Riding down the freeway with Grandma, six-year-old Larry held tightly to a cold, wet can of soda pop. Larry, his grandma, mother, brother and sister had been berry picking. It had been a hot day, and because they were all tired and thirsty, they had stopped to visit Aunt Peggy. She treated them to a cold drink of soda pop; a special new kind to Larry. He liked it so much that Aunt Peggy had given him an extra can just as they were leaving. He was bouncing happy! But when Mother heard him shaking his can of pop as hard as he could, she turned to tell him more about soda pop.
“Soda pop is not to be shaken. If you do, the fizzy bubbles will keep making more and more until they are all crowding to get out at once. If you were to open it now, ‘POP!’ they would explode all over you and the inside of the car. Now you must wait a long while so the bubbles can calm down.”
Larry seemed to understand. He began to complain if someone bumped his arm, and he even asked Grandma to try to “drive smoother” and not to hit so many bumps since it jiggled his pop.
Minutes later everyone jumped out of the car at Grana’s house. No one noticed that Larry had slipped behind.
Suddenly a loud “POP!” was heard. Whirling around they all saw a foamy umbrella of soda pop spraying over Larry’s head and shoulders. It was so funny to see his look of surprise and shock! They all forgot their manners and howled in laughter. Poor Larry wanted to cry. He had not obeyed the warning, and now he knew, too late, that what Mommy had said was true.
How many children, and older people, too, are disobeying the warnings from the Bible of hell and punishment for sins? Jesus Himself tells us more about hell than anyone else in the Bible. Someday these people will know that they, like Larry, should have listened.
Mother tried to wipe Larry up a bit before they started home. “I’m so embarrassed, Mommy,” he whispered. “Please don’t tell Daddy!”
Sin, too, is like a stain, but it is a stain on the heart rather than the soda pop stain on Larry’s clothes. It can never be hid from God and must be punished by Him as well. But God, who knew all our sins, laid them on the Lord Jesus and punished Him so that those who believe in Him will not be punished. “Christ... who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree....” 1 Peter 2:21,2421For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (1 Peter 2:21)
24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24). There is a heart cleansing for you that will make you so clean and pure that even God cannot find one spot. But you must tell the Lord Jesus that you need and want His cleansing. A gift is not yours until you take it. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
Larry went home smelling strongly of the vanilla in the creme soda, but God’s cleansing is perfect.
ML-11/30/1980