Apples of Gold
Radio Script for September 15, 2008
“Jerome Lost His Home”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Jerome lost his home.
In a car accident.
Not even a bad car accident. He was a passenger in his friend’s little convertible. They had the top down and were driving through Nashville when suddenly a guy in a pickup merged into them.
It hardly damaged the car, but Jerome’s elbow took a hit.
It’s funny. The newspaper made it sound like no big deal. “Treated and released.”
But Jerome lost the lateral movement in his lower right arm. That elbow just didn’t work right anymore.
And Jerome lost his job – as a well-paid studio drummer.
Drumming was all he knew. Why bother with a backup plan when the first plan is going so well?
Payless paydays took their toll, and Jerome lost his home.
The bank took possession and put it on the market.
And Jerome sank into a depression. Here he was, 30 years old, living with his parents, and completely unproductive.
Enter Jerome’s older sister Janelle.
Janelle owned an apartment complex that turned a healthy profit. This one property alone would take care of her for life.
But after visiting her parents one day, and after seeing the state of her brother, she decided to make a bold move.
Behind the scenes she arranged for the sale of her apartment complex – and the purchase of Jerome’s house. Then she worked with a company to build a complete drum kit designed to work within Jerome’s limitations. It was part acoustic and part electronic, and the designers assured her that Jerome could use it to create all the sounds he did before, and more.
Jerome’s birthday rolled around, and it promised to be his worst ever. He wanted no party, and didn’t even come out of his bedroom when Janelle arrived.
Well she talked him into coming out to eat, and then they went for a drive – to his old house. There were balloons on the mailbox and a giant ribbon across the front porch.
“Happy Birthday!” she said.
“You’re kidding,” said Jerome. “What did you do, pay my back mortgage? You realize I can’t make the payments. I can’t do anything.”
“First of all, no, I didn’t pay the back mortgage. I paid it off, dear brother.”
“What? How did you do that?”
“I sold the apartment complex.”
“But that was your money maker.”
“Yeh. You make money to do important things. And this was the most important thing I could think of. And that’s not all. Come inside.”
And Janelle showed her brother the custom-made drum kit.
By Christmas Jerome was back to a full schedule of recording sessions. He tried to give his sister some money, but she refused. She said the satisfaction of seeing him doing what he was born to do was all the payment she needed.
And that, my friends, is an illustration of the great concept of redemption.
Jerome’s life was redeemed by his sister. The accident had taken his home and his career, and she bought it back. She redeemed it.
That story gives us a hint of what redemption is, and it can help us understand the Bible when it talks about redemption.
The Bible says that God has redeemed us through Jesus Christ.
Titus 2:14 says that Jesus “…gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness…”
Ephesians 1:7 says that in Christ “…we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…”
For Jerome, the accident took away his life. For us, sin takes away our life. We are dead in our sins.
For Jerome, his sister sacrificed her own secure income to redeem him, to buy back his life from the accident. For us, Jesus sacrificed Himself; shed His own blood to buy us back from the sin that had plundered us.
Hebrews 9:12 says that, by Jesus’ own blood, we have obtained eternal redemption.
Galatians 3:13 says He redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Verse 14 says He redeemed us so that we could receive the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 4 says Jesus redeemed us from slavery to the principles of this world so that we can receive our full rights as God’s children.
Through sin we lost our rights. We lost any claim to our inheritance as children of God.
But Jesus redeemed us. With His blood He bought us back. Galatians 5:1 says that Christ “has set us free.”
Jerome didn’t have the money to put his life back on track. But his sister did, and she made the sacrifice to pay the price for her brother.
And we have no way to put our life back on track. We can’t possibly pay for our sins and make things right with God. But Jesus did. He made the sacrifice to pay the price for us.
What we couldn’t possibly do, Jesus did. So we trust in Him, and put our faith in the work He completed on our behalf.
And now we can live the life we were created to live, all because we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
(end with “Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It” by The Martins)
The story of Jerome is fiction – an illustration I made up as I pondered the whole concept of redemption.
© 2008 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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