPENDENT?

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I. Progression of American Independence.

A. Revolutionary War - bow to no KING.

B. Civil War - bow to no PERSON.

II. Dependencies in our culture that kill freedom.

A. Dependent on letting others lead us by nose.

B. Dependent on blaming others.

C. Dependent on handouts.

III. Christians should be free.

A. Dead-end of rigid predestination theology.

B. Bible is clear, Christians are free. John 3:16

C. Freedom is not "license." 1 Peter 2:16

IV. Declare your independence!

A. Independent in responsibility. 1 Peter 2:15

B. Independent in love.

C. Independent in faith.

V. Expanding your freedom.

#2684

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"Our Heavenly Father, help us to remember that freedom cannot be handed down and maintained without effort; that each generation must rediscover it for themselves.

-- Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, from www.sermoncentral.com, 11/4/02

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

-- John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1961

"There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven who does not know that slavery is wrong, for him."

-- Frederick Douglass, Smithsonian magazine, August 2004, p. 109

“The demand for absolute liberty brings men to the depths of slavery.”

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5693]

1996 interview with the new premier of Taiwan [Lee Teng-hui?] who surprisingly held free elections.

"People say you are a very religious man. What role has religion played in your life?"

"I studied Zen. But there was too much spiritualism. So I had no belief at all. I gradually came back to spiritualism and Christianity. Buddhism and Christianity are different ways of thinking, but the goals are the same. Christianity has love and Buddhism has humility. At their highest points they are the same. But Christianity is a freer way of thinking. The greatest part of Christianity is that you have faith in something you cannot see."

"Did this philosophy help you in tough times?"

"My life of 74 years has been changing time and again, with so many events and situations. I wanted to see people have democracy and freedom, just like Moses leading the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt."

The fall of communism is due to its spiritual failure. It claimed that capitalism was evil and unjust, but Marxism was based on falsehood and did not reflect reality. Capitalism is more spiritual than communism - goods and services are freely exchanged, these goods increase in value, and it rewards the best efforts.

The huge Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Czechoslovakia was set up to study (and attack) capitalism. They secretly became capitalists themselves. An East German made this assessment of the "six miracles of socialism":

1. There is no unemployment, but no one works.

2. No one works, but everyone gets paid.

3. Everyone gets paid, but there is nothing to buy.

4. No one can buy anything, but everyone owns everything.

5. Everyone owns everything, but no one is satisfied.

6. No one is satisfied, but 99 percent of the people voted for the system.

Western liberalism has faults of its own. It constantly says the government is there to do what individuals can't or won't do on their own. However, government can't do anything for us without first taking from us the means to do it. Government's only tool is force, and force is usually the worst possible tool to apply in social matters.

Ideas, not armies, rule the world. False belief, not secret police or barbed wire, enslaves.

MYTH OF FREE WILL

Most people say that they believe in "free will." Do you have any idea what that means? I believe that you will find a great deal of superstition on this subject. The will is saluted as the grand power of the human soul which is completely free to direct our lives. But from what is it free? And what is its power?

THE MYTH OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL FREEDOM

No one denies that man has a will -- that is, a faculty of choosing what he wishes to say, do, and think. But have you ever reflected on the pitiful weakness of your will? Though you have the ability to make a decision, you do not have the power to carry out your purpose. Will may devise a course of action, but will has no power to execute its intention.

Joseph's brothers hated him. They sold him to be a slave. But God used their actions to make him a ruler over themselves. They chose their course of action to harm Joseph. But God in His power directed events for Joseph's good. He said, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Gen 50:20).

And how many of your decisions are miserably thwarted? You may choose to be a millionaire, but God's providence is likely to prevent it. You may decide to be a scholar, but bad health, an unstable home, or lack of finances may frustrate your will. You choose to go on vacation, but an automobile accident may send you to the hospital instead.

By saying that your will is free, we certainly do not mean that it determines the course of your life. You did not choose the sickness, sorrow, war, and poverty that have spoiled your happiness. You did not choose to have enemies. If man's will is so potent, why not choose to live on and on? But you must die. The major factors which shape your life cannot thank your will. You did not select your social status, color, intelligence, etc.

Any sober reflection on your experience will produce the conclusion, "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Prov 16:9). Rather than extolling the human will, we ought to humbly praise the Lord whose purposes shape our lives. As Jeremiah confessed, "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer 10:23).

Yes, you may choose what you want, and you may plan what you will do; but your will is not free to accomplish anything contrary to the purposes of God. Neither have you any power to reach your goals but that which God allows you. The next time you are so enamored with your own will, remember Jesus' parable about the rich man. The wealthy man said, "This I will do: I will pull down all my barns, and build greater; and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods...But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:18-21). He was free to plan but not free to accomplish; so it is with you.

THE MYTH OF ETHICAL FREEDOM

But freedom of the will is cited as an important factor in making MORAL decisions. Man's will is said to be free to choose between good and evil. But again we must ask, from what is it free? And what is man's will free to choose?

The will of man is his power to choose between alternatives. Your will does decide your actions from a number of options. You have the faculty to direct your own thoughts, words, and deeds. Your decisions are not formed by an outside force, but from within yourself. No man is compelled to act contrary to his will, nor forced to say what he does not wish. Your will guides your actions.

Yet this does not mean that the power to decide is free from all influence. You make choices based on your understanding, your feelings, your likes and dislikes, and your appetites. In other words, your will is not free from yourself! Your choices are determined by your own basic character. The will is not independent of your nature, but the slave of it. Your choices do not shape your character, but your character guides your choices. The will is quite partial to what you know, feel, love, and desire. You always choose on the basis of your disposition, according to the condition of your heart.

It is just for this reason that your will is NOT free to do good. Your will is the servant of your heart, and your heart is evil. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that EVERY imagination of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY" (Gen 6:5). "There is NONE that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom 3:12). No power forces man to sin contrary to his will, but the descendents of Adam are so evil that they always choose the evil.

Your decisions are molded by your understanding, and the Bible says of all men, "And their foolish heart was darkened" (Rom 1:21). Man can only be righteous when he desires to have fellowship with God, but, "There is NONE that seeketh after God" (Rom 3:11). Your appetites crave sin, and thus you cannot choose God. To choose good is contrary to human nature. If you chose to obey God, it would be the result of external compulsion. But you are free to choose, and hence your choice is enslaved to your own evil nature.

If fresh meat and tossed salad were placed before a hungry lion, he would choose the flesh. This is because his nature dictates the selection. It is just so with man. The will of man is free from outside force, but not from the bias of human nature. That bias is against God. Man's powers of decision are free to choose whatever the human heart dictates; therefore there is no possibility of a man choosing to please God without a prior work of divine grace.

What most people mean by free will is the idea that man is by nature neutral and therefore able to choose either good or evil. This simply is not true. The human will and the whole of human nature is bent to ONLY evil CONTINUALLY. Jeremiah asked, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil" (Jer 13:23). It is impossible. It is contrary to nature. Thus do men desperately need the supernatural transformation of their natures, else their wills are enslaved to choosing evil.

In spite of the great praise that is given to "free will," we have seen that man's will is not free to choose a course contrary to God's purposes nor free to act contrary to his own moral nature. Your will does not determine the events of your life nor the circumstances of it. Ethical choices are not formed by a neutral mind but always dictated by your personality makeup.

THE MYTH OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM

Nevertheless many assert that human will makes the ultimate choice of spiritual life or spiritual death. They say that here the will is altogether free to choose eternal life offered in Jesus Christ or to reject it. It is said that God will give a new heart to all who choose by the power of their own free will to receive Jesus Christ.

There can be no question that receiving Jesus Christ is an act of the human will. It is often called "faith." But how do men come to willingly receive the Lord? It is usually answered, "Out of the power of their own free will." But how can that be? Jesus is a PROPHET. To receive Him means to believe all that He says. In John 8:41-45 Jesus made it clear that you were born of Satan. This evil father hates the truth and imparted the same bias into your heart by nature. Hence said Jesus, "Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." How does the human will jump out of man to choose to believe what the human mind hates and denies?

Further, to receive Jesus means to embrace him as a PRIEST -- that is, to employ and depend on him to sue out peace with God by sacrifice and intercession. Paul tells us that the mind with which we were born is hostile to God (Rom 8:7). How can the will escape the influence of human nature which was born with a violent enmity to God? It would be insane for the will to choose peace when every bone and drop of blood cries out for rebellion.

Then too, receiving Jesus means to welcome Him as KING. It means choosing to obey His every command, to confess His right of rule, and to worship before His throne. But the human mind, emotions, and desires all cry out, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). If my whole being hates His truth, hates His rule, and hates peace with God, how can my will be responsible for receiving Jesus? How can such a sinner have faith?

It is not man's will but God's GRACE that must be thanked for giving a sinner a new heart. Unless God changes the heart, creates a new spirit of peace, truthfulness, and submission, man will not choose to receive Jesus Christ and eternal life in Him. A new heart must be given before a man can believe, or else the human will is hopelessly enslaved to evil human nature -- even in the matter of conversion. Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye MUST be born again" (John 3:7). Unless you are, you will never see His kingdom.

Read John 1:12 & 13. It says that those who believe on Jesus have been "born, not of the will of man, but of God." As your wil is not responsible for your coming into this world, it is not responsible for the new birth. It is your Creator who must be thanked for your life, and if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Who ever chose to be created? When Lazarus rose from the dead, he then could choose to answer the call of Christ, but he could not choose to come to life. So Paul said in Ephesians 2:5, "Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us (made us alive} together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)." Faith is the first act of a will made new by the Holy Spirit. Receiving Christ is an act of man just as breathing is, but God must first give life.

No wonder Martin Luther wrote a book entitled The Bondage of the Will which he considered one of his most important treatises. The will is in the chains of an evil human nature. You who extol the free will as a great force are clinging to a root of pride. Man, as fallen in sin, is utterly helpless and hopeless. The will of man offers no hope. It was the will choosing the forbidden fruit that brought us into misery. The powerful grace of God alone offers deliverance. Cast yourself upon God's mercy for salvation. Ask for the Spirit of Grace that He may create a new spirit within you.

Reprinted from:

CHAPEL LIBRARY

2603 W. WRIGHT ST

PENSACOLA FL 32505

904/438-6666

A Ministry of

Mount Zion Bible Church

There once was a man named George Thomas, a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old birdcage, and set it by the pulpit.

Several eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak. "I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me, swinging this birdcage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wildbirds, shivering with cold and fright. I stopped the lad and asked, "What you got there son?" "Just some old birds," came the reply. "What are you gonna do with them?" I asked. "Take 'em home and have fun with 'em. I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time." "But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do then?" "Oh, I got some cats. They like birds. I'll take 'em to them." The pastor was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?" "Huh??!!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing- they ain't even pretty! "How much?"

The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said,"$10?" The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free. Well, that explained the empty birdcage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story.

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!" "What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked. "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other. How to hate and abuse each other. How to drink and smoke and curse. How to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!" "And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked. "Oh, I'll kill 'em." "How much do you want for them?" "Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you!! You don't want those people!!" "How much?" Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your tears, and all your blood." So Jesus paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage, opened the door and walked from the pulpit

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God's commandments don't restrict us as much as they free us. A number of years ago a psychologist in California passed a school playground on a busy highway on his way to work each day. Kids played, but were bunched in middle of playground. One day he went by and a fence had been put up. Kids were scattered all over the place within the fence. They had a safe, clearly defined place to play.

For Meera, the revolution began with a single rupee. When a social worker came across Meera's unmapped village in the hills of Uttar Pradesh in India three years ago, he found that the entire population was in hereditary debt bondage. It could have been in the time of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers -- few in the village could remember -- but at some point in their past, the families had pledged themselves to unpaid labor in return for loans of money. The debt passed down through the generations. Children as young as five years old worked in quarry pits, making sand by crushing stones with hammers. Dust, flying rock chips and heavy loads had left many villagers with silicosis and injured eyes or backs.

Calling together some of the women, the social worker proposed a radical plan. If groups of 10 women agreed to set aside a single rupee a week from the tiny sums the moneylenders gave them to buy rice, he would provide seed money and keep the funds safe. Meera and nine others formed the first group. The rupees slowly mounted up. After three months, the group had enough to pay off the loan against which Meera was bonded. She began earning money for her work, which greatly increased the amount she could contribute to the group. In another two months, another woman was freed; the following month, a third came out of bondage.

At that point, the other members, seeing that freedom was possible, simply renounced their debts and declared themselves free. The moneylenders quickly moved against them, threatening them and driving them from the quarries. But the women were able to find jobs in other quarries. New groups followed their example. The social worker has taken me to the village twice, and on my second visit, all its inhabitants were free and all their children in school.

A commonality among different forms of slavery is the psychological manipulation they all involve. The widely held conception of a slave is someone in chains who would escape if given half a chance or who simply does not know better. But this view is naive. In my experience, slaves often know that their enslavement is illegal. Force, violence and psychological coercion have convinced them to accept it. When slaves begin to accept their role and identify with their master, constant physical bondage becomes unnecessary. They come to perceive their situation not as a deliberate action taken to harm them in particular but as part of the normal, if regrettable, scheme of things. Some slaves in Thailand are even allowed to visit their families during holidays, for they always came back.

A similar psychology operates in a different form of slavery, one that involves domestic servants that African and Asian diplomats and business executives have brought with them to Europe and North America. As an employee of the "Committee against Modern Slavery," Cristina Talens worked for several years to free and rehabilitate domestic slaves who had been brought to Paris. She told me that liberating the body was much easier than freeing the mind:

In spite of the violence, and the living and working conditions,

people in slavery have their own mental integrity and their own

mechanisms for surviving. Some may actually like different

aspects of their life, perhaps the security or their understanding

of the order of things. When you disrupt this order, suddenly

everything is confused. Some of the women who were freed have

attempted suicide. It is easy to assume that this happened because

of the abuse they had lived through. But for some of these women,

slavery had been the major psychological building block in their

lives. When that was destroyed, the meaning of their life was like

a bit of paper crushed up and thrown away. They were told: "No,

this is not the way it is supposed to be. Start all over again."

It was as though their life had no meaning.

Human-rights worker Vivek Pandit of the Vidhayak Sansad organization in India has been liberating bonded laborers for more than 20 years. He is adamant that real liberation takes place in the mind, that physical freedom isn't enough. Conversely, mental freedom can bring about physical freedom.

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I read the other day that the chief kind of goods that the slaves in America ordered, when they had liberty to order anything for themselves, were looking glasses and candles. When I saw a black gentleman on the other side in love with his dusky self, I could understand about the looking-glass, but what about the candle, why was it bought? I will tell you. In the days of slavery no slave could have a light, no candle could burn in a slave's hut -- it was the privilege of the freedman. Oh the poor weary hearts, when Lincoln's proclamation reached them, they would have the looking-glass..., but, oh light up the huts on the Ohio and the Tennessee, light them up, for we are free!

That is what we do when Christ comes to us, we light up before heaven, we rescue our lives from waste and failure, but the Christless life is always dark, never lit up. He that followeth Christ shall not walk in darkness; and if you follow Christ, and have the light of life, you are safe, safe from all the hell bats that are in the darkness!

You notice how our jewelers' shops in Glasgow, and London, and New York, do not guard their great treasures with iron bars and steel shutters. They do not, because there are jemmes and burglars' tools that can make a way through steel and iron; but I notice that the plate-glass of these jewelry stores is from roof to street, and inside they are all alight. There is safety because you cannot go into that store without being seen. That is the best safety, that is what Christ does with a soul. He does not send merely angels to guard me, he gives, as his safety, the lighting up of the soul; and the devil cannot get into your heart without being seen by God. Praise his name! "He that followeth the Lord shall not walk in darkness."

Light up in the light of life, and one day you will be lost in his light, which is love. The Lord help you. Oh souls, you will live for ever in darkness, or for ever in light, which shall it be? Eternal darkness, or everlasting light! Choose Christ. Let your heart speak, and say, "Lord, I accept thee." Just say it. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness. He that cometh unto me shall never, no never, see death." Oh poor heart, accept him. -- Amen. -- J. Robertson.

By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."