Redeemed

 

When I was ten years old, my brother and I would walk to the little neighborhood grocery store.  Except it wasn’t in OUR neighborhood, it was in another neighborhood.  Miss Tilly was a stern lady.  She had her tiny little front porch enclosed into a little room that was called a store.  Things were expensive, but she was close, and we had to pay her price.  My younger brother and I would walk about three miles to her store, beginning with no money in our pockets.  We would collect glass soda bottles along the way, hopefully collecting enough to pay for the two bottles of pop (one for me and one for Phillip).  When we got to Miss Tilley’s, she would “redeem” the bottles and pay us for them.  Then we would buy two bottles of soda pop and give her the same money back and begin the long walk back home.  That word “redeem” is an interesting word.  Peter said that we as sinners were “redeemed” by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  In I Peter 1:18&9 he said, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”  Jesus redeemed us with his very life!  What a sacrifice!  Jesus didn’t just buy a couple of bottles of soda pop, He bought our souls and set us free!  Free to serve the One we love: Jesus Christ!  Hey, have you let Jesus redeem you?  He will, if you but ask Him.  Do it now without delay!  You’ll be glad that you did.