Plain to Read

TITLE: Plain to Read
DATE: March 28, 2019
TEXTS: John 3:16  -ESV - 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Ephesians 2:8-9  - (ESV) - 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

There is a travel insurance company in Georgia operating under the unlikely name of Squaremouth.

Recently Squaremouth Insurance did something absolutely unique. They conducted a contest….a secret contest. And just what is a Secret Contest?”A secret Contest is a Contest where they don’t tell anyone the rules, the prize, how to play until some person has won…and most importantly, they don’t tell anyone the contest is being held.

I think I had better explain. When Squaremouth sends out one of their travel insurance policies, there is a lot of fine print.
There is a lot of fine print which the folks at Squaremouth are pretty sure nobody reads. In an attempt to find out the truth Squaremouth got creative. What Squaremouth did was this: deep in the small print of their policies they inserted a paragraph…a paragraph describing their contest.

The prize was $10,000 to be given to the first person who sent an email to a specific address

Well, Squaremouth was wrong…somebody did read the fine print. 23-hours after the contest began, Donelan Andrews, a Georgia High School Teacher, claimed the prize. Squaremouth took the rewards a few steps further.

Not only did they give the Teacher $10,000, they also gave $5,000 to the two schools where Donelan had been teaching and finally $10,000 to a charity for Children’s Literacy

It all goes to prove there are times it pays to reads the fine print.

Of course there are also times when there is no fine print.

Look at the two Bible Passages at the head of today’s devotion. There is no fine print; there is no mumbo jumbo; there is no party of the first part and there certainly can be no accusation that the Lord is less than clear.

Although it is maybe going a bit far, you  could probably take away the rest of the Bible, but in these two verses you are told how you can be rescued from sin, death and hell.

Not only do we find out we are doomed and damned, we are also told the Lord wants to save us. To that purpose, on His own, He put forth a plan, the only effective plan which can alter our eternal destinies.  

Most of all, we are told it is only through faith in God’ perfect Son who has taken our place under the law, that we are forgiven and adopted into the family of faith.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, when it comes to our dealings with our fellow human beings it is a wise thing to “read the fine print.” We need to protect ourselves from those who would mislead and betray us. On the other hand, when it comes to the salvation provided by the Triune God, there is no fine print, no misleading language. Which is why I rejoice that I am saved through my Savior, God’s perfect Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name I pray. Amen.

Today’s devotion was inspired by various articles, amongst which is the one written .by Newser editor on March 213, 2017.   Those who wish may check out this link which was, at the time of writing, fully active: http://www.newser.com/story/272223/she-read-the-fine-print-and-got-an-easy-10k.html

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html