Daily Devotional

-June 19, 2021-

Good morning, happy Saturday, Happy Juneteenth,

-Deliverance From Satan’s Bondage-

“Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And the he will plunder his house.”

(Matthew 12:29).

Today is Juneteenth, our newest federal holiday, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden. It is a Remembrance Day, when after the Civil War, Union troops informed the slaves in Texas that they were free. President Lincoln granted their freedom over two years before on January 1, 1863. Texas slave holders had kept the news from the slaves all that time. In fact, they didn’t even know the war was over!

Imagine being free and not knowing it. Then imagine the great joy of hearing it and breathing their first breaths of freedom. It certainly reminds us of how many people today are walking around enslaved by Satan, sin, and death. They don’t know that Jesus died to deliver them from the bondage Satan that he had over them.

In today’s verse, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees who said of Him, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (Matthew 12:24). Jesus says that if Satan casts out Satan, his kingdom will not stand. Jesus came to die on the cross and defeat Satan, along with sin, the flesh, and death.

The promise of Satan’s demise occurs in Genesis 3:15, when God speaking to the serpent, the devil said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Jesus fulfilled this Scripture by dying in our place on the cross. He tasted death for each and every person. By putting our faith in Him and His finished work on the cross, we are saved, delivered, and set free.

Jesus entered Satan’s territory, his dominion, that is his house, bound Satan, and plundered his goods, that is delivering us from the bondage we were under. Oh, what a victory He wo for us on the cross! 1 Corinthians 15:57 says, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Have you been delivered? Have you been set free? It is an incredible victory! Juneteenth is a very meaningful day, an Independence Day for black people. I, like so many white Americans did not know about it until recently, but now we do. Every person was born a sinner and under Satan’s control because of sin. Those who know Jesus are no longer slaves of sin, we are slaves of righteousness. Jesus is our Lord and Master, who gives us the freedom to live holy and godly lives. Let us rejoice in our freedom!

Have a blessed day thanking God for our freedom. Tell people, “Happy Juneteenth.” We can share what it means for black people and what our spiritual emancipation means to all people. Stay safe and healthy.

In His grace,

Dean