阅读经文 

她的名字是Shapia，我在她青涩的眼神中看到恐惧。每当有陌生人来到她所住的孟加拉村庄，她便害怕被他们带走，这样的事情曾发生在她的姊妹身上。Shapia家境非常贫困，他们欠了一个无情的高利债主一笔债。她的姊妹被“交换”来偿还部分的债，但仍然有一部分未清还。

不过，这批新来的访客是来建立一个农村储蓄和贷款计划的人。这个计划能够帮助Shapia的父母和邻居储蓄金钱和获得低利息贷款，这样他们便有能力购买种子和肥料来种植健康的农作物了。这个新的计划更能中止当地那个高利债主的生意，Shapia的家人也不用再欠他的债了。他们从那笔债务中“被救赎”出来。

在圣经中，救赎不单是一个属灵的观念，它也是一个可以由人付代价来“救赎”另一个人的做法。《路得记》中的故事就是属于这种救赎的做法。同样，因着他们的乡村储蓄和贷款计划的介入，Shapia一家便从他们的债务中被救赎出来。

当然，归根究底，惟有神才能救赎我们脱离罪行和罪疚，祂仁慈地藉着耶稣这份宝贵的礼物救赎了我们，耶稣为我们舍命，好叫我们能与祂一同永远活着。

Her name was Shapla, and I could see the fear in her teenage eyes. When strangers came to her village in rural Bangladesh, she feared they would take her away. This had happened to her sister. Shapla’s family was very poor; they had become indebted to a ruthless moneylender. Her sister had been "traded" to pay some of the debt, but part of the debt remained.

These new visitors, however, had come to help launch a village savings and loan program. This would help Shapla’s parents and their neighbors to save money and take low-interest loans so that they could buy seed and fertilizer to grow healthy crops. This new venture would also put the local moneylender out of business and free Shapla’s family from their debt to him. They were "redeemed" from that debt.

In the Bible redemption is not only a spiritual concept but also a practice by which one person can "redeem" another by paying a price. The book of Ruth tells a story about that. Similarly, Shapla’s family was redeemed of their debt by the intervention of their village savings and loan program.

Ultimately, of course, only God can redeem us from sin and guilt, and he graciously does this through the precious gift of Jesus, who gave his life so that we can live with him.