After five years in captivity in Afghanistan, a family has returned to its home in Canada. The couple had gone there to help Afghan villagers who were not receiving any kind of help from anyone else. They went through a terrible ordeal, including the murder of their infant daughter, but they are free at last.
Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, the entire human race has been subjected to the captivity of sin. Every one of their descendants are born with a sinful nature as a result of them disobeying the one single rule that God gave them.
God had told them that if they were to touch or eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, they would die. Although they did not fall over dead, or even stop breathing, there was something inside of them that died that day. That something was the breath that God had breathed into the nostrils of Adam to make him a living soul. That breath from God was the Holy Spirit, and on the day they disobeyed God they suffered the death of their soul.
The world went downhill from there, with mankind becoming so evil and wicked that God sent the Great Flood in the days of Noah to destroy the earth, except for the family of Noah. But God had a plan in place, before the world was ever created, to redeem the world from the power of sin.
The plan involved His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who left heaven to come to this earth to defeat the power of sin and spiritual death. The plan involved Jesus being crucified on the Cross, paying the penalty for our sins. As a result of His death, we can be spared from spiritual death and receive a special gift called the gift of salvation.
If we will accept this gift, we are promised to live forever with God in heaven one day. If we experience physical death before Jesus returns to gather up His followers out of the earth, we will be raised from the dead so that we can go with Jesus to our eternal home.
The family that was in captivity in Afghanistan was rescued while they were being transported by their captors to another location. Jesus will one day rescue all of His faithful followers from an evil world, and transport them to a new location called heaven. They will be “free at last” from the attacks of the devil, who seeks to kill and destroy their souls.
While God’s followers will be “free at last,” those who turn their backs on God will be thrown into a lake of fire, which was originally prepared for the devil and his angels. They will never be free, but will spend eternity in everlasting torment. We all have a choice as to whether we will be free or not, but there is only one good choice.

Larry R. Steffee is pastor of the Center Hill Brethren In Christ Church on Miller Road in Smithville. Everyone is welcome to attend. For information, you may email lrsteffeetn@yahoo.com.