To listen to the radio version, click here.
To search archives, click here.
Apples of Gold
Radio Script for July 16, 2009
“I Was Blind but Now I See”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Don’t you hate it when people talk about you like you are not even there?
That happened to me a lot, but I guess I understand.
When you’re blind, people act like you can’t hear. So they talk about you when you’re right there, and then when they talk to you, they raise their voice.
“Look,” I want to say, “People, I’m blind, not deaf. I hear everything you say.”
I used to be real edgy about it, but then, it was a moment just like that that changed my life.
There I was, just listening as always, and I heard a swell in the crowd. There was excitement among the people.
The next thing I know, someone was talking about me, just like I said. I heard a man say, “Rabbi, whose sin caused this man to be born blind? Was it his sin, or his parents?”
I shook my head. I had asked such questions all my life. Why me? Why did I have to be blind? It certainly wasn’t anything I had done, because I was born this way. But then maybe God knew it was something that I would do, I don’t know. I had enough “whys” to make my head spin, but really, there are no answers to such questions.
But that doesn’t stop people from asking them. And they apparently don’t have a problem asking them right in front of me.
So they asked the rabbi who had sinned, me or my parents.
There was a pause. I guess everyone was interested in the answer. And no one was more interested than I!
“Neither,” a man said. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…”
Wow, this was a voice I had not heard before. It was like listening to the expert or the genius. It was fascinating, you just had to listen, and you knew something good was coming.
“So why did it happen?” someone in the crowd said. “Why was this man born blind?”
“This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
What? What did that mean? How was the work of God displayed by me being blind? What possible good could come from my blindness?
I heard someone spit at me. Okay, here we go, spit on the blind guy.
I dropped my head so they at least wouldn’t spit on my face.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder; a strong hand, but gentle.
“Here,” he said, and he lifted my head and pulled the hair back from my forehead. Then he pulled his hand down over my eyes to close them, and I felt something warm. He put something on my eyes.
Then he pulled his hands away and said, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.”
Well some people were all too eager to take me there, so off we went. On the way, they told me the rabbi was Jesus, and that he had spit on the ground, made a little mud, and put it on my eyes.
“Ewww,” I said.
“Oh no, that’s a good thing!” they said. “Jesus is a miracle worker. He has healed many blind people, and there is no doubt that when we wash this mud off your eyes, you will be able to see!”
And they were right! I could see everything clearly, what joy!
So I went home, and yes, it was quite the spectacle. People wanted to check me out. I was the blind man who could see. But then some said, “No, it just looks like him.”
Wow, I guess it’s not just blind people after all, because here they were again, talking about me like I wasn’t even there.
Finally I broke in, “Look, it’s me. I am the man!”
“If so, then how did it happen?”
So I told them what Jesus had done.
“And where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Now seeing was a real big deal to me, but I didn’t realize it was such a big deal to everyone else. Next thing I know I was on trial before the Pharisees. I told them the same story, and then they all started arguing in front me, saying things like, “Jesus is not from God.”
Finally they asked me, so I threw them a little zinger.
“He is a prophet,” I said.
Then they called in my parents, who didn’t really want to get involved, but at least they did admit that I was their son and that I really had been blind.
So they turned back to me.
“Give glory to God,” they said. “This man’s a sinner.”
“I don’t know if he’s a sinner or not,” I said. “But one thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see!”
Then they wanted to hear the story again. Now it’s a really great story, but I was tired of telling it to these guys.
“I already told you,” I said. “Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
Then the insults started, so I piled it on.
“Look,” I said, “If he wasn’t from God, he could do nothing.”
“How dare you lecture us!” they said, and I guess they had had enough of me, so they threw me out.
Later I did meet Jesus, and for the first time I saw the face of my Savior. And I too, became a believer.
I don’t know everything, that’s for sure. And I still don’t really know why, out of all people, I was born blind, or why Jesus came to me.
But one thing I do know.
I was blind, but now I see.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
Based on the story in John chapter 9.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(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
-vi-
No comments:
Post a Comment