What Is Out Of Bondage?

That which follows is a personal response to a granddaughter who has three children of her own (1997).

A small question that cannot be answered in only a few words. I have thought about it many times and pondered the circumstances of its beginning.

It may have begun as a concept in the mind of a child many years ago. It may have been from seeds sown in a young mind by the "Old Folks"¹ talking about the Bible, the love of God and how we, by God's grace, will know a better life and a better world when this one is past as well as providing us with chart and compass to better navigate the rocks and shoals in this life. Of course, the child was not aware or conscious of it then.

Life is built one day at a time, one experience at a time, as well as one lesson at a time. Very much like a house--one brick or wooden board at a time.

The real beginning of Out of Bondage grew slowly, slower than a rose--more like the Oak--through the years and over the miles. There was an ever abiding and growing need to share the good news of God's saving Grace to an undeserving, sinful mortal.

The more I studied God's word, the more beautiful it became and for the life of me I could not understand people preaching a "Hell-fire-and-Brimstone"² religion. Today I think I can understand it to some degree. Men (and women) want to be honored, lifted up, and given credit for great things. Out of this greed, inherent in the human being, they will use virtually any method or means to arrive at a desired end.³ Such a labor as Out of Bondage requires a selflessness which is not in the normal makeup of the carnal being. That is one of the great driving forces to keep Out of Bondage alive in the knowledge that only good comes from God--not man--to educate those who have ears to hear and eyes to see the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. The message of God to His people is a message of love--mercy--grace. That message was not being preached for the most part then and so it is today. Yea, even during the time when Jesus left His footprints upon Galilee's shore, there were those who insisted on corrupting His message. Yes, much noise is being made by the hucksters of the world. If you listen and watch critically, you will see more of the Man man than of the Man Christ. The carnal man resists giving honor and praise where it is due.⁴

In those early years I wrote articles for some of our church papers. That was rewarding to some degree, but short of the burning ache for fulfillment in spreading His word. More years passed.

The first overt effort for evangelism requiring a greater measure of faith and money was in a radio broadcast from Butler, PA in the early 50's. We cast our bread upon the waters.⁵ The crying need to do more grew as did the effort. Tape recorded messages were made from far and distant places--Alaska, Washington State, California, Guam, Japan and ships at sea. The tapes were broadcast from WZOB, Fort Payne, AL. Another beautiful experience was from a small radio studio amongst the moss draped trees of Milton, FL, we sent the word out for a short season. The years faded into history.

At one time during the late 70's Out of Bondage was being broadcast from three radio stations in Georgia, one in Alabama, one in Tennessee, one in Indiana and one in Illinois. Memory fails me--I don't remember if there were more. However, Out of Bondage was being televised on Channel 9, Chattanooga, TN during this time.

All the while, through the years, reading, studying, searching for ways to reach as many hungering souls as possible with the message of God's Sovereign Grace. Only God knows how many hungering and thirsting souls saw a glimmer of hope in those words of His that were being cast upon the waters. I have no idea. It has been and still is a labor of love, faith and the conviction that God is as good as His word when He said, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)

The burden continues as the times in which we live are more intense. The Devil's doctrines are being pressed upon the unaware, the unlearned, the ill-prepared, and those thinking they have found it in a cult or among mystics or charismatics who depend upon some ecstatic experience and give the back of their hand to the Word of God. Pagan rites and doctrines are being proliferated in great abundance--what with TV and the ease of printing being what it is. Any experience, any good news that comes down the pike needs to be thoroughly examined under a microscope against the backdrop of God's word to try the spirits to see if they be of God and not Satan!

Yes, only God knows how many millions are hungry for something, searching for answers that are not found in text books, or upon a psychiatrist's couch, before a pagan altar or a charismatic fervor of babbling tongues! Such hunger and thirst has but one element which satisfies--Spiritual comprehension of God--Who He is--What He is and who we are and how He deals with us in love, mercy, discipline and chastisement.⁶

Such answers as these do not come all-of-a-sudden. They come, for the most part, like a gentle whisper of a breeze on a bright spring morning. Sometimes like a flash, a bolt out of the blue. As an understanding of Scripture opens up, we in awe wonder why we did not see it in one of those untold number of times we read it before.

The message of FREEDOM! is What Out of Bondage7 is. The freeing of minds and hearts of those being held in bondage to the man-made religions of this world to the glorious freedom and light that is to be found only in God's own Holy Word."

Khomer

Footnotes:

1- Some of whom were Elders W.A. Pinkstaff, Joe Stewart, Towery, Fanning, J.W. Hendricks, J.D. Durden as well as my parents and grandmothers Queen Hall and M.E. "Aunt Lizzy" Beaty.
2- I came very near embracing the Roman Catholic order in 1944-45 as I reasoned in a young mind, "Fifty thousand Frenchmen cannot be wrong!" How wrong I was!
3- Vivid in the mind of millions is the catastrophe of souls led by David Koresh to a firey death near Waco, Texas in 1993.
4- Never in the history of the world has there been such proliferation of "preaching the Gospel" as in this day. Yet, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, het him be accursed" Gal. 1:6-8. Cyberspace, radio, television and printing presses rolling, have an overshelming effect on the masses with another gospel.
5- "Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days" Ecc. 11:1. And, Oh! Praise God in how many ways have we found it through the ensuing years.
6- There is a telling article, The Church Search, Time Magazine©, April 5, 1993 how there is a REVIVAL afoot in America and around the world. Don't get in a hurry to see the revival of the Lord, He does things according to His own Will!
7- "Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments," (Ezra 9:7-10).