Free Indeed

                                                                                                                                                       

Aloha Dearest Family,

                Today we are going to examine a record from the book of Acts about true freedom. It is a record of physical freedom, but more importantly, spiritual freedom. There are many, many men and women who are in physical prisons today. But the prisons of physical ailments and disabilities, chemical addictions and mental depression can be just as confining. What wouldn’t people give to be released from their prisons?

                In Acts chapter 16 Paul and Silas are in the city of Philippi preaching the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before too long they came across a slave girl who was possessed with a spirit of divinity and she was used by her masters to predict people’s futures. After following Paul and Silas for many days, mocking them, Paul casts the spirit out of the girl. Now when the masters saw that their means of profit was now gone, they promptly had them arrested. The officers then ordered to have them stripped and beaten with rods. They were then thrown into prison.             

“After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.” (Acts 16:23 and 24)

            What a predicament! All they were doing is what God had sent them there to do. Preach God’s Word. Now, they find themselves stripped, beaten, thrown into the inner prison and their feet put in stocks. At this point what would your attitude be? Would you feel dejected? Would you feel sorry for yourself? This is not the attitude of Paul and Silas.

                “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…” (verse 25a)

How many would feel like singing at a time like this? The joy that these men felt must have had nothing to do with their situation. Their joy came from within. Their prayers and hymns to God not only lifted them up, but the other prisoners as well.

                “..and the other prisoners were listening to them.” (verse 25b)

Think of the wonderful healing these sweet words of prayer and hymns did for the other prisoners. Some may have even known some of the hymns that they sang. Then the miraculous occurred,

                “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” (verse 26) 

If you were a prisoner, now would be the time to escape.

                “The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.” (verse 27)

This jailer knew the penalty was for letting prisoners escape. It was death, and probably not a merciful one. But God loved this jailer and gave him a miracle too.

                “But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” (verse 28))

Now the question that we must ask ourselves is why didn’t these prisoners escape? The freedom that they desperately needed was not just physical. They must have had a deep hunger for the food that only Paul and Silas could provide; the true freedom that could only be supplied by knowing the savior of the soul, Jesus Christ. (John 8:32)

                The next question asked by the jailer was so heartfelt that you can almost hear the cry in his voice.

                “The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

  Even though the jailer was physically a free man, he needed this kind of freedom which he did not have. 

              

“They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  Then they spoke the Word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”

Joy had come to this house for they all found what they needed most; true freedom that only Christ can give. Think of the story they could tell to their friends and relatives.

                Thoughts that we have held at one time about all of the wrong doing we have done and our rebellion against God can feel like shackles in our souls. And being separated from God is, in itself, it’s own type of prison. But there is freedom in knowing that we don’t have to pay for the sins that we have committed. Jesus Christ paid the penalty that we deserved. He has brought us to God’s side and bestowed on us the gift of holy spirit. (Hurray!!)

                We can now step out of our prison cells and, for the first time, breathe in freedom.

                           Love Always, Ray

                “If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)