Echoes of the Past

A couple of weeks ago in the post The Power of “I Can’t”, I shared a passage from Corrie ten Boom’s book, Tramp for the Lord. This book has been such an inspiration to me that I just can’t resist sharing just one more of Corrie’s illustrations with you that many of you may relate to.

       “In Holland we have many churches with belfries. The bells in the steeples are rung by hand, with a rope that is pulled from the vestibule of the church. One day a young Flemish girl, who had repented and received deliverance from lust and impurity came to me while I was speaking in one of these churches.”
    “Even though I have been delivered,” she said, “at night I still keep dreaming of my old way of life. I am afraid I will slip back into Satan’s grasp.”
    “Up in that church tower,” I said nodding toward the belfry, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops.
   I believe the same thing is true of deliverance. When the demons are cast out in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or when sin is confessed and renounced, then Satan’s hand is removed from the rope. But as we worry about our past bondage, Satan will use this opportunity to keep the echoes ringing in our minds.”
     A sweet light spread across the girl’s face. “You mean even though I sometimes have temptations, that I am still free, that Satan is no longer pulling the rope which controls my life?”
    “The purity of your life is evidence of your deliverance, I said. You should not worry about the dings and the dongs, they are nothing but echoes.”

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes form the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18