A Public Place for a Private Event!
A Public Place for a Private Event!
Dr. Vince Hefner, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Cherryville, NC
A few years ago my wife and I went on vacation to Daytona Beach, Florida. One of the things everybody has to do upon arriving at the vacation destination is to go to the grocery store to buy supplies for the duration of the time away from home. It’s no fun for me to drive almost non-stop for 10 hours with just a few pitstops on the way to the beach. So we took a quick look at the beach before shopping, because you never know when the ocean might experience a low tide and decide not to come back, leaving you with looking at miles and miles of sand. Once we saw the ocean was still in place, the next step was to get something to eat.
Since I don’t go on many vacations, when the conversation came up to go the store, I was up for the challenge. Big mistake! I don’t know why I thought buying groceries would be more exciting in Florida than in North Carolina, but I went along to see how people from the “Sunshine State” decide on which fruit to buy. I thought that perhaps there was a new soft drink they sold down there that we don’t have up here. Whatever the reason, I passed up on a chance to rest after a long trip to go rub elbows with people who have spent way too much time in the sun!
For most men, shopping is like attacking an obstacle course. He wants to get everything needed as quickly as possible, and then get to the finish line, I mean the check-out line, faster than anyone else. I have never received a prize for my fast and accurate shopping, but I do get a warm feeling when I walk out of the grocery store with a completed mission. The only thing bad about that particular day if grocery shopping was that my wife was shopping with a friend, and let me tell you they were in no hurry. My shopping time, 15 minutes. Their shopping time, 1 hour and 17 minutes.
What do you do when you have an entire hour to sit around and wait in a grocery store? When I was a child I would cry and pitch a fit, but that doesn’t work when you are an adult. As a matter of fact, an adult just might get arrested for acting like a child in a grocery store. All I could do was sit in front of the store and wait, and wait some more. As I was waiting I watched people come in and out of the store, crossing that finish line that I so badly wanted to cross. However, I couldn’t, because my wife was deciding which jar of pickles to buy, or whether she should buy the regular microwave popcorn or the one with extra butter, you know, important stuff.
Just then I noticed something at the front of the store – it was a big industrial scale, and just about everybody who came in or out of the store jumped up on that scale and weighted themselves! Excuse me? Isn’t there a law against weighing yourself in public? Just to let you know, over the past few months I have lost and gained close to 25 pounds; however, I weight myself behind a locked bathroom door in the privacy of my own house, thank you very much!
However, this idea of public weighing brought to my mind the time when all of mankind will be judged by the Righteous Judge, Jesus Christ. Acts 1:11 says, “Men of Galilee, they said, why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”
It is only through a personal relationship with Jesus that heaven will be your home. One does not get to heaven by doing more good than bad, but through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for the payment of our sins. We don’t know when that time will come, nor do we know when our time on this earth is up, but the question is are we ready for either one? Remember, don’t give into sin. Think about it!