Daily Devotions
(Jesus said) “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
There was one university dedicated to teaching women in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan. That school, Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University, has now decided to shut its doors.
Why?
A few weeks ago a suicide bomber detonated a device on one of the university’s buses. Fourteen women were killed in the explosion and many others were injured and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Later in the day the terrorists showed up at the hospital and began a five-hour siege during which they killed another 28. The hospital has also announced it will be closed for an unspecified length of time.
For those of us who live in a land of comparative freedom, where both men and women are encouraged to make use of the gifts the Lord has given them, it is difficult for us to understand a culture or a religious point of view that will commit such atrocities.
For those of us who are Christian and have a Savior who taught us to love everyone, it is almost impossible to imagine a faith that says there are great differences between Jew and Greek, slave and free, man and woman.
Yes, it is difficult for us to understand, but these bombings and shootings are evidence that it is so.
This is why we who have been freed of our sins by the Savior’s bloodshed on Calvary’s cross need to remember this other world of the lost, and pray for them. Even more, we need to do our best to make sure the Gospel message is shared with those who are still under sin’s bondage and spiritual oppression.
Only when people have been touched by the Holy Spirit and have been given a repentant, faith-filled heart can they understand that when the Savior sets you free you are free indeed. Only with eyes of faith can anyone know that because of Jesus, believers are freed from condemnation and damnation.
In Jesus we are given a new and forgiven heart. That means we who live our lives in gratitude to the Savior are free to be all that the Triune God wants us to be. We are free to support and encourage, to help and promote, to assist and aid.
We are free to say to the legions of those who are lost, “Come and see the Savior who wishes to transform your lives, your tomorrows, your outlook on life. Come and see the Savior who tells us to love our enemy and do good to those who persecute — and to those who would blow up a girl’s school bus.”
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, there are many in this world who feel their god has told them to frighten, threaten and destroy others who do not believe as they do. May they come to know the Savior who sets believers free to live a life of joy and thanksgiving. In the Savior’s Name I ask it. Amen.