Pierce My Ear

Today I spoke in chapel, constructing a sermon from an old song from my brother-in-law's group, Glad. "Pierce My Ear" uses the imagery from Exodus 21:1-6 in which a Hebrew debt slave chose to continue serving his master after his required six years of service were over and he would normally receive his freedom. This voluntary slavery would be recognized through a legal ceremony in which the slave would have an awl driven through his earlobe at the doorpost of the master's house, making him the master's slave for life.
The writer of the song, Steve Croft, and I made a parallel between this Hebrew law and the Christian life. We have been bought with Jesus' blood, so our salvation is NOT free. We have an obligation to follow our Lord's commands. That is how we show our love to God, just as the slave wanted to stay with his master out of love for him. We should live our entire life for the glory of God. Although our commitment to Him does not involve a literal ear piercing to show our devotion, it involves a deliberate decision to follow him.
If anyone is interested in a copy of my message, I will be happy to email you a copy.
(Special thanks to Melissa Heck for the picture. Please pray that she can retrieve her pictures and information from her computer which crashed last week.)

Comments

Bill said…
yay for Glad sermon illustrations. Did you play or sing the song?
October 5, 2007 at 11:06 AM
Farnsworth Forum said…
I sang it with my English class Assistant (can you believe I have one?) playing the guitar. Then we sang it together.
October 7, 2007 at 5:08 AM
Unknown said…
I've enjoyed the music of GLAD since the earliest albums - "Iron Sharpens Iron", Pierce My Ear", etc. great music - nice to meet a relative of one of the band members!
November 21, 2013 at 8:12 AM
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