Thought for January 25, 2024

  •  1720: Muslims behead Auxentius for refusing to convert to Islam
  • 1817: Rossini's opera "Cinderella" premiers
  • 1825: Rensselaer Polytechnic opens as the first engineering college in the US
  • 1849: Antartica identified as a continent
  • 1858: Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" first played at a wedding--Queen Victoria's
  • 1890: Nellie Bly beats Phileas Fogg's record and travels around the world in 72 days
  • 1919: League of Nations founded
  • 1924: First winter Olympics--Chamonix France
  • 1939: Enrico Fermi's team splits the atom
  • 1949: First Emmy Awards
  • 1959: First transcontinental commercial jet flight
  • 1970: Movie "MASH" released
  • 1993: Sears closes catalogue sales after 97 years
  • Born: Robert Burns, Virginia Woolf, Lou "the Toe" Groza, Dean Jones, Don Maynard, Buddy Baker, Alicia Keys
  • Died: Al Capone, Ava Gardner, Jean Dixon, Mary Tyler Moore
Thought:
Over the past few days as we look at Jesus' miracles, I have been praying to see with spiritual eyes, to hear with spiritual ears, to be restored where withering has occurred in my life, today I am reading a short story in Luke 13:10-17. Another confrontation with the religious authorities about healing on the Sabbath. Here, a woman has struggled with a sickness for 18 years. Some of you can relate. The result of the sickness is that she is bent double. Seeing her, Jesus frees her from her sickness and she stands erect and glorifies God. When the religious leaders object, Jesus speaks and they are humiliated.

I am trying to picture this woman as she comes into the synagogue bent double. Her view is always down--like the downcast sheep. She doesn't see what we see--she sees the floor, the street, the dirt. What a worldview. Think about her day. Think about the things she cannot do. Her body is distorted, bent out of shape. How painful that must be. how isolating. Then I ask myself if I am ever bent double by the evil one [13:16]? Does sin ever distort my life, beat me down. Do I ever only look down at my situation and my circumstances and fail to look up. Has the world crippled my thinking and my attitude so I am always negative and cynical. Do I come into the worship service each week bent over and looking down. Our pastor has been preaching a series on "I'm fine, Not really." Is my body erect, but my spirit bent double? 

Now look at what Jesus says to the woman--You are free! Larry, you are free from your bad attitude. You are free from your cynicism. You are free from your anger. You are free from your disappointment. You are free from your doubt and fear. Stand up, look up. What was the first thing the woman saw when she became erect--the face of the one who said you are free. Lord, until the day You free us from this earth, come and free me from every thing that distorts and bends my life. Ten days ago we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day--this morning I can hear him say "free at last, free at last, Great God Almighty, free at last." Do you think that woman might have said that? We get a chance every day to allow Jesus to free us so we can proclaim His praises. Come Lord Jesus--You have said You came to set us free!

Blessings
Larry

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