An
invitation is a written or verbal request inviting someone to go somewhere or
to do something. Have you ever been invited to a wedding or a bridal shower? Do
you remember that your invitation had an RSVP date? What the invitation really
meant was your presence at the event would be appreciated, but you have to
respond by the stated date. Otherwise it will be assumed that you were
uninterested or unavailable, and you’d not be included in the count.
Here’s
another example. Manufacturers are in business to make money, and their target
market is the public. After all, if we don’t buy their products, what will they
do with them, and how would they earn a living? It is common knowledge that competition
is fierce among manufacturers, so many of them use all kinds of advertisements
to draw sales away from their competitors.
One of the
strategies they use is price reduction—commonly known as sales. Another one is the
provision of coupons. What’s interesting about both strategies is that both are dated: they have expiration dates, forcing the
buyer to purchase products by the specified dates. If products are not
purchased by the expiration dates, the discounts no longer apply and one has to
pay full price for the products in question.
I don’t know
about you, but I feel like I’ve thrown money away when I let a coupon expire. Still,
I misplace them all the time, or forget that I even have them. In other words,
I don’t treat coupons as if they are as valuable as I say they are. The fortunate
thing in this situation is that the products will probably still be available, whether
or not there’s a sale or coupon; I just have to pay a bit more.
God loves us
and would like us to respond to Him. Although we are unaware of a specific date,
God’s invitation into a relationship with Him also has a time limit. That date is not readily available as one
might see on coupons, but I can assure you, your invitation to come to God
expires when you die, or when Jesus returns to earth, whichever comes first;
the Bible says so. God knows when, but we don’t, which is why each person needs
to take this invitation seriously and treat it with urgency. It is better to have
the assurance now that God has a place for you in heaven, rather than get to the
end only to find that your name is not on the list. What a disappointment and
loss that would be!
Having
explained time limits, let me explain God’s invitation again. Through the disobedience
of Adam and Eve, our first parents, sin was passed on to us. That sin caused a
separation between God and man. In order to restore that relationship, Jesus
died to pay the price for our sin. God’s love through the death of His Son,
Jesus, is enough to cover every single person, but each person has to choose
what they want. God will not force salvation on anyone, neither is He going to
wait forever while people toil with the idea of loving God or something else. People
have to take responsibility for their sins and make plans for their eternal
future. Living now without faith in Jesus means living in eternity later
without God: in other words, living in hell. Using the word hell is not a scare
tactics; it is the truth, and should be addressed as such. Sugar-coating it or
calling it by any other name won’t change what it is. Jesus’ invitation to you
is, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father
except through me” (John 14:6 NLT).
How will you
respond to this invitation? Time is running out every day that passes. You
probably don’t have as much time as you think. This is God’s assurance when you
repent and put your faith in Jesus, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the
Christ has become a child of God” (1 John 5:1 NLT), and “I have written this to
you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have
eternal life” (1 John 5:13 NLT). Respond to this invitation before it’s too
late for you!
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