God keeps bringing the theme of slavery to me. I've begun studying Exodus and the past week, I have been led to check out two movies: "Amistad" and "Amazing Grace". If you have not seen these movies, rent them or check them out at your local library - they are well worth the time investment!
The scenes of these men, women and children bound up in chains to make the passage from Africa to the West Indies to be sold on the block are horrific. What they endured was horrific. Forced to lie in chains with 600 others in a tiny compartment. No fresh air. Wallowing in blood, vomit, excrement. For three weeks. Only then to be sold (if you survived) like you were nothing, just a thing to be used. Horrific.
But it's got me thinking.... I've been a slave myself. I'm sure you have too. Now, we have not had to endure what these precious souls endured. I am certainly not trying to equate our experience with theirs. But though our chains are unseen, they are chains nonetheless. And we haven't been made to lie in vomit and urine, but there have been some ugly side effects of my enslavement. Debt, deception, fear, despair.
In both movies, there is a redeemer. In "Amazing Grace", a group of men and women (albeit small compared to those against them) with their leader, William Wilberforce, who are willing to stand up and take on the slave trade. Wilberforce spends his life (literally) for the cause, for abolishing the slave trade in England - and three days before his death, he sees it happen. In "Amistad", there is an attorney, a freedman, and a Christian abolitionist and ultimately a judge and a politician, John Quincy Adams, who stand up against slavery and represent the Africans from the slave ship, the Amistad - and win.
In the bible, there is story after story - Scripture after Scripture - that tell of captivity and deliverance. It's the heart of everything we believe! That we've been held captive by sin and lies and Jesus Christ redeems us by His blood. He is our activist! He stands up for us and says I have purchased them and they are free.
Galatians 5:11 tells us, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Even though you are in Christ, have you allowed yourself to be yoked again? Are you allowing the enemy to bind you up in chains of lies and deception - that you're not loved, that you're not enough, that you're not this or that? Are you held captive by a particular sin? Sister, you must break these chains - with diligence and resolve. Not by your own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
My dear sister, Rejoice! You are free. Choose it - choose freedom in Christ Jesus.
My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood
His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace
-from Chris Tomlin's "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)"
