Straight Thinking 112667 Will You Pay the Price?
Straight Thinking
112667
WILL YOU PAY THE PRICE?
Sunday. PRICELESS. The value of salvation cannot be calculated. The glories of living eternally in heaven are a welcome exchange for the torments of dying forever in hell. If you were ever saved from drowning, you know how grateful a person is for being spared. You recognized for the first time the preciousness of your life on earth. What could you possibly give in return for eternal life in heaven? (Read Matthew 16:26.)
Monday. EXPENSIVE. Salvation is expensive in terms of what it demands. Nothing valuable is cheap, and nothing worthwhile is easy. It is no wonder that salvation costs so much and requires the utmost commitment. Everything you accomplish and accumulate in the many years ahead you must turn over to him for the promise of salvation. Living with God requires living for him, so save yourself at all costs. (Read Matthew 13:45-46.)
Tuesday. A BARGAIN. In comparison to what it costs, salvation is a bargain. Eternity is a long time to enjoy the reward for a few years’ service. The perfect bliss of heaven in return for our imperfect lives would be unbelievable if God had not promised it to us, and release from hell is a bargain at any price. (Read Revelation 7:13-17; 21:7-8.)
Wednesday. FREE. Salvation is free; we don’t lose a thing by accepting it now. Friends may try to us how much we are missing, but their brand of “good times” will soon be gone; the old cronies will be gone too. The home town will be “dead”; only the memories will remain of good times no longer possible; school’s out for good! The smart thing is to replace the frivolous fun with Christian living; it’s free and permanent. (Read 1 Timothy 6:6-10.)
Thursday. A GIFT. Salvation is a gift from God. There are a lot of things money can’t buy and life can’t bring; salvation is one of them. We are not good enough to deserve heaven nor too good to go to hell. We will never earn salvation from sin and death and eternal destruction, but we can meet the stipulations on which God has promised to give it to us. (Read Ephesians 2:8-9.)
Friday. AN OFFER. God offers salvation to everyone, but he does not force it on anyone. There will be no one in heaven that does not want to be there. There will be no one kept away from hell that wants to go there. Say “yes” to God’s offer; you lose nothing and gain everything. (Read 1 Peter 3:9.)
Saturday. A QUESTION. You know young people your own age that have been killed in automobile accidents. Did their lives give them any hope of having heaven? You too may never finish high school; is there any hope for you? “Have you thought what it means to be lost?” Then you are beginning to see what it means to be saved. (Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.)
Virgil Warren, Straight, November 26, 1967, p13 christir.org