VERSE FOR TODAY: None. . .can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him (Psalm 49:7).
HYMN FOR TODAY: "Redeemed"
In Paula Fox's classic juvenile tale nineteenth century slave trade, The Slave Dancer, a thirteen-year- old white boy, Jesse, is shanghaied. His ability to play the fife is seen by evil vmerchant sailors as an ideal tool for dancing slaves aboard ship to keep their bodies from atrophying. Jesse considers himself the most aggrieved victim of kidnapping on the earth, until he sees African snatched from homes and homelands and humiliated in naked, cordwood-like stacks below deck. He slowly realizes that though he has a chance if being rescued or escaping, those enchained Africans do not. He is sickened by their cruel plight.
To be kidnapped by unholy driven by greed is s terrible predicament. But to be kidnapped by unholiness itself, taken a slave to sin and death, is worse . . . Except that the ransom price is readily available: "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave." Bought back! What a marvelous thought. Right at the moment of sick despair, right when the shackles have worn the skin away, God's ransom announcement rings in the air: "Redeemed! How I love to proclaim it!"
PRAYER THOUGHTS: To our captors, sin and death , we have stood penniless, O Lord. If You had not paid the price in Your precious Son, we would be slaves eternally. We praise Your name, redeeming Savior. Amen.
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