shawshank

The Shawshank Redemption

Andy Dufresne has been imprisoned for something he didn't do. He has been attacked in prison. He has found out that someone else admitted to the murder he's doing time for. He's told the Warden who has killed the man with the evidence because he wants Andy in the prison to help make him money. A good movie for perseverance again? Yep, but our theme this time is freedom.

I have to admit taking no credit for this. I saw this used at Spring Harvest 2003 week 2 in Evolution at Minehead. But hey, good ideas are to be shared.

The clip here is where Andy Dufresne makes his escape, near the end of the movie. The clip is around 4 mins long. It does have one swear word when it says, 'Andy crawled through 500 yards of foul, stinking, sh*t..' but this is in relation to the sewage pipe he crawls through to escape. (Clip is around 1 hr 58 mins in from start of VCR tape)

Galatians 5.1 says, 'We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong. Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law.' Paul is talking about the liberation of the new life in Christ. No longer are we slaves to sin, slaves to having to obey the law. There is a new way. This is the way of the Spirit, the way of grace through Christ.

Galatians 5.13 says, 'My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love.' So we learn that freedom does not mean doing whatever we want. Freedom is life within the boundaries Christ has given us so that we can be free. Freedom is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin!