Good News from Above
Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot
(1 Peter 1:18-19 NKJV)
World War II brought many horrors, but amongst the worst had to be the Japanese internment camps. Soldiers unfortunate enough be captured and imprisoned, faced unspeakable suffering, disease, torture, and grueling manual labor, often under a blistering sun in a fetid jungle. Hope must have ebbed to virtually nothing as the months and years passed with no sign of freedom.
The armistice between the Allies and Japan was finally announced by Emperor Hirohitu on August 15, 1945, and formally signed, by representatives of the Emperor and the Japanese government on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. World War II had officially come to a close.
But for soldiers trapped in POW camps there was no quick way of letting them know their ordeal was finally over. They had no access to radio or any form of communication. Unlike today, where a message can literally beam around the world in seconds, it would have taken months for someone to reach them.
The Americans hatched and ingenious plan. American aircraft carriers stationed out at sea produced a newspaper called The Sea V News. Planes flew over the internment camps and dropped canvas bags carrying the newspaper into the camps. The soldiers literally received the news of their freedom from the sky.
Satan has his own version of a POW camp, where he keeps people trapped in darkness, tortures minds and souls with despair, discouragement, depression, addition, fear, and guilt. He sends illness and death and keeps his prisoners’ minds blinded from the good news of the Gospel.
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News (2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT)
But just as the soldiers received word of their freedom from above, so do we. Our good news of redemption is sent from the heavenly throne room of God, where Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, has once and for all, sealed our freedom with His precious blood.
But when Christ came as high priest … He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands … He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12)
Spread the news of the Gospel, be His instrument to release the POW’s from Satan’s internment camps. Christ has won the victory for us and purchased our freedom.
