Day 30: Freedom to Believe; Freedom to Accept
Day 30: Freedom to Believe; Freedom to Accept
Read: Luke 4:16 - 30; Isaiah 61:1 - 4; Mark 9:21 - 24
Life is full of messages. We have the freedom to believe and we have
the freedom to accept the message being communicated. We are free to
listen to the degree we are prepared to do so. Some we choose to ignore
and there are some we truly cannot stand to listen to. Whatever is the
choice before us we have the freedom to choose how or if we will or will
not respond. If we like what we hear, we are likely to choose to give
the message our urgent attention. If we don't like it, we may just
freely enter the land of open hostility and freely give so much more
than our two cent's worth.
So, this morning I started
perusing the internet for some of life's greatest messages that I might
draw inspiration from as I seek to bring you today's devotion and
prayer.
Here is one message I really believe you will freely
accept: One company sells those cardboard sun shields used to keep the
hot sun off car dashboards. One of their legal eagles is really
concerned that someone might forget to remove their product before
heading onto the highway. So the shield carries the obvious warning,
“Please Do not try to drive with sun shield in place.” So, Who could
forget to remove the obstruction? Who would freely choose to drive blindly?
Jesus walked into his home
synagogue and the leaders of the synagogue handed Him the Torah, the
five books of Moses, the spoken word of God, the scroll of their Law. It
was opened to the reading of the message of that day of worship: "The
Good News of God's salvation. As the message of salvation had arrived
for the exiles in Isaiah's time, now, about 800 or so years later, the message of salvation came to the Jewish people. An anointed time declaring freedom for the captives, restoration of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. To give the poor their
due attention to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Many powerful
and promising messages were spoken that day. Jesus gave them a choice:
You are free to believe it or not. You are free to accept it or not. You
are free to listen to it and you are free to ignore it. Be happy or be
mad.
They chose not to believe it. They chose not to accept
it. They chose to mock both the message and the messenger. In fact, they
drove the messenger out of town, to a high cliff with the intent
to throw him off, to permanently rid themselves and everyone else of
both the message and messenger. They freely exercised their freedom to
choose.
Today as you read these Scripture passages, you have
the freedom to believe and accept the message of salvation contain
within. You have the freedom to choose how you will respond to what the
Spirit of God tells you what it means to or could mean as it seeks to
weave itself into your own heart as it slowly begins the healing process
of transforming your life into the image of the Creator.You have the
freedom to listen or ignore. You have the freedom to believe it or not.
You have the freedom to accept or reject both the message and the
messenger. What will you freely choose to do?
Let us pray:
ABBA,Father, you know who and what we are and what we are not. You know
well our confusion and when we fall down. You know so much better than
us our strengths and our shame. You know well when we struggle with the
choice to live as we are, bound by the strong chains linked linked
together by anger, pride, shame and so much more, rather than exercising
the freedom to believe and accept the Messenger and message of your
salvation unto eternal life through Jesus Christ. Please forgive us when
we lose the heart to listen to You. Lord, Help our Unbelief.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axPlLqLmSUw
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