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Since I am on sabbatical, over the next few weeks, we will be featuring devotions from a few guest writers, including my son, Bryant Forshee, Junior High Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church, and my son-in-law, Jeffrey Samplaski, Student Pastor at Great Hills Baptist Church. But first, for this week's devotions, I am republishing a series about why Jesus came to earth.
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"To proclaim liberty to the captives...
To set at liberty those who are oppressed."
(Luke 4:18)
Jesus came to set captives free.
Throughout the Gospels, we read of how Christ set captive people free, both in the physical and spiritual realms. I love the story in Mark 2 where Christ told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven, then He healed him. The greater bondage is always spiritual. There are many who are not captive physically, yet their souls are in great captivity to Satan, and they are slaves to sin. By the same token, there are indeed many who are captive physically--imprisoned or afflicted with physical handicaps or illness--yet they have met Christ and their souls are absolutely free!
Colossians 1:13-14 states: "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Darlene Seale was a young lady who was captive and very oppressed. She was not poor in spirit, but was just the opposite; she was very hostile toward God and those who believed in God. Her story is quite remarkable. Her mom would drop her off at church but never attended, so Darlene figured church must not be that important. She did not have a good relationship with her mom, yet desperately sought her approval. In high school, she was rebellious and experimented with the occult, Extra Sensory Perception, and satanic rituals. While in college, Darlene met a couple of Christian young ladies who invited her to church. She was not at all interested, but she appreciated the kindness of the two girls, June and Carrie.
Darlene later ran for a student government office and won. One of her tasks was to select a speaker to address the student body. She invited an atheist who came and unleashed vitriolic attacks on followers of Christ. She used vulgar language and challenged any Christian in the crowd to contradict her. Carrie spoke up for her faith. Instead of delighting in the event, Darlene felt terrible. She got someone else to give the speaker a ride to the airport. She went immediately to the dorm room of June and Carrie and found them praying. They were kind to Darlene and told her that everything was okay. Darlene later said that in all her study of the occult, she had never read anything about love.
So, Darlene began to investigate the claims of Christianity, and she started reading the Bible. She said she was amazed that Jesus was not a myth but a real, historical person who did a lot of things that, at the very least, require a lot of serious investigation. After a few months of study, she accepted that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead; she put her faith in Jesus and surrendered her life to Him. She shared her good news with June and Carrie who had been consistently witnessing to her. She invited them to join her, and they went to the back of one of the dormitories, where Darlene burned all her satanic books. Darlene loves the Lord, and last I read, she was involved in the music ministry in her local church. The title of the article where I got this story is an interesting one: "The Atheist Who Led Me to God". She saw such a disparity between the life of the atheist and the lives of June and Carrie that she was compelled to investigate the claims of the Gospels, and because of that, she became a follower of Christ.
Jesus still sets captives free; He liberates oppressed souls and grants them pardon, joy, and purpose! Jesus said in John 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
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Touch Lives with God's Truth
Help others discover the life-transforming
power of God's Word with a copy of
Touched by the Truth.
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What's After? Pt. 2
Pastor Danny continues in his overview of our new series about what happens to us after we die. This series will explore what the Bible has to say about death, heaven, and hell, as well as the recorded experiences of people who have lived through near death experiences (NDEs).
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