What is it that captivates you? What grabs your attention and inspires you?
One of the great experiences in life is the moment of realisation that Jesus is real and that when making Him Lord of our life we are absolutely transformed within.
This is more than a sentiment, or a mere feeling. It is a knowing deep inside that a dramatic change has taken place.
For me, in part, the weightiest experience came when I realised what I had put Jesus Christ through at the cross and what He had actually done on my behalf.
It was an acceptance of the responsibility for my sinful ways before I met Him on that day when a minister took me and my family through the gospel–the good news.
The full reaction was slightly delayed. I had accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. There was no doubt in my mind and in my heart of the reality of Christ.
It was a day later when it dawned on me that I had actually been in sin and that He had washed me clean of it all the moment I accepted Him.
I wept deeply, bitterly, for a very long time. Not just tears of shame for what I’d done. No. They were tears of recognition of what He had done for me. What He had done for all of us. What He had done for the whole world.
And the good news is that, just as the stone was rolled away from the grave which held Jesus and He was released and raised from the captivity of death, so we are raised and released through His resurrection.
Prison escape
My tears were also tears of joy. What a fantastic escape I’d had. I had been in a spiritual prison cell. I had been bound by God’s enemy Satan to his evil ways.
I had not known it. I was so far into that prison sentence that it was impossible to recognise that I was actually held captive to the will of God’s adversary.
God was calling me all the time. He was and is calling you. He has been calling all of us. I could not hear Him until a believer came along and amplified His voice by sharing the good news with me and with my family.
Oh, and when we hear Him we have that realisation of our need of Him. We were always needy. We just didn’t understand it. Needy in the sense of needing salvation, peace, a new life, release from captivity.
And He led captivity captive, we’re told (Ps.68:18)(Eph.4:8). What does this mean? He freed those who were captive to sin to be held closely to what is right and true and just.
We were apprehended by Him. Halted in our tracks and turned around to face in the right direction.
We were freed from darkness to live in the light (Col.1:13). But into a loving captivity, into safety, into faith, love and hope, the eternal qualities of newness of life.
Into a place of true liberty. Captivated as much as apprehended.
Yes, and we are intoxicated by Him (Eph.5:18-19). That kind of captured, not in a prison cell, but willingly engaged in a positive relationship of joy.
You can be free today. Liberated from the powers of darkness to reside in the holy land of light and life.
