Hostages
1 Peter 1:13-25
Imagine yourself for a moment, a captive in a cell, in the middle of a hostile situation such as those that are happening weekly in Iraq.
You have nothing. You have no future because you know that more than likely you will be killed. You have nothing with which you can purchase your freedom. Even if you had money, your captors probably wouldn’t take it. Your government isn’t going to bargain for your release because it is a time of war and the government shouldn’t back down for your one life.
Your family? They love you. They want to secure your release, but they don’t have any power either. From almost any perspective, your situation looks grim and hopeless. It would take divine intervention…
And it did.
If you are a follower of Christ, you WERE a hostage. Your eternity WAS on the line…not just your life on this earth, but your life that never ends. Your government couldn’t help you. The family who loved you couldn’t save you. No amount of money was going to buy your life. In fact, money wasn’t good enough. It took a substance more precious than gold and a person more powerful than mankind to rescue you and move you to eternal safety. Only a sacrifice of blood from the perfect lamb could buy your freedom.
Followers of Christ have a different world-view for a reason. We’re outside the cell of captivity. We see (or we should see) those hundreds of hostages still caged in their cells around us. We walk through them and talk with them and we even hold the keys that will release them. But we don’t often ask them if they want to be free. We often live in fear of ridicule instead of living in “reverent fear” of our powerful Hero.
I am convicted in my own heart over this one issue: Fear of sharing. Peter says that we are to have “sincere love for (our) brothers, lov(ing) one another deeply, from the heart.” Freeing hostages is love.
As you pray today, pray for the hostages around you. Pray that you will have opportunities to share and then take advantage of them. And, daily, remember to pray for hostages and soldiers in Iraq and their families around the world.
Imagine yourself for a moment, a captive in a cell, in the middle of a hostile situation such as those that are happening weekly in Iraq.
You have nothing. You have no future because you know that more than likely you will be killed. You have nothing with which you can purchase your freedom. Even if you had money, your captors probably wouldn’t take it. Your government isn’t going to bargain for your release because it is a time of war and the government shouldn’t back down for your one life.
Your family? They love you. They want to secure your release, but they don’t have any power either. From almost any perspective, your situation looks grim and hopeless. It would take divine intervention…
And it did.
If you are a follower of Christ, you WERE a hostage. Your eternity WAS on the line…not just your life on this earth, but your life that never ends. Your government couldn’t help you. The family who loved you couldn’t save you. No amount of money was going to buy your life. In fact, money wasn’t good enough. It took a substance more precious than gold and a person more powerful than mankind to rescue you and move you to eternal safety. Only a sacrifice of blood from the perfect lamb could buy your freedom.
Followers of Christ have a different world-view for a reason. We’re outside the cell of captivity. We see (or we should see) those hundreds of hostages still caged in their cells around us. We walk through them and talk with them and we even hold the keys that will release them. But we don’t often ask them if they want to be free. We often live in fear of ridicule instead of living in “reverent fear” of our powerful Hero.
I am convicted in my own heart over this one issue: Fear of sharing. Peter says that we are to have “sincere love for (our) brothers, lov(ing) one another deeply, from the heart.” Freeing hostages is love.
As you pray today, pray for the hostages around you. Pray that you will have opportunities to share and then take advantage of them. And, daily, remember to pray for hostages and soldiers in Iraq and their families around the world.
posted by 1daymore at
11:30 AM
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