Skip to main content

Not Getting Paid



  It’s estimated that in the US that $40 billion to $60 billion is lost each year in various forms of wage theft. Wage theft comes in various forms but it basically comes down someone not getting what is due them. Any of us that have worked for someone and then found out they are not going to pay, can tell you the frustration. Yet for all of us, the greatest wages we have withheld is really for our benefit.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

  This verse explains to us that what we are due, what we have earned by our actions is death. Our work has a consequence; a terrible one. Sin brings death and since all have sinned, all should get what is due to them. However, God’s gracious salvation isn’t earned it is given. We don’t demand it as a result of what we have done rather we accept it on the terms it has been given.

  It’s odd however how people seem to get this backward. We seem to think most folks have salvation due to them for a life lived. As long as we did the minimum of being a good person, a place in heaven is guaranteed for our efforts. Sin is viewed as something that can be excused with minimal effort.  Let it go and move on. Sin is gifted away with ease.

 That isn’t the case. Salvation came at a great price. Sin matters. If we are not in heaven it won’t be because it was kept unfairly from us. If we get what is due to us, it won’t be something we want.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

  Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair   It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission.  It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...

The Right to Arm Bears

  In the book of 2 nd Kings 2, we have one of the most unusual, violent and curious passages in scripture. It involves the prophet Elisha siccing a couple of bears on some kids that were mocking his bald head.    As a guy that is a little light on top that has been around some surly kids, I can feel for the guy. But seriously a bear attack? On kids? What is going on? ….young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!"  When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 2 nd Kings 2:23-25  It might help to explore the passage a bit more. The baldhead statement: This was an identifying mark of the prophet as opposed to Elijah who was hairy (1st Kings 1:8) a jab to say you are not him. The taunt to go up: Elijah has just been taken into heaven by the Lord a sight seen by ...

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...