Tell Me a Story: Devotions From Time of Grace MinistrySample

STORY #1: Permanence Our culture is based on the concept of second chances. After all, is not America itself based on the dream so eloquently articulated by Emma Lazarus’ poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore”? Millions of immigrants came here to start over. Students always pester their teachers for bonus points, test retakes, and extra credit. My own mediocre golf scores would be even worse if I didn’t persuade the other guys in my foursome to let me have a couple mulligans per 18 holes. There are no do-overs after God has made his decisions. There will be no court of appeals. No hung juries. No mistrials. No stays of execution. It will be too late for petitions for executive clemency. Abraham replied, “Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us” (Luke 16:26). As you believe, so you will live. As you live, so you will be judged. As you are judged, so you will be placed. As you are placed, so you will remain.