“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8
In my wallet I held a $25 gift card to a specialized health food store in the next town. Since ‘Health Food’ is not really a thing with us, it had been in my wallet for a LONG time. We went to that store a couple months ago and shopped, walking out with 1 jar of Red Pepper Jelly! Since the card had about $21 left on it, since I was in that town, and since the Red Pepper Jelly was running low, I decided to stop in.
My wife is a preschool teacher and every year, on special occasions, she gets gifts from parents. Some are eclectic… like this gift card. We don’t shop at this store, but apparently they do… did…and thought it a great gift to honor my wife. They picked what THEY loved and passed it on to HER. The card lay unused because we do not treasure the place like they do. Though it does NOT make the gift any less act of love… it DOES make it of little use to US!
The gift card industry is BIG business. BILLIONS are spent on them, as it is a great way to give something without really having to pick out something user specific. Stores love them because a large percentage of gift cards go unused… bringing profit to the merchant without having to provide a product! The cards are store specific, so I can’t use THIS card at the junk food store! Too bad huh?
The biggest need, in this whole wide world of choices, is SALVATION from the lake of Fire. From the Garden of Eden to now, sin sincerely placed a HUGE debt upon every living human being. A debt that NO one could actually pay. But apparently enough distraction was found that eternal death wasn’t really that big of a deal to most humans. Enter God!
While we were sinners, God’s Son came and made a purchase. HE didn’t need the gift, didn’t NEED man, but LOVED us more than we deserved. His action at the cross paid for my debt… IN FULL! Afterward, He presented that free gift in the form of a card. “Here ya go! Life for FREE!” It is presented to man as “The Gospel!” It has to be CHOSEN and REDEEMED to work! Sadly, it mostly goes unused!
Far too many folks buy into satan’s lie that hell is about sinning, and that the chances of going there are diminished if sin is. Focus on sin is silly… since 1 sin kills us forever! NO one can reverse that fact. But there IS a GIFT CARD that EVERYONE has at their disposal. But to USE it.. you have to CHOOSE to accept it, GO to the only 1 place that honors it and purchase the ONE item for which it was given… Eternal LIFE!
SOOOOO… as the commercial asks.. “What’s in YOUR wallet?”
