Christ Has Set Us Free

Author's Note: I know I'm posting this way early for July 4th Independence Day celebration, but I want us to reflect and in our prayers, please include our soldiers who sacrifice their own lives to protect us and our "freedom". Also, pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are also sacrificing their lives as they share the "Good News" to different places of this world, to share the "freedom" that comes from Christ....






Two deputies were slightly dragging a male inmate towards the Clinic, with the man’s bilateral hands soaked with dried blood and a few drops still visible as they fell on the floor. He was bleeding somewhere from his hands. He wasn’t attempting to help out in any way with his legs letting them literally slide on the cold floor.

This man tried to jump over a broken window as the cops tried to arrest him during a burglary. In the process, he ended up getting pierced somewhere in his finger with that broken glass.

It’s pathetic when we see from the media when the cops are portrayed as the abusers. What the rest of the people don’t know, it’s not the whole story. What the video will show is only the part when cops are using their batons, or kicking the arrestees or using their taser guns to subdue them. Working in a correctional facility, I have seen all the lies, all the manipulations, the unpredictable behaviors of inmates who have the history of using drugs and/or alcohol, by which any minute, can be very combative to anyone: deputies and even medical staff.

Prior to this man being booked, he was already treated in a nearby county hospital. What happened next, no one knew as he claimed that he was still bleeding.

He obviously did not want to help with his mobility, the deputies had to slightly drag him, the handcuffs securely fastened both of his wrists.

As he neared the Clinic, he started yelling, “The cops did this! I feel that something is broken in my chest and I’m still bleeding!” When the deputies asked him to sit on the chair, he wouldn’t obey. Anything they said to him, he just wouldn’t do anything.

“Sir! If you want me to treat you and be able to clean your wound well, I need you to just stand still with your back on me so I can clean your bloody hands!” I uttered in a firm voice. He did stand still and I put the big trash bin behind him as I readied my supplies to clean his wound.

I couldn’t tell where the bleeding was coming from. So I patiently washed every digit of his both hands with normal saline, until I was able to inspect them, one by one. I saw some kind of pierced wound on the 3rd digit of his right hand. It was a clean wound but if he picked it, it would still bleed.

“Aww!,” he screamed, as I tried to cleanse it with normal saline.

“The broken glass pierced through my finger! Thanks to these cops! I shouldn’t be here!” he continued to blame the authorities.”

“Awww”, as he yelled one more time.

“Sir, why are you yelling still?” I asked. “Your wound is not bleeding anymore and it’s already wrapped with gauze and a pressure dressing to prevent it from bleeding.”

“It’s only a minor wound and it will heal in no time,” I said.

He didn’t know what to say. This time, he started walking away without the deputies needing to drag him back to his unit. He stopped giving them a hard time.

This inmate exaggerated his injuries and his pain obviously. He pretended to be innocent but he was caught robbing a place and that was how he sustained his injury when the police officers started pursuing him. He was claiming his right to be “free” but he committed a crime. Despite his ill behavior against authorities, he was treated decently by everyone but he wouldn’t say anything, not even one “thank you” except to make it appear that he was being treated unfairly.

The whole time I was treating his wound as I was hearing his lies, I was thinking of the One and only innocent Man who was arrested, prosecuted, pierced, stabbed, spat on, and was pierced with big nails, not only on his two hands but also of His feet.

The only One Who claimed “He is the Son of God” but no one believed. And it is for the cause of “freedom” that made Him give His own life on the cross. Christ came to set us “free” – not free to do whatever we want because that would lead us back into slavery to our own selfish desires. But because of Jesus, we are free and able to do what was impossible before – to live unselfishly. Being saved by grace is totally different from trying to be saved by keeping the laws. All we do is accept His gracious gift through faith.

If you don’t know Jesus and you are here today reading this, would you place your trust and faith on Him? We are saved by faith and not by deeds.

Like that inmate, would you keep on professing your innocence? That you are not a sinner? Blaming others instead of taking responsibility for your own wrong deeds.

The Bible says, “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standards. Yet, now God in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty” –Romans 3:23,24.

“Salvation that comes from trusting Christ is already within easy reach. The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” –Romans 10:8

“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” – Romans 10:9,10

[Click on the “Roman Road to Salvation” on my right side bar if you are ready to commit a life with Jesus]. “If not now, when?”

BTW, I am proud to be an American! And I am “humbled by the Lord” to be a Christian!!!