I just got off the phone with a telemarketer, wanting to give me a two week vacation in the Bahamas. And he said, “and you can have it for FREE!”. Yeah, right, what’s the catch? You see, when you’re dealing with the world, there’s ALWAYS a catch. Well, the catch is, you have to do so many presentations per day of their product while you’re there, and if you sell the required number of product, your trip is free. Less airfare, meals, hotels, local taxes and gratuities, of course. Thank you, but I’ll pass…..


When people hear the word “FREE”, their ears always perk up. There’s something about “free” that bypasses people’s common sense, and they end up with something that costs them way more than it would have, had they just went ahead and spent their money to buy the product in the first place. And telemarketers make broad use of the word “free” in their presentations.

And so does the devil. I said, and so does the devil.

He will use anything you will bite on to bring you into bondage. Each person is different, what he will use to try to reel you in will be different than what he will use to try to reel me in. But there is one common “bait” the devil uses on everyone, and that is stuff that appeals to our fleshly desires. For one person, it may be fame and riches, for another it may be the promise of love and sex, for another it may be adventure and travel. But anything the devil offers you, there’s a hook inside of that bait, that once he has you, it’s very hard to get free again, and many of you already know that.

There’s only one thing free in this world, and that is the free gift of God. Yeah, I know, you’ve heard all that before. What’s the catch? Well, YOU are the catch! God wants to reel you into His family and love on you forevermore. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, if it wasn’t God doing the offer, it would be. But this offer comes from God. He knows how weary you are of trying to get off the devil’s hook, how every day it seems your life is getting darker, with no hope of things ever getting better. How does He know all this? Because He sent His Son, Christ Jesus to the earth in the flesh, in the form of a man. He endured every trial and temptation we do, and He knows how relentless the devil is, how he has no mercy whatsoever on anyone for any reason. And Jesus said in John 10:10,
The thief cometh not but for to kill, and to steal, and to destroy; but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

You see, Jesus knows how the devil operates, how he offers us our fleshly desires so he can hook us into bondage for the rest of our life, and then lay claim to our soul after he kills us. How many millions have been destroyed already by his enticing invitation, “And you can have it for free”?

Perhaps you got suckered into his plot to destroy you, and you’ve tried to get free, but somehow keep falling back into the hole he dug for you. Is there any hope for you after all this time? Yes! Christ Jesus will set you free, but only if you’re sincere in seeking Him with your whole heart. He’s heard “Let’s make a deal” more times than you can imagine. He knows who will be His disciple, and who won’t follow through. It’s easy to make promises to God when you’re in distress, and many people do, with no intention of keeping their promise to follow Him.

In 1993 I found myself in the same mess. I was dying of cancer and knew I wasn’t really saved. Oh, I went to church doing God a favor by putting in my two hours every week, but my heart was still in the world, trying to live by my own rules, and my time was up. What the devil had been offering me was killing me. In desperation, I cried out to the LORD to forgive my sins and save me. He did, PLUS, He healed me, and I’ve never had a sick day since. He offered me true freedom, FOR FREE!

Because He first loved me, and showed me so, I follow Him daily. I don’t have to jump through any hoops to keep His love, nor is His love for me based on my performance. He loves me because He IS love.

And for that reason I have become His disciple. My joy is to tell others how much He loves them, even in spite of the fact they may have swallowed the devil’s bait, hook, line, and sinker.
Christ Jesus can (and will) remove the devil’s hook from you, AND, heal all the wounds from the hook as well, and make you a new creature in Christ, to the glory of His Father in heaven. And you can have it for FREE! So what do you say?