Between the time I drive my son to his job, and the time I pick up my granddaughter, Shandi, from school, I have about an hour and a half to baby sit my grandson, Eli.
When I don�t have to go back home and put a new diaper on my two year old grandson, I take him to the public library. He loves this place. Sometimes, not too often, there will be a �Story Hour,� where someone will read to a group of small children. Sometimes he will stand in amazement at the fish in a tank in the children�s section. Sometimes he will �talk� with the bird that sits in a cage in the middle of the room.
Normally, however, he will just go through the toys that are set about for the young ones. Since he�s pretty good about picking up after himself (He�s even been known to pick up after other children when they�ve left the toys they�ve played with on the floor!), I try to encourage this effort of his.
Every time Grandpa thinks he�s going to just sit in the rocking chair in the center of the room and read. Ain�t ever going to happen with this little two year old bundle of energy to watch!
Always, however, Eli tires of the toys, the bird and the fish. Then he will come and take my hand to drag me over to the large doll house that stands near the rear entrance to the children�s section.
Eli loves this doll house. He has named almost all of the �people� in this house. There is Shandi and Eli; there is Mom and Dad. There is Grandpa. There are a couple more that he has named after his cousin�s. He�s even named the dogs and cats after his own pets.
He draws my attention to the �yard� of the house. He finds the mailbox and a tricycle out there. He has found a tree that he�d like to play on. But, he has also found that there is no grass in the yard. The entire display is set upon a piece of wood that isn�t even painted green.
This always bothers Eli. He doesn�t find everything the way he�d like it to be. He can easily imagine playing in the house. But, he doesn�t want to go into that �yard.� It�s just not right.
It is a beautiful world which God has created and given to us. But, all is just not right. �For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.� (Romans 3:23)
Eli wants to paint that wooden yard green. He would really like to have some �grass� out there. He wants this house to be as he believes it should.
God wants us to be as we should. He can do better than �paint� your heart pure. He can plant the �Seed� which will make your heart and life acceptable to Him. Jesus offers you full salvation from your sins based on His Own work at Calvary. Not your work; His!
Accept Him today.
NICE COAT
At one time I had a job of pizza delivery for Domino�s Pizza. Since it was winter when I did this job, and I didn�t like the idea of being cold, I bought and paid for a special Domino�s Pizza Delivery Winter Coat.
The coat was a very good coat. It had ample pockets for all the �stuff� we needed to carry and it was very warm. It was such a good coat, as was reasonable since their pizza is also very good!, that I have kept it even though I am no longer employed by that particular pizza company.
Last winter I was wearing the coat while Ethan and I did some chores about town. When we decided to eat we went to a Pizza Hut restaurant. Now, Domino�s is a very good pizza, as is Pizza Hut. The attraction to the Pizza Hut was that they have indoor seating for meals while Domino�s does not.
From the time we entered the establishment all eyes were upon me. It was really weird. The waitress looked at me. The other customer�s looked at me. Even the delivery staff, which came and went during our stay in the booth for our meal, would look over my way.
Towards the end of the meal it dawned on my why I was the center of attention. I had thought that the people just had good taste and wanted to see me. That wasn�t the case. The real attraction here was that, in the middle of a Pizza Hut Restaurant, I was the only person who was wearing a Domino�s Pizza Delivery Coat.
People must have thought that I was either a spy or very disloyal to my employer.
I guess it did look strange.
It is also important how we are clothed spiritually. �I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robes of righteousness...� (Isaiah 61:10)
What about you? Are you still wearing the garments of Satan? Have you asked God to give you that new Robe of Righteousness? Notice that this does not come from our own work; it is a robe given us by God.
Salvation is a free gift that God wants you to have. Why not simply accept Him, and His gift, today.
Each week we will attempt, God willing, to include two new tracts, or copies of older "best off" tracts. These are generally short salvation illustrations drawn from real life and backed by Inspired Scritpure.