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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for March 26, 2009
“Innocence Lost”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Milton lost his paradise,
Dorothy lost her way,
Vincent lost his sanity,
Thomas lost his faith,
Hoover lost the second time,
Sigmund lost his friend,
Me? I lost my innocence,
And I want it back again.
That’s from a song by Susan Ashton entitled “Innocence Lost.”
And I love that last line: “Me? I lost my innocence . . . and I want it back again.”
I’ve lived long enough now to see a lot of kids grow up. I’ve seen them young and buoyant, so full of energy and life and joy – just waking up everyday glad to be here.
And I’ve seen many of them lose their innocence. They become exposed to dark things. They get caught in the snare.
Instead of buoyant, you see them taking on water. Their innocence is lost, and there’s no going back.
But wait a minute. There is a way to go back!
Believe it or not, you can regain that lost innocence.
Listen to Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
I like that visual of the “heart of stone.” That’s what happens as you lose your innocence. Your heart gets hard.
But look what God can do! He can take a heart of stone and give you a new heart!
Ezekiel 18 says, “Repent…turn away from all your offenses…and get a new heart and a new spirit.”
When we lose our innocence, it’s like we get dirty. Have you ever seen a homeless person? This is someone who has no place to bathe or wash their clothes, so they just get more and more dirty. Most people can’t imagine letting that happen, but it happens one layer at a time. We would all be that dirty if we didn’t constantly clean up.
Well that’s what happens inside of us. We lose our innocence, and then the layers start to build up. Inside we are homeless, with nowhere to get clean.
But now listen to this precious verse in Isaiah chapter one. “Come now,” says the Lord.
And don’t you love that already? When your heart is homeless, it’s a beautiful thing to receive such an invitation.
He says, “Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
That’s a fresh start, my friend! That dirty, homeless feeling – God will take care of it.
In John chapter three, Jesus introduced a unique phenomenon. It’s called being “born again.”
Was there ever a fresher start than being born again? Yet that is exactly what He said.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”
Galatians 6:15 says we become this: a new creation.
In Acts 5:20 they said, “Go…tell the people…of this new life.”
Romans 6:4 uses that same phrase, a “new life.”
So put them all together: born again, a new creation, a new heart, a new life.
Are you ready for this? Have you lost your innocence and you want it back again?
Well my friend, this is just the business Jesus is in, trading new lives for old.
Jesus talked about pouring new wine into new wineskins. I think when we repent of our sins and turn to Christ, I think He makes us into a new wineskin. He gives us a new heart, and then He starts to fill that new heart with new things, such as His Spirit and His Word, His joy and peace and a host of wonderful things!
You don’t have to spend the rest of your life with your innocence lost. Your heart doesn’t have to be homeless.
It’s time to come home to Jesus, to be born again, to experience the new life that the Lord is just waiting to give you.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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