Weekly Message
FREE AT LAST!
The Spirit of The Lord is upon Me.....To Set Free Those Who Are Downtrodden (Luke 4:18b)
On April 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech to 300,000 people at the March on Washington. In addition, millions of people watched on television. As I sat glued to the television, I will always remember it as he closed: "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day, when all of God's children, Black men and White men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands, and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God almighty, we're free at last."
For a long time after that I wondered, what does it mean to be free? After all, during my early years of living in a segregated society, I did not totally feel free. I have learned a lot about "true freedom" since then. It is true, the Civil rights legislation of 1964 and enactments after that have opened some doors that were previously closed. However, I am not sure that Dr. King's dream has been fully realized yet.
As a Christian, I am aware of the words spoken by Jesus regarding freedom. In the passage above, Jesus makes it clear that one of His purposes for coming was to set free the downtrodden. If we start with the premise, that everything belongs to God, then it follows that freedom must be connected to the power of God. Only through Christ, will any of us ever realize that true freedom.
Many people are having a difficult time making ends meet these days. Some are out of work. Others are having family problems. Still others are facing serious health challenges. Truly, they qualify under the category of being downtrodden. But there is Good News in Jesus Christ. He came to set us all free. We will still seek to make Dr. King's words become a reality. But more importantly, we know that we have true freedom though Jesus Christ!
