Ever been handcuffed? Hopefully, not "for real," but "for fun!" My trickster son, with his love for magic tricks, had a favorite one--to handcuff Mom, "lock her up" with a key....and then watch her fuss and fume to get "unchained!" I was ready to lock HIM up by the time he would decide to release me!

Ahhh...blessed freedom, not just from a trick set of handcuffs, but when, "for real," prisoners of war, captured and kept locked up, for sometimes years on end, are finally released and set free. We can only imagine what it must be like--for we've never experienced the bondage of being such a prisoner, right?

Wrong! Millions of people live in a locked-up mode--captive to their past, their present, and hopelessly, to their future. Is there no hope? Indeed there is! For whatever the bondage, Christ came to set the captive free--for all time and eternity too! On this Fourth of July, you can know the freedom that only Christ can give--freedom from the handcuffs of life that bind you--doubt, guilt, fear, anxiety, anger, sin, unforgiveness, unbelief--whatever has YOU "locked up" in tight knots inside--where no one but the Lord sees!

Let the Great Emancipator free you this day--the freedom He won on Calvary and at the empty tomb is a freedom for all time--your past, your present and your future. Believe it and have a freedom-filled Fourth of July WHEREVER on Planet Earth you live! And--if you're a veteran, and it's NOT the Fourth of July, but November 11,the flag still waves - we honor you on this day too--thank you for risking your lives to keep us free!