Emancipation
In January 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was declared. This legal document said that all slaves were now free. But in Texas, someone kept it a secret. They didn’t tell us that we were free. So for a couple of years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we were still in bondage.
We were acting like slaves because no one had told us we were free. In fact, we were so glad that someone finally told us, we made that date a holiday and African Americans celebrate Juneteenth every year. Thank God, someone told us! If no one had ever shared the good news, then we would have stayed in slavery much longer.
Jesus Christ, on Calvary two thousand years ago, signed your Emancipation Proclamation. He declared that you are free but Satan is trying to keep it a secret from you. He’s trying to keep you from coming into the realization that you don’t have to stay tied down.
You don’t have to say “Yes sir” to his control of your life any longer. You can now put down that plow and move “North.” You can now take the freedom that has been offered to you and act on it. You can collect your forty acres and a mule and start plowing your own land now. You can start living through the freedom that you have because you have now been made free in Christ. That’s who you are but you must live like it
Tony Evans, Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking .
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