Houdini!!
John 8: 36; Romans 6: 15-23; Galatians 5: 1; Acts 16: 26
Houdini!!
Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist from a few years back, issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to unusual about this lock. For thirty minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after laboring for two hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind, it was locked and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.
Is your bondage real or imagined; physical and/or mental? What does the Bible say? Is there a word or words spiritually and apply spoken regarding our DEPENDENCE upon God through Christ? Check out these Scriptures:
• John 8: 36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”
• Romans 6: 15-23 “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin id death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• Galatians 5: 1 “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.”
In Charles Wesley’s hymn of 1739, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” (Based on Acts 16: 26), verse 4 of the hymn reads:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night; thine eye diffused a quickening ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee.” (United Methodist Hymnal page 363)
In Christ’s Liberating Love,
Pastor Louie Mabrey