Libertad

What tends to get lost in the crime-drama-turned-hood-classic Scarface is the political unrest in Cuba that fueled the entire plot.  In 1979, a desperate Fidel Castro made lemonade out of lemons by packaging some of his nations' criminal and mentally ill citizens with the other thousands of Cuban defectors headed for Miami.  I imagine that whether free or imprisoned, these Cubans desired to be relieved of Castro's dictatorship-style policies and were just as eager to leave as Fidel was to get them out.  The film portrays this well - as when Tony Montana, Manny Ray, Angel, and Chi-Chi are creating the atmosphere to assassinate a political confidant of Castro - they and the rest of the refugee camp chant "libertad".  In their eyes, any remnant that represented the oppression of Fidel Castro had to be eliminated.                                              

You know the saying...freedom ain't free.  Well, in my opinion that's completely accurate, and everyone in this country today (not just African-Americans) is a recipient of some other peoples willingness to pay the price to be liberated.  Regardless of what ethnicity a person represents or what continent their ancestors come from, we are in America because of someone else's push to acquire or establish either religious, financial, social or political freedom.  And though the freedom that the United States guarantees will run out, born-again Believers globally receive an eternal freedom...at the cost of Jesus' abuse and death.  Understanding that, for anyone - Christian or not - to provoke and accept bondage sounds ridiculous.  Yet more people, even those liberated by the Blood of Jesus, make careful efforts to ensure the chains stay on.

Harriet Tubman is credited for saying "I freed a thousand slaves.  I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."  That statement is contemporary Christianity to the fullest.  Millions of people, accepting Christ, don't care and don't care to know that they are requesting to be slaves to all sorts of sins and the demons that encourage them.  Misconceptions and blatant disrespect of godly mandates are highly regarded amongst professed children of God.  The evil spirits that should be shoved away relentlessly are being invited and affirmed by an appeasing government and its supporting media.  Yet Satan is the blame when the effects of slavery shows its head in the form of a destroyed relationship, health tragedy, or financial crisis in our lives.  Well...if the devil is busy, we're the one giving him assignments.

Jesus says in John 8:36 that if you accept Him, then you accept the freedom He presents and you will certainly not have a need to be in any type of bondage.  But it's us, through disobedience, no filling (or use) of the Holy Spirit, and faulty faith, who renounce that freedom for a more comfortable and deceitful slavery.  But imagine if every obstacle, each demonic attempt to restrict your progress is addressed and conquered the minute it arrives.  Well, actually, that is the reality if we confirm that freedom with corresponding actions and solid belief.  When we live as sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1), we will be free indeed and others will feel the effects and want parts of it.  There should be nothing that the enemy conceives that can work against our liberty.  We should experience, even with the negative that life can offer, the assurance of not being held to the oftentimes daily beatings of sin.  That is, if we refuse to be slaves.

Peace