The Price Tag
But Peter said unto him, Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money.
(Acts 8:20)
Having been there—and back, having the right words, but not having the right time, a person can deliver the message but the message sounds hollow to the one hearing.
Romans 13: 11 “And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed.”
12) “The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”
13) “Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.”
“The tragedy of life is we grow old too early, and wise too late.” It is a real tragedy because in our youth we fail to recognize what is truly important in life, and in our old age what was important has long gone.
This morning has been quiet. We’ve been praying for rain, and the Lord has blessed us with several small showers in the last week or so. Reminds me of the song “Showers of Blessing.” We are at the “mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead” stage.
I did call them showers, but they are more like the mercy drops. We’ve had two ‘showers’ in two days that added up to half an inch.
Several years ago I heard the story of a thirty-year-old young man who had climbed the corporate ladder and was pulling in some big bucks. One day, he woke up to find his world falling apart. He was about to lose everything. Surely, he thought, with my expertise, I can quickly get another job.
As sometimes often happens in this world, days rolled into weeks, and then into a month and more. He now realizes he’s ruined, and he leaves behind some mountainous debts as well as his fancy lifestyle. No one wants to hire someone with his baggage.
Family—he does have a sister living in a two-bedroom trailer with her two kids who offers him a bed on the couch. Still, no one wants to hire him. He stops putting in resumes, and he gets a job flipping burgers. Well, it’s something. Then he gets another part-time job as a pooper scooper at the local zoo.
But he’s still sleeping on his sister’s couch. He comes across a small acreage with a small trailer house, but his credit is shot. He takes the chance to apply for a loan. The banker looks at him through narrowed lids, incredulous that he’s asking for money…
The banker decides to take the risk, and oh, glorious day, the young man can now get off of his sister’s couch and has his own place. Yes, it’s small, but it’s his. Slowly, slowly, his life begins to come back together. He purchases an older vehicle, begins to raise a garden, and learns to enjoy a much simpler life. And it’s his life.
All life comes with a price. Living the high-rolling lifestyle came with a very large price tag—not just in money.
The devil always hides his price tag… And the devil intends to keep life so fast and furious that people don’t realize the price. The young man found a more satisfactory life even if he didn’t have the big bucks he once brought in.
Earthly life isn’t as long as we tend to think. As the Bible says “three score and ten, or perhaps…” We know that is a generalization, a give or take. Still, the saying, “I knew I’d get old, I just thought it would take longer” is a funny summary of youth and old age.
The idea that yesterday I was young and fun, but today I find going to bed at 9 o’clock is the norm. Or, as I saw yesterday, “Yesterday I was young and fun, but today I’m taking pictures of my garden.”
“How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me: Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me. And be it indeed that I have erred, Mine error remaineth with myself.” (Job 19:2-4)
What price is paid when we err? Much is being written about our current social climate. At one time people proclaimed, that what they did in their homes was their own business. Yet, now, very little that we do is left to our own business.
In a 1984ish twist it seems as if everything that an individual does is recorded somewhere. Who would have thought this would become our way of life? And in another bizarre twist ungodly perverted people are allowed to strut—not in their closet, but down the public street in indecent attire doing unmentionable deeds in front of—as we used to say, in front of God and everyone. And if you’re shocked there is something wrong with you. Tsk, tsk, indeed.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
Indeed what a topsy-turvy world we live in. Yet, there has been some solid pushback. Every day people have been told, “We’re coming for your children, and then we’re coming for you.” And that appears to be a doorknob too far. For all the people that warned of these things to come and were once called conspiracy loons, they are now shown to be spot on.
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matthew 5:13-14)
There is a Ted Haggard quote that says, “Sin will take you farther than you ever intended to go, it will cost you more than you ever expected to pay, and it will keep you longer than you ever intended to stay.”
“Men tell us in these days that sin is what you think it is. Well, it is not. Sin is what God thinks it is. You may think according to your own conscience. God thinks according to His.” ~ John G. Lake
Sin isn’t merely to ‘miss the mark’. Sin is to miss God’s mark.
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” (Romans 13:14)
