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Key Bible Verse: O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins (Psalm 130:7-8). Bonus Reading: Hosea 11:1-4

There is an old story that Abraham Lincoln went down to the slave block to buy back a slave girl. As she looked at the white man bidding on her, she figured he was another white man, going to buy her and then abuse her. He won the bid and as he was walking away with his property, he said, "Young lady, you are free."

She said, "What does that mean?"

"It means you are free."

"Does that mean," she said, "that I can say whatever I want to say?"

Lincoln said, "Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you want to say."

"Does that mean," she said, "That I can be whatever I want to be?"

Lincoln said, "Yes, you can be whatever you want to be."

"Does that mean I can go wherever I want to go?"

He said, "Yes, you can go wherever you want to go."

And the girl, with tears streaming down her face, said, "Then I will go with you."

Hosea understood, you and I understand that we were bought back—His own, lovingly, wonderfully, set free.

—Steve Brown, teacher and broadcaster

• Name some of the things God's redemptive love has freed you from.

Thought to Apply: God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us.

—FULTON J. SHEEN (LATE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP)

Credits: Adapted from—Friday: Preaching Today (58)

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