I had done this same thing a million times before – standing in line to pay at the gas station/convenience store. That’s where I was the other day, when God suddenly opened my eyes. It was an amazing revelation of reality, and it was interesting how I had never really noticed it before…
What am I talking about? Well, you see, I was standing there, waiting for my turn, and it was taking a while. Looking to my right, I noticed a display taking up an entire wall, floor-to-ceiling, of hard liquor of every sort. At the end of this row was a big display of various types of cigars.
I looked away. My eyes landed on the rack of gossip magazines and various trashy periodicals designed to tantalize and appeal to our lower, lustful natures. Further left were stacks and stacks of cases of beer for sale.
So, I looked up. On the cashier’s countertop were the tiny little bottles of hard liquor – small enough to fit in your pocket. Next to these were the bright, colorful display cases featuring fifty different types of scratch-off lottery tickets.
So, I looked higher, overhead, and saw the racks of cigarettes – a thousand different packs of deadly poison ready for the cashier to dispense routinely at a moment’s notice.
So, I looked further back, behind the cashier’s counter, and saw the other types of tobacco – the chew and snuff that is so popular with the manly men.
So, I looked down and saw a rack 20 feet long and 3 feet high adorning the entire front of the checkout counter, filled with a hundred different kinds of calorie- and fat-filled, sugary, gooey candies.
Then it was my turn. As I paid, the cashier asked if I would like a Powerball ticket. “No thanks”, I said as I laid my money down right next to the countertop spin rack loaded with bumper stickers touting filthy, vulgar phrases that were supposed to be funny.
Thank you, come again, she said. Our business was concluded. I turned to leave. It was the next person’s turn.
In a few short moments, my eyes had been opened to the reality that while this was indeed just your typical convenience store, it was also a Sin Store. A convenient sin store, in fact. Crazy how I never noticed it before, how I – and probably like you – had simply been lulled into complacency like that famous frog in the pot of boiling water.
What should we conclude about the owners of such a store? Are they horrible individuals who are pushing sin on the people? Or just normal people, in business to make money, and providing what the public wants. If there were no demand for these things, the store would offer other things for sale.
The question we should ask is, is life so awful, so wretched, and so hopeless that we really need to numb our souls with booze, gamble our resources away on lottery tickets, choke ourselves with toxic smoke, and then read the stories of celebrities whose lives are even more twisted than our own for our entertainment?
I guess so, because that’s where we are today, and few of us really even take notice of it. It’s become so commonplace and normal that we all go into stores like this every single day and think nothing of it. I would venture to say that our grandparents would have been too embarrassed to enter such establishments in their day. They would have found the whole idea too debasing, right up there with peep shows, saloons, and adult bookstores.
Am I being overly dramatic? I guess it depends on your point of view. For most people, a trip to the convenience store is pretty humdrum. Nothing out of line there. You say, Youd have to be some sort of saint to be shocked at the contents of a convenience store! That’s my point.
Christians are supposed to be different. The Bible uses the word Sanctified, or Set Apart. The problem with Christians today is that most of us are no different from our unbelieving, worldly friends. Twenty, thirty years ago, Christians lived with one foot in the world and one foot in church. But today, we’re so far gone that we’re not even that devoted. We live with both feet in the world, and then if we don’t have anything better going on, we visit church on the weekend. God doesn’t even come into the equation – unless, of course, we want something.
As if sin were not easy enough for us already, now we have Convenience stores that cater to our most common carnal desires. My recent eye-opening experience was not so much a condemnation of these stores or their owners as it was a revelation of how far we’ve fallen…especially Christians. We need to examine our hearts. Maybe we’re not really Christians after all.
How can people who claim to be Christians live like the rest of the unsaved world and not even realize that’s how they’re living? I believe the problem is false conversions. People think they’re Christians when they’re really not. So many have been told that in order to be saved, you simply need to ask Jesus into your heart. Where is that taught in the Bible? What verse is that? And for that matter, what does that even mean?
No. Jesus said, follow Me. While salvation is a free gift by grace, it does require something of us.
There are a lot of phony preachers out there telling half the story. They tell of God’s love, His grace, and how He cares for each of us. Some even say we just need to name and claim whatever we want, and God will give it. As Bob Dylan once put it: “You think he’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.” This is a false Gospel.
The real story involves God’s holy Law, His commandments. We’ve all broken them. We are all sinners. When we come to understand this, we are convicted in our hearts. We realize that while we thought we were basically good people, we really deserve nothing from God but death, destruction, and eternal separation from Him. We are hopelessly lost and doomed forever. THEN, the good news – Christ took our punishment and made a way for us to be redeemed and saved – FORGIVEN!
What is required of us, then, to receive that salvation? We must repent – turn from our sinful ways and choose to follow Christ and His ways. We must put our faith in Jesus for our salvation, but it is repentance and faith that is required of us. Even the devil believes. We must also repent.
When we are truly saved, when we become real Christians, we will have repented of our old sinful lives. At this point, our lives change. We are transformed. You might even say we’re born again! Such a change will cause us to want to read Scripture every day (yes, every day, imagine that!) Well want to talk to the Lord (pray) throughout the day. We want to share our faith and minister to others. Well want to know God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Bottom line, folks, we’ll be different. Set apart. Sanctified. There will be no chance anyone could ever confuse us with unbelievers.
Without true repentance and true faith, there is no salvation. If you have salvation, your life will automatically be transformed. But you can’t obtain holiness without true repentance – and without real salvation, no new church program, book, DVD, or curriculum is going to instill holiness into you.
“We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, I know Him, but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him…whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2: 3,4,6).
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2: 15-17).
May we all examine our own hearts, repent, and turn to Christ in faith, now while there is still time. Amen!
