I paid special attention to the sage of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were imprisoned in North Korea for trying to document human trafficking between China and North Korea. Laura is from Carmichael, where I live. Everyone thought very highly of her and her family. Groups of diverse people from all over the world prayed for Laura and Euna. I pray frequently for transformation of the government of North Korea, that the people in bondage would be freed.
The question that comes to mind is whether God made any breakthroughs in the hearts of these women during their 140 days in captivity. For someone who may not know the living God (I have no idea whether either woman has placed her faith in Jesus Chrsit), is there is a point during such an imprisonment where God broke through? I am eagerly looking forward to what the women have to say once they have time to decompress from their ordeal. The journey from captivity to freedom is always worth following.
There is a clear analogy of this captivity-to-freedom story to our spiritual journeys. Every person who is held captive to the evil in this world, to sinful desires, to affliction from evil people, to hopelessness, to purposeless, to self-centeredness and greed and sensuality, and other vices and trauma, at some point becomes aware of the need for release, the need for freedom from the weight of this world that is suffocating their heart, that is crushing the person that God designed them to be. We all need someone who can intervene and bring our release, someone who can pay the price needed to set us free.
That person is Jesus Christ. His mission to earth was to pay the price, to crush the enemy and destroy the enemy's rights over our souls, to replace captivity with holy freedom, to replace hopelessness with confident hope, to bring joy and purpose and value and immortality to every human being in captivity.
So, how can we be set free? First, by acknowledging that we are captives to sin, that we don't have any assurance of heaven, that we have given in to the enemy and have become enemies of the only One who can save us. Second, by recognizing that the only way out of our hopeless predicament of captivity to sin and certain death is to accept the free pardon given to us by Jesus Christ. He alone accepted our punishment and took our fate, and then conquered the power of death by His glorious resurrection. The gift that he offered must be accepted, received into our lives.
Third, Jesus Christ is offering us His righteousness, His holiness, because God cannot allow anything that is not holy in His presence. Thus, as we accept the salvation offered by our God (the forgiveness of our past, present and future sin) and the promise of eternal life, He gives us His Holy Spirit, to direct us and lead us in holiness, so that we don't have to continue to live as if we were still in captivity to sin.
Fourth, Jesus Christ gives us His Word - the Bible - the truth of God, to direct and guide our lives. Fifth, He gives us the church - the family of followers of Jesus - to come alongside and encourage us and within which we can exercise our gifts and talents for the glory of God.
So, as I praise God for the freedom given to Laura Ling and Euna Lee, I am reminded of the freedom that Jesus Christ has given me. I want to be a faithful steward of that freedom. How about you?
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