March is here and it looks like we are marching on to warmer weather as well as turning one more page on the calendar. We are able to return to more of a normal way of life, which I am thankful for. To that end, we will be doing more outreaches in our neighborhood. If God is speaking to you and is giving you an idea to which we can share His love with the neighborhood please let me know. I would love to begin praying with you and seeing how we can work together to do just that, share His love.
I was filling up my car the other day and like most of you the sticker shock for a gallon of gas set me back on my heels. Then I went on to Walmart to buy the things on the list Maria had given me and once again, the pain at the cash register was great. It reminds me of the story of the man who had bought a $100 worth of groceries at one place but he still had to make one more stop before returning home. While he was in the last store, the groceries in his car were stolen. When the police came to take his statement, they asked him why he left his groceries in plain sight where someone could see them. He replied that he didn’t for he had hidden them in the glove compartment! That story used to be funny but now it is more real than what we would like. While everything is going up in price, there is one thing that despite the economy and despite a recession the wage of this particular vice stays the same. And that vice is sin. The wages of sin is still death but the gift of God is eternal life. I am amazed at the grace of God. Since we know that sin is so costly and the ultimate price is death, why then do we choose to continue to sin? I guess it is because we don’t die immediately but slowly sin does its thing in us until one day we look in the mirror and we don’t even recognize the person looking back at us. The death that works in us from sinning is like a credit card. There is fun in sinning for a short season, just ask the prodigal son in Luke 15. It is fun buying things and putting it on our credit card, but then payment comes due. And the stuff we bought doesn’t even work anymore and many of the other things we purchased on our credit card seems so trivial now. But the debt always comes due. Here is the good news, Jesus Christ paid our debt and we don’t have to die in our sins but we can be freed from sin and the cost of it! I pray that we all will enjoy the freedom of giving our life to Jesus. While we still have to keep paying the higher prices for this world’s goods, we can enjoy eternal life through Jesus! We can snub our nose to death when it comes for us because to us who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, death has no sting and the grave has no victory! We have been loosed from the eternal wages of sin because Jesus paid the price for us.
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