FROM THE WORD
Breaking In
Arriving at the county jail, I noticed with surprise that two of the main double doors were shut and boarded up. Once inside I was told that a lady had crashed her car all the way into the front entrance to park it inside. Needless to say, she had been arrested and locked up! How ironic that she wanted to break into the jail when many inmates would gladly break out of the jail if they could!
We might consider this woman's actions senseless and bizarre, were it not for the fact that the poor soul was mentally deranged. Believing she was being pursued by a sinister force, she sought protection by gate-crashing her way into the county jail. Yet such an incident serves well to illustrate how multitudes of perfectly sane people are just as eager to gate-crash the worse kind of jail and endure the worst kind of bondage, and all to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
How sweet might taste the forbidden fruits of unrighteousness when initially indulged. Yet how bitter the outcome when sins seductive sweetness turns to a galling yoke, confining them in a house of bondage far worse that any jail or penitentiary! How true is the saying that the sinner will be "held with the cords of their sins." (Proverbs 5:22) Such a form of incarceration endures for a lifetime in many cases, to be finally enhanced by the irrevocable sentence of eternal death.
All the while, hidden in the shadows, Satan is constantly seeking to tighten the cords of sin around all who succumb to his enticements and secure their destruction. Such is his power that no earthly judge can stay the sinners impending execution and set them free. Yet, in the darkest moment, when all hope of clemency has failed there is still a way out to freedom and absolute surety of life! And that is through Jesus!
Almost 700 years before His incarnation, Isaiah the prophet painted a picture of the Savior's ministry to the incarcerated and doomed. "The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives; and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1)
This past week we heard four powerful testimonies uplift Jesus Christ as this Great Deliverer.
The four members of COMING OUT MINISTRIES described how the Savior opened the prison to them wherein they were bound and set them free! While Jesus hates sin, He is so amazingly patient and long suffering toward the sinner. He pities us all in our fallen state and does not rush to abandon the worst of sinners, leaving them without hope.
Time and further opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness are soon to pass away. We must not listen to Satan's lie that divine mercy is no more for us. We must believe that God still loves, still longs to forgive, and still longs to set us free from every evil. If you need to seek Him now, do not delay. Don't try to make yourself better before seeking His mercy. His mercy awaits you even now. Go to Him now, just as you are, and be encouraged with the following assurance:
"The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pities his children, so the LORD Pities them that fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103: 8-14)
Mike Thompson, Associate Pastor
