Moses told Pharoah to, "Let my people go." 

Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Let my people go." 

It was never God's design that there should be men and women held in physical bondage, emotional or mental bondage, without any sence of hope for freedom.  Yes, we are greatful for the Emancipation Proclamation.  We are greatful for the Civil Rights Movement.  Both historical movements set my people free physically, but I contend that no people, not even African Americans, are truly free until they know who they are in Christ Jesus.         And when we find our 'true freedom,' it is always due to God's amazing grace.  Litsten to Whitley Phipps as he teaches on a popular 'slave song.'

     America, we have become slaves to our own lusts and greed. We capitulate and accept lying, the love of money and covering up the truth as a way of life. We have become slaves to rhetoric that says a man or a team of men and women can turn the plight of America around. We are desperately seeking ways to be set free. Yes, we are. In my book Finding Our True Freedom: How to Bring Healing to the Broken Hearts of African Americans, I clearly state that our true freedom can only be found in Jesus Christ.  The foreward is written by my dear friend, Dr. Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

     Out of the mouths of many African Americans, we hear that we are witnessing first hand, what our slave forefathers and foremothers wept and prayed for – freedom to be, do and have as ‘others’ are, and have. You see, the history of African Americans as a people is that while we may not have had all of the material trappings of our white slave masters, we had a relationship and belief in Jesus Christ. We had prayer and no one could take from us.

     Whatever we did, whatever decisions we had to make, we were a praying people that prayed until a change came. We were moved by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and would die singing, Steal Away to Jesus or Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel. We were bible-beliving, praisin’ and worhippin’ folk that put Jesus first in all that we did. He was all we had. Yes he was, but where are we now? What did this election say about us as a people? Our forefathers fought and died not only for freedom, but for the right to vote. And vote we did. CNN reported that in this election, approximately 600.000 black Americans who were registered to vote in the last election and did not, voted in this election.

     Proverbs 14:4 says, “Righteousness exhalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Having the ability or right to behave a certain way or think a certain way, does not mean our behaviors and thoughts are pleasing to God. Is our nation being exalted because it is looking for freedom from financial woes in a relationship with God? Or is it being exalted because America is lifting up a mortal man, looking to him to bring relief from a spiraling down economy? Where are we headed spiritually?

     Since the election, Americans have been looking for a ‘messiah’ to deliver them from the hands of economic pharaohs. Obama is not God. It behooves us not to look at Obama to set us free Does this cabinet, do the auto and mortgage tycoons understand that what removes God’s hand of wrath is a repent and contrite heart? If they did, would their change of heart make the news?

     Our true freedom and the answers to the problems in America can only be found in one man, Jesus Christ. Thou shalt have no other god before him, even a newly elected president. America, we have time to straighten this out. If my people who are called by my name, would humble themselves and pray and turn from ….With the incoming new year, let’s seek God first and trust that everything else will be added. American believing Christians, Republican or Democrat, let our mantra for 2009 be, “No, we can’t, but God can.”