1 Peter 1:18-19  ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

DAILY READING –     Luke 20:27-47; Genesis 37; Psalm 28

Like the story of many African cities, slavery in Sudan began in ancient times. However it had a resurgence during the 1983 to 2005 Second Sudanese Civil War. During this time, the Arab Muslim government of Sudan began using slave raids as a weapon in its war against the Christians in Southern Sudan. The government armed Arab Muslim militia groups, and encouraged them to raid Southern villages, steal their property, and take their women and children as slaves. In these process tens of thousands of people were captured and enslaved. Though this modern day slavery was kept secret by the Sudanese government, however, by the early 1990’s news of the horror began to filter out to the international community and by 1995, humanitarian groups such as a Swiss group called Christian Solidarity International [CSI] began to work with a local network of Africans and Arabs to help retrieve some of those abducted into slavery. Often they were liberated in exchange for cash paid to their captors. In 1999, the New York Times covered the story of Mr. Eibner, an official with the Christian Solidarity International. They witnessed how in one week, he paid 26.8 million Sudanese pounds, [about $27,000 at that time], to buy freedom for 1,783 slaves. The stories of these freed women and children, as recorded by the New York Times was quite horrifying. Among the slaves redeemed that day was a 27 years old woman named Achol Tong Nyan. She said she had been captured about a year earlier by men on horses and in uniforms who had stormed the village. She was among 250 people who were marched north. Ten died of thirst on the way. Another 20 were shot. After spending time in a camp with other slaves in the town of Muglad, she said, she was sold to a master who subjected her to inhuman treatment. However, after about a year, one day someone who worked with The CSI visited and after talks with her Captor, paid some money for her redemption after which was released to be taken back to her people.

It is not hard to imagine the joy that must have filled this woman’s heart when she heard the news of her redemption. Eventually a peace treaty in 2005 put an end to the slave raids, and paved the way for Southern Sudan to become an independent country in 2011.

1 Peter 1:18-19  says  ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

It is unimaginable what life would have been like, if Jesus has not paid the price to redeem us. We were without hope, held captive by a vicious and wicked enemy. Yet, Jesus went to the cross, and took upon Himself the curses due to us by our disobedience so that, in turn, we might enter into the blessings He earned by His obedience.

Though we were held in the bondage of spiritual slavery, Christ paid the ultimate price through His Blood to set us free.  The Blood of Jesus is the Blood Covenant that redeemed us from the curse of the law to enjoy the blessings of grace. Galatians 3:13-14 says  ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith’.

Indeed the Blood of Jesus is the divine provision for man’s freedom from every satanic enslavement. The blood is able to give us an instant, on-the-spot deliverance from any form of affliction. There is no attack of the devil that can cross the bloodline.

I Corinthians 6:20  says “You have been bought with a price: (the Blood of Jesus) therefore glorify God in your body, and your spirit, which are God’s.”  The price of Christ’s Blood has been fully paid for our liberty and a glorious life. Through His death and resurection  we have been ushered into a life of dominion and liberty from every demonic captivity. Through Christ’s sacrifice God delivered us from the slavery of the kingdom of darkness to become heirs of the kingdom of light.

PRAYER: Lord, I thank You that I have victory by the blood of Jesus. Indeed today I declare my freedom from every form of spiritual slavery/ By the Blood of Jesus I have entered into the glorious liberty that Christ won for us at Calvary in Jesus Name. .

QUOTE

The battle you are faced with today is a good warfare because God has already foreordained a victorious end for you. WORDBITE 222