Jan.17.03: Light For The Day - "No Bargain, No Barter" -- Isaiah 55:1 (NIVUS) "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." -------------------------- God does not bargain with us, nor can we barter with Him.He hold our eternal salvation in His omnipotent hand, and He bids us take it as a free gift, "without money and without price." Yet this is hard for us to accept. Surely something as precious as salvation must cost us greatly! Surely God must demand we work for it! But that is wrong -- and the reason is because the price has already been paid! Salvation is free - but it wasn't cheap. It cost the dear Son of God His very life. Only cheap, tawdry things have a price tag on them. The best things in life are free -- the air we breathe, the stars at night, the wonder of human love. But the greatest gift of all is our salvation, purchased for us by Jesus Christ. "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Cor.9:15) -- Billy Graham --------------------- -- John 3:16 (NIVUS) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -- Ephesians 2:8,9 (NIVUS) "8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast." -- 1 John 4:8-10 (NIVUS) "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."