"If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed." - John 8:36

I spent fourteen years in that prison.

Fourteen LONG years in chains.  I remember like it was yesterday, those shackles on my hands and feet.  I remember how it felt to be completely in bondage, always at the mercy of someone else.

And I remember the walls.  I was surrounded by four walls in that prison that had me boxed into a small cell.  I'd stare out the iron bars that blocked my exit for hours and hours with not a chance of freedom in sight, not a glimmer of hope down the corridors of that place.  Night and day I remained in that prison.  Night and day those heavy chains weighed me down.

But, what I remember most of all was the day I got out.  I remember how it felt when I heard that a pardon was awaiting me.  I remember the strange new freedom that I experienced when He unlocked the shackles and unloosed the chains that day.

I remember how I felt when He set me free.

Yes, my friend, for fourteen years I was in the prison of sin.  Fourteen long years I walked around in the chains of iniquity, the shackles of rebellion and wickedness.  Yes, I was surrounded by the walls of indifference and stared out through the iron bars of selfishness and pride.  I had no freedom nor hope as those chains had me at their mercy.

But when I was fourteen years old, at a summer camp in 1984, I was hand delivered a PARDON by the Lord Jesus Christ.  He came into my heart and loosed the shackles of sin that had me in bondage.  He broke down the walls of indifference and destroyed the iron bars that blocked my way from a life of freedom.

I walked out a free man for the first time in my life.

Christian, sin is a prison.  And Jesus is the only One who can break those chains and set the captives free.  And you and I, as those who have been released from the bondage, are the ones who are supposed to tell others about His gracious offer of salvation.

Why, oh why, would we let those around us spend another day in that ugly prison, shackled in sin, when we have the GOOD NEWS that Jesus wants to set them free?

Today, look around you, my friend, look around you and you'll see people walking around in spiritual handcuffs.  You'll see people chained in all kinds of sin.  You'll see folks all around you in prison.  And you're standing there with a PARDON from the Lord just waiting to loose the stronghold that grips their lives.

Don't shove that pardon into your pocket and keep on walking.  Hand it to those around who need it.  Because, after all...

...someone once handed you that same pardon when they they shared the Good News with you.