Bartering

Do you know what bartering is? No? Well, how about trading? I used to do a lot of that as a kid. The common currency of my childhood was baseball cards.

Today things are different, the stakes higher. "I'll trade you half a year's salary for a shiny new car." But the concept is still the same.

We trade something WE have for something somebody else has.

Today I am installing some cabinet doors for a friend. In return they are creating some graphics for a project I am working on. No money is exchanging hands. There is no tax paid to the government. Yet we are both getting something we desire, or need.

"So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses and the flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he fed them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year." - Genesis 47:17

Jesus offers a trade for each of us in this life, and it's a pretty sweet deal. OUR sins for HIS righteousness. You see, you and I, we are all sinners. The punishment for sin is death in God's eyes. However Jesus has offered up Himself as payment for our sins - a more than worthy sacrifice for the sinful things we have done.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:45

All that we have to do to complete the deal is to place our faith and trust in Jesus. He has already laid His "trading cards" on the table. The question is . . . are we willing to pick them up and trade Him our obedience?