| Good Morning Everyone, Our theme for this month: “You have been set free” Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” Acts 13:38-39 Our thought for today: “If your sins have been forgiven you have been set free.” There was a prison in Italy in the 1500s that was located on a small island in a harbor. The prison was a large stone fortress that was entered by boat. The boat bringing the prisoner to the prison would enter an inlet and slowly drift towards a tunnel entrance carved into the massive stone structure. The prison was huge, towering over the boat. It was covered in slimy green moss, the entrance was dark and forbidding, and it was cold, damp, and windblown. Carved over the entrance in bold letters was the notice “Abandon hope all you who enter here!” Imagine a prisoner sitting in the boat viewing this scene, knowing he had been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in this evil-looking place. Image the sick feeling in his stomach and the deep sense of doom and desperation and hopelessness he must have felt. Now imagine that as the boat prepares to dock the Warden is standing there and shouts to the officers, “The prisoner has been forgiven. His sentence has been commuted. Turn around, bring him back to town and release him. He is a free man!” Can you imagine the relief that would flood over the prisoner upon hearing that news? He doesn’t have to suffer the punishment for the crimes he has committed. He is a free man. He has been granted a new life! That’s exactly the situation for those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. We deserve to be punished but instead we have been forgiven and set free. That’s what Paul was explaining to his listeners in Acts 13:38-39. We have been set free from the punishment we deserve for the sins we have committed. That’s the freedom that faith in Christ brings to us. Psalm 103:11-12 assures us, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Likewise, in Hebrews 8:12 God promises, “For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.” That forgiveness is found only through faith in Jesus Christ. “There is salvation in on one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. And, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. People all around us are desperate and hopeless and they need to know what you know – they need to know that God will forgive their sins and give them a new life. They need to be set free, as you have been. I encourage you to help someone find that freedom today. Tell them about Jesus. He will set them free. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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