...Grace Period

One day a call center representative received an escalated call from a customer; the customer was puzzled to find out that his policy that he so feverishly went about obtaining had come to an abrupt end. "How could this be?" the customer asked. Politely, the customer service representative advise the customer that there was nothing that he could do. The representative went on to remind the customer, "Sir, you were under the grace period, we gave you an ample amount of time to make the wrong right." The customer,  deeply concerned, went on to say, "But what about my consistency prior to this? I was faithful! You know, January, April, July, I thought I was doing everything right." It was at this time that the customer service representative became very empathetic; Yes you are absolutely correct, I can see that you were consistent, however its about now, today, current date." The customer stated, I never received any communication that I no longer was covered, is it written?" The representative stated, "yes it is written, as a matter of fact, let me read the letter to you." The representative went on to read the letter verbatim to the customer. The customer became silent for about 10 seconds. Shortly thereafter the customer began to blame other people for providing him with information contrary to what was written in the letter informing him that he was under the grace period. Unfortunately for the customer there was nothing documented that indicating that he was provided inaccurate information. In essence the customer took for granted being under grace.

After hearing this story I was reminded of God's amazing grace that has been extended to all humanity. My, my, my how amazing is God's grace! What is grace you ask, its unmerited favor, that you and I do not deserve. When we're under grace, we should be cut off, but grace will not allow it to be so. What Jesus did on the cross catapulted humanity into a position to be recipients of God's amazing grace. Unfortunately, like the customer so many people take the grace of God for granted. We often skate through life nonchalantly not considering the fact that our life upon the earth is but a vapor! We too have been given a letter so to speak to remind us of God's grace and the decision that we have to make before our final exit from life as we know it into eternity. Obviously we do not have to send God payments to stay in grace or out of grace, God's grace is free. As I mentioned before we do not deserve God's grace! But in order for us to spend eternity with Him, we have to comply with the letter or in our case, God's word (the bible). The customer ignored all the signs, as a matter of fact he never read the letter; that is why when he was confronted with the truth he continued to make excuses instead of taking ownership for his own actions. The customer never called to speak to anyone. We do the same thing to God; we turn our backs on him, we don't talk to Him consistently, we don't read His word, but He still loves us and is quick to forgive. But we have to embrace His grace, not trample it under our feet. Unlike the customer who knew specifically when the grace period ended, we do not know the day nor the hour when "grace ends" or when Jesus returns.

I look at everything that is going on around the world today and it is as if we are on fast forward, quickly coming to the end. I don't know if you are a believer in Jesus Christ that is out of fellowship with Him or a non-believer that doesn't know Him in the pardon of your sin. What I do know is that time is winding up and we have to make sure that we are familiarizing ourselves with the letter that was sent to us thousands of year ago called the bible. To the believer that confuses religion with relationship, please, please don't be associated with those that will hear Jesus say, "Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven or "Depart from me, I never knew you." (Matthew 7: 21-23). To the non-believer there's still room at the cross for you (Romans 10:9; John 3:16). You're under a grace period...while you have time, choose Christ for your life!