GOODBYE TO ALL ASPIRIN!
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
250 Biblical Prophecies and their fulfillment
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GOODBYE TO ALL ASPIRIN!
John 8:31-36 MKJV
(31) Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed.
(32) And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
(33) They answered Him, We are Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to anyone. How do you say, You will be made free?
(34) Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever practices sin is the slave of sin.
(35) And the slave does not abide in the house forever, but the Son abides forever.
(36) Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
There is a ridiculous story about a weight lifter who appeared at an agent's office. The muscle-bound performer was carrying a stone, a big hammer, and a huge suitcase. "This big stone," he explained to the agent, "is placed on my head, then my assistant takes the hammer and swings it as hard as he can, and breaks the stone."
The agent's head nearly ached just from the description, but he was quite enthusiastic. "Sounds wonderful!" he shouted. "But if you need only the hammer and the big stone for the performance why did you bring this big suitcase?"
The weight lifter replied, "It's full of aspirin."
There are a lot of people who function quite nicely in society, who seem like they've got it all together, who come across as if they have life all figured out, but somewhere they've got a suitcase hidden, because they're in a lot of pain. If you look closely, you see it in their faces, you hear it in their voices, you sense it in the stoop of their shoulders, the sadness in their eyes, the weariness in their walk. Some people live hard, despairing lives. They long to be set free.
It reminds me of something I once read about the great missionary doctor, Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer left a lucrative medical practice to set up a medical clinic in Africa. He said, when a native would come to the clinic with a painful condition that would require surgery, he would explain all the details of the surgery to the patient and conclude with these words, "After the surgery and you have recovered you'll have no more pain." Then after the surgery Schweitzer would sit by their bed until they opened their eyes and he would listen for them to say, "No more pain." He said there was no greater joy in all the world for him than to hear those words, "no more pain." (Dr. John W. Keith, Oak Ridge, TN.)
Jesus knew that joy. He knew what it was to hear people say, "No more pain." Whether it was the paralytic or the blind man or the woman with the issue of blood. There are no sweeter words to a healer's ears than these, "No more pain." Indeed, that's what Christ wants to do today for you and for me. He wants to set us free from our pain. Jesus said to those who followed him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
Freedom is what Christian faith is all about. How sad it is that we so often forget that. That is why the Christian movement is always in the need of reformation. There are always those who would turn faith into a new form of bondage. Faith in Christ is freedom--delirious, unrestrained freedom. Indeed, there is no freedom without him. What is that freedom that Christ gives?
FIRST OF ALL, HE GIVES US FREEDOM FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN.
Jesus said to those who followed him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." But they were confused. They said to him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it that you say, You will be made free?'" And Jesus said, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever; the son continues forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free forever." (RSV)
Is there anyone reading this who enjoys being a slave? Maybe you are a slave to your bad temper--even to the point of violence. I read a chilling statistic recently. I read that one in five men who beat their wives is so in control that their heart rate actually drops while they are battering. They are not out of control at all. They are very much under control--the control of sin. Maybe you are a slave to your own physical appetites. Whether it is sex or food or simply a slovenly lifestyle, it hurts to be a slave. Maybe you're a slave to your fear of failure. Slavery takes a million different forms but they are all symptoms of slavery to sin.
Notice in Jesus' words his contrast between the slave and the son. The slave is only temporarily a part of the household. A son is a part of the household forever. SIN THEREFORE IS A DENIAL OF WHO WE ARE.
When we are able to affirm that we are connected to Christ--that he is Lord of our life, and therefore our lives have tremendous significance, then we can begin to extricate ourselves from the webs of self-deceit that we build around our lives. Then we can be honest with ourselves and with others. Then we can build a new life.
It is not easy. Anthony de Mello tells about a pastor who put this question to a class of children: "If all the good people in the world were red and all the bad people were green, what color would you be?"
A little girl thought mightily for a moment. Then her face brightened and she replied: "Pastor, I'd be streaky!" The sad thing is that many of us take pride in being streaky. We refuse to see how much better life could be if we could declare here and now, "I am a child of the King. I am joined with Christ. Christ sets me free from feeling that I have to debase myself in any way." No more pain. Christ can set us free from slavery to sin.
CHRIST CAN ALSO SET US FREE FROM MEANINGLESSNESS AND DESPAIR.
Jesus is saying to us that when we know the truth about who we are--sons and daughters of the Divine--than we no longer have to wallow in despair and disappointment.
William R. Lampkin in his book, MINUTE DEVOTIONS, noted something very interesting about the announcement of the death of the agnostic philosopher and author Jean Paul Sartre. The announcement of Sartre's death carried in the media around the world ended with this sentence, "He was the nephew of Albert Schweitzer." That's what the newspapers said. Jean Paul Sartre was the nephew of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Actually, I believe they were cousins. At any rate, they were close relatives.
Sartre in his own right was a man of intellectual stature. He greatly influenced philosophical thinking through his writing on Existentialism. He was a Nazi war prisoner who escaped and worked in the French Resistance. After the war he was a prolific playwright. Sartre was a restless man who lived the chaotic, pointless life that Existentialism prescribes.
It is ironic that at his death he should have been finally identified as the nephew of Schweitzer, a man who lived so closely attuned to God and his universe that he fed the ants from his plate at every meal ("my ants," he called them). In spite of Sartre's giant intellect and his prolifically productive life in his field--not to speak of his kinship with one of the world's great Christians--he missed the most vital element of life and its living--a connection with the living God. It is significant that at Schweitzer's death it was not noted that he was closely related to Sartre. (Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 1990)
Though they were both men of great intellect, Sartre never discovered the secret of his uncle's extraordinary life. Albert Schweitzer had his own difficulties with traditional Christian theology, by the way. His faith was not orthodox by any means. But that did not keep him from surrendering his life to the Christ of faith. His life is a study in what surrender to Christ really means. Sartre, for some reason, could not do that. Maybe it was too simple for him. I think that happens sometimes. The Christian faith is too familiar and too simple for some who fancy themselves intellectuals to be able to accept.
Michael Green draws an analogy between faith and a new cake mix that was once developed by a large manufacturing company. The cake mix required only that water be added. Tests were run, surveys were made, and the cake mix was found to be of superior quality to other cake mixes. It tasted good. It was easy. It made a moist, tender cake. The company spent large sums of money on an advertising campaign and released the cake mix to the market. The cake mix was a miserable flop. The company then spent more money on a survey to find out why the cake mix didn't sell. Based on the results of this survey, the company recalled the mix, reworked the formula, and released the revised cake mix. This time the new cake mix required not only water, but also an egg. It sold like hot cakes, and is now a leading cake mix. You see, the first cake mix was just too simple. People would not accept it. (THE EXPOSITOR'S ILLUSTRATION FILE 1982, 1985. )
I think that may be the biggest barrier to many people about the Christian faith. It is so simple. Trust Christ. Let him free you from your sins. You are a child of the King. You can begin a new life today. Maybe if Jesus had set up week-long seminars and charged thousands of dollars, people would find it easier to take his message seriously. Christ can set us free from slavery to sin. He can set us free from our meaninglessness and despair.
AND HE CAN FREE US FROM LIFE'S EMOTIONAL WOUNDS.
One of the great revelations of modern psychology is that in all adults there is still a small child whose spirit somehow has been wounded along the way to maturity.
Marion Bond West tells about her daughter Julie whose wound only recently surfaced. It was a simple thing but it was a source of pain.
When Julie was in second grade, her mother didn't attempt to prepare her attractive school lunches or even buy her a lunch box. Marion explains that she had just had twin sons and mornings were hectic. Just recently, though, Julie confessed to her mother that she often ate alone because she was embarrassed by her lunches.
Thirty-year-old Julie already had children of her own when her mother found out about her childhood hurt. Following that revelation Marion stood in stores looking fondly at lunch boxes, wishing, longing for another chance.
Then, one day, Marion happened to find an old lunch box from the sixties, the time when Julie was in school. She admired it so much that the owner gave it to her. She packed goodies for Julie, some candy and gum and her favourite cosmetics, but mainly little treasures--an antique pin, an old lace handkerchief, very old paper dolls, a small book published in the 1800s. Of course, the long overdue note that she had so wanted to find in her lunch back in 1968 went in. "Julie Babe, have a good day. I love you. Mama." Marion mailed the carefully wrapped lunch box for its thousand-mile trip. COULD A LUNCH BOX MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS LATE POSSIBLY EASE THE SILENT PAIN JULIE ENDURED? She wondered.
Julie's letter came immediately. "Mother, I never realized I'm still seven years old. It was so emotionally heavy I could barely breathe. It was just like I was sitting at the long lunch table and could even smell school when I opened the lunch box. All my friends were there and watched me. As I walked back through my second-grade lunch experience, I thought, MAMA DOES CARE. I AM IMPORTANT." (DAILY GUIDEPOSTS, 1991, (Carmel, New York: Guideposts, 1990), pp. 153-154.)
That is the freedom that Christ wants to give us. We are important! We matter! We are not slaves--we are sons and daughters of God!
This is the truth that sets us free. It's not complicated. Jesus says, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." What is his word? It is that truth, revealed from Genesis to Revelation , that the God who created us, loves us and calls us to be God's own children, God's own chosen ones.
Put away the aspirin. Quit beating yourself over failures long past. Give to him those hurts of long ago. No more pain. That is Christ's will for your life and mine. He can set us free from our slavery to sin, from our meaninglessness and despair, from those hidden wounds that fill our lives with misery. Won't you take him at his word and let him set you free today?
http://www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod/
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