Freedom From Prison For You And Me

I recently saw an interesting report about a minimum-security prison in Norway. The prisoners had keys to their own private bedrooms with fully furnished living rooms and kitchens. They could take vocational classes from painting to cooking, and even had a music studio to jam.

The only thing they didn’t have was the total freedom to be with their family. The idea was to let them have as normal lives as possible to help them improve. The biggest incentive to change would be to come very close to a normal life yet be denied the freedom to have it all. For most inmates, it would probably be the desire to be back with their family in their own home environment.

I thought about the similarities between this and God’s system of helping us redeem ourselves back to Him. Instead of banishing us for our blasphemous thoughts about Him, He gave us another chance to redeem ourselves by creating the Earth as a minimum security “prison” for us to improve ourselves.

Our planet Earth is a like a beautifully designed prison with huge boundaries and plenty of freedom to roam about it.

It’s where we will spend an entire lifetime with our prison mates (believers and non-believers), closely watched and guarded by the best security system in the world, which is God and His angels. We have free improvement tools like scriptures and messengers with constant guidance from God. God has also appointed Himself to be our ultimate Judge, so all matters must be referred to Him. God has even given us families, provisions and luxuries to enjoy but these also come packaged with some tests, ups and downs, gains and losses. In our case, since we already have our families here, our ultimate freedom goal would be total freedom from any problems or challenges forever. God willing, we will live in perfect peace and happiness with our eternal families in Paradise forever.

But as we know, to achieve that, we have to steadfastly follow God’s rules of His prison while being the best prison inmates we can. In the real world where most people in prison are focused on survival and just getting out before they can even think of starting a new life again, when we get out of God’s prison successfully, God willing, we don’t have to start anything all over again. An abode of eternal bliss is already waiting for us to enjoy the moment we step out the gate of our earthly prison.

Heaven: Indescribably Beautiful
[32:17] You have no idea how much joy and happiness are waiting for you as a reward for your (righteous) works.

Freedom is nice, but it’s not free

As part of the process to permanently exit our earthbound prison we must know that we have to take complete responsibility for the immense freedom we have already been given. Apart from the responsibility to work hard for

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