Daily Devotion

August 19, 2006

Psalms 106:39 Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

The young maiden sat on the street corner, a slave selling herself to earn money for her evil master. She was dirty, tired, starving, and thirsting. She had been beaten, used, misused, abused, and raped. Even as she sat on the street, she was the object of scorn, and took the brunt of the village’s young men’s perverted games; how she was still alive was a wonder.

The Prince of the realm rode through the streets on his white stallion. He was happy, wealthy but lonely; he needed a bride with whom to share his happiness. His eyes fell on the young maiden. They went beyond the filth, the corruption, the blood that had stained her skirt. He couldn’t see her scarred legs, her swollen feet and bruised face. In a moment, the love that came upon him as he looked in her eyes transcended all that the corruption the world had laid upon the maiden. The prince got off his horse; with a stroke of his staff chased the perverted young men; he generously paid the ransom for her freedom; and with a look of happiness and satisfaction, he put his skirt upon her to hide her shame, mounted her on his horse, and took her to the palace to live a new life of happiness with him. After a few days in the idyllic palace, the maiden hankered after her old life. She brought the perverted young men into the palace of the prince and polluted it with their filth, evil orgies and dirty inventions.

The prince was heartbroken; how could the maiden do this? Oh, the foolishness of the young maiden. Yes, indeed how could she do this? As foolish as the maiden was, are we-- thechildren of the Most High who have been redeemed by the blood of the prince guilty of less? Do we not hanker after the evil that previously abused and shamed us? Do we not bring the evil of the world into the Holy of Holies of His house, into the ‘Holy Land’: our heart?

May God help us to be good brides for the Prince; to keep His house clean and free from the corruption and confusion of the world.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Patrick Lumbroso
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