An old farmer from the country went to the big city hospital to visit a dear friend. He was told he would have to park in the parking lot. He was so surprised when he drove up to the entrance and the little gate lifted immediately. He drove right in and parked his car in the shade. He made his visit and got in his car and drove to the exit, but the little gate didn’t open. It took money to get out. He mumbled to himself as he drove away, “Maybe they changed the oil and rotated my tires while I was there.”
What happened in that parking lot is also true of sin. It is so easy to get in and so hard to get out. Habits are so easy to start and so difficult to break. Satan’s message has always been, “You can get in now and pay me later!” Not only does he get it later, but with the highest interest.
It reminds me of how quickly the gate opened for David’s sin with Bathsheba. He saw her beauty. He sent for her. She came. He lay with her. Then he sent her home thinking all was well. It would cost him dearly to get out of this “parking place.” She was with child from that little fun night. David then had to commit more sin to cover his tracks. He had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed. David and Bathsheba would lose the child of this conception, and had to endure the shame and suffering that came from this sin.
Young people, how quickly the gate opens for the first cigarette or that chew of tobacco, that first beer, or that first act of sexual immorality, but it could cost an arm and a leg or a heart and lungs. You could end up paying the maximum cost — your life and your soul.
Let us not be deceived into thinking that, because there is no price at the entrance, there will be no price at the exit. We need to pay attention to Paul’s words to the Galatians in Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. For he that sows unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap eternal life.”
Bob Plunket
via Pulaski Street church of Christ
Lawrenceburg, TN
Bulletin Digest (May 2011)
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