What would you think about someone who had to make five trips to the hardware store before he finished one project? Well, that’s me! You’re probably thinking, He wasn’t very well prepared. And you’re right!
I had a job to do on some pipes in our house. It didn’t seem like it should take very long - just a couple of hours one morning. I went to the hardware store first thing that morning to get the supplies I needed and then I thought I was ready to start my work.
But I was barely back at the house when I realized that there was a special drill bit that I had forgotten to buy at the store. So back to the store I went! As I was paying for the drill bit, I rather sheepishly admitted to the clerk (the same one that had waited on me a few minutes earlier) that I hadn’t been organized enough to get everything I needed the first time. She grinned and said, “That’s OK. Now we know you’re normal. If you had remembered everything the first time, we’d have thought you were perfect.”
Well, I’m certainly not perfect. Maybe it was a little comforting to know that I am normal! At least I hoped that now I really was ready to start work. Everything went along fine for a little while, till I remembered that I didn’t have any pipe glue - something else I should have bought on my first trip to the hardware store. I couldn’t get my job done without it, so that cheerful clerk got to see my face again! This time I said to her, “Now you know that I’m really normal, since I had to come back twice more in one morning!”
And that wasn’t the end of it! Those extra trips to the store meant that I didn’t get my project done that morning. After lunch, it took not only a fourth trip but also a fifth to the same hardware store before I had everything I needed to complete the job. I quit saying anything to the clerk about how normal I am; I was feeling very embarrassed! You can imagine how relieved I was to finally get that project finished!
Are you ready for that meeting? Am I? No we’re not - at least, not the way we were born into this world. We were born sinners, and while still very young we started doing sinful things, like disobeying our parents and lying. The Bible says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). That’s “normal” for every one of us, but it’s not at all good, is it? Because of our sins, we deserve to be punished forever in that awful place called hell.
It ought to make us tremble to think of meeting God with our hearts still stained with every sin that we have ever done. But Jesus loves us and suffered on the cross and died so that He might offer you and me forgiveness and eternal life. His precious blood can wash us clean of every sin, so that we can have perfect peace with God.
How will you stand before Him: covered with all of your sins? or covered with the “blood of Jesus Christ” which “cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7))? Thank God, I’m prepared for this meeting. The Lord Jesus suffered all the punishment that I deserved for my sins. By believing in Him, the Bible says I’m saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). That makes me ready - prepared - to meet Him and to be forever with Him in heaven.
How about you? Are you prepared? Are you saved?
ML-12/03/2000