“As Jesus spoke these things, many
believed in Him. So He said to the Jews who had
believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are
truly My disciples. Then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
+ John 8:30-32
“FREED TO FLY”
Sometimes, God allows small things to happen that
speak to you in a special way. Such a thing happened
to me earlier this Fall. It was just around that
time of year when all of the big, giant spiders come
out and start making their webs everywhere. One day
I came around the back of our garage and this
beautiful, black and orange monarch butterfly was
caught all entangled in a nasty web. He was stuck
and couldn’t go anywhere. Very gently, I was able to
take him down and pull the webs off that were
hindering it’s flight. As he flew away it seemed a
surreal experience.
God’s people are like this too. Like a caterpillar
to a butterfly, we are transformed from sinner to
saint. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And yet, even as
butterflies we sometimes fly into Satan’s spider web
and it hinders our freedom and our flight as
Christians. Such snares that Satan lays are the
reminders of our past that we cannot shake free from
and they paralyze us. Other times the old Spider
catches us in the web of sin that Christ came to
free us from. That Spider comes “to steal, kill, and
destroy”.
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If you are God’s beautiful creature
who is stuck in some web of lies or have become
entangled in sin, you have Someone who frees you!
His mercy and kindness has been that He has gone
against that old evil Spider. He has taken the
poisonous bite meant for your destruction. His body
was wrapped up as death’s prey and He was taken into
the Spider’s lair of death. But He overcame the
Spider’s ways, his painful bite, and the web of
death! He has been raised victorious from Satan’s
snares, and “if anyone is in Christ”, then we also
have been set free! His Word to you is grace,
forgiveness, and mercy, which is found in the power
of Christ’s life and resurrection. These Words are
God’s fingers that pull back and remove the webs
that entangle us. He came to set the captives free!
Continue in His Word! His Word transformed you and
made you beautiful; fly in His freedom.
Grace Lutheran Church, 201 S. College St.,
Lincoln, IL
10:30am Sunday Worship; 9:00am Bible Study
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