I believe this photo represents a lot of people who profess Christianity, yet are still attached to sin (or their cage).
When it comes to the heart, it is so (unfortunately) easy to hide. And to take this to even a deeper level, sins of the heart, can be so easy to hide. What if our life and thoughts were displayed on a movie screen? Does that thought scare us or make us excited? In scripture, sometimes our heart can be more public, for example:
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
(Matthew 12: 33-37)
When we get around our friends, do we confess our sins and ask for help, or do we hide them and pretend life is perfect? Slander, lust, envy, bitterness, selfishness is a small list of things we can cover up, but these sins lead to death. Are we even convicted when it comes to these things, or have we made it so normal that we have become used to it? What are we inviting in if we live these habitually? Certainly not Christ, so it must be the devil, or demons. And then, there is need for deliverance, which is not talked about too much, especially in church circles today. When Jesus healed, He often said, “Go and sin no more”.
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 1 Timothy 4:1-2
I believe many need deliverance, but few truly want it. I’ve needed it for many things in my life, but I had to get to the point where I really wanted to be free and hated the sin so much. We can’t be comfortable in sin, or cage, because if we are, I think its fair to question our salvation. We can not take His death for granted or in vain. I believe many Christians can lose their salvation if they continue in sin. I will write another blog that backs this using scripture. Just like a bird in a cage with the door open, we must choose to fly out in freedom, and break free, so we can truly experience the life that Christ has for us. We can no longer but a slave to sin, or our “cage” period.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 1 John 3:9