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Mar 09, 2022 18:30pm

One of These and A Few of Those…

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One of these and a few of those…

Going to the grocery store on an empty stomach is a poor decision. I think that should be a Chinese proverb or something. You’re walking with your cart and everything looks good. Instead of one box of little Debbie snacks, you get 4. Variety is the spice of life as they say…
Every aisle you turn down, it’s “one of these and a few of those”. Pretty soon your buggy is piled high and you’re having trouble steering it. You get to the checkout and every item in your cart will be scanned and accounted for. And then, payment must be made. The price comes up on the screen and it’s way too much! In fact, you don’t even have that much in your account. No credit cards either. You’ve collected all these great goods, but you have no way to pay the debt that is owed.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)

When I was younger, I would hear things about God from family, friends, and church when I went. As I grew up, I would catch myself saying, “well, I believe…”

What was it that I actually believed though? My whole life I had picked out the parts about God that I liked from what people said and chosen to believe those. One of these and a few of those… but did I ever actually search out those things to be true in scripture? No. I believed what I wanted to hear.

What I had actually done was no different than what the Lord commanded the Israelites not to do.

I had created a false god and worshiped it.

That’s cringeworthy to even think about, isn’t it?

I chose to believe in what I wanted and had a cart full, so to speak. But if I got to the “checkout” and payment was due, I had nothing that would pay for it. My belief was false. Jesus paid the debt that we all owe. And in order to receive it, we have to believe.

But we have to believe that Jesus is who He said He was and believe in the whole truth and not pieces of it.

Much of society wants to say God is love. And while that is true, they do not want to believe the part about God also punishing sin. They even want to justify their sin, put it on display and say, “God made me this way”.

We either accept the whole truth or none of it.

My friends, it took me years to realize what I was doing. It wasn’t until I truly started studying scripture that I realized my sin. I had no idea that’s what I was really doing. But when I read the truth for myself, immediately, I knew.

I knew that only Jesus could pay my debt and I needed to know the true God.

So today, the question is, when you are at the checkout, how will you pay?