At the Saturday night singing we go to known as Gospel Jubilee, one of the musicians told the story of the old country song, "Release Me." He said the hit was written by his cousin, who later gave his heart to the Lord. A few years before he died, the author re-wrote the song with Christian lyrics, which the singer proceeded to sing for us, the first line being, "Please release me from my sin," and ending with something like, "Release me to sin no more."
"Wasn't that something about that song?" I remarked to my husband when we got home, to which he replied, "My CQ in Basic Training used to give me a week-end pass if I would play the guitar and sing that for him." Surprise! I had never heard that before!
"Yes," Howard went on, "It happened several times. I got a lot of free passes that way," telling of his army experiences in the fifties. I guess there are always new things to learn about your husband!
The next day we drove up to our son's house and found them sitting outside watching the girls shoot arrows off the deck. "Wow! Where did you get those cool bows?" I asked, seeing the large, rustic bows, glistening and smooth with bark removed. "Did your dad make them for you?" He had, and they were quite an upgrade from the dollar store versions I'd seen them playing with before.
Seeing them send the arrows flying over the pasture land surrounding their country location made me remark, "Now you look like Indians!" then laughing because of course, the kids are Indians and were adopted from the Ponca Indian tribe!
I thought of the time when one of our grandsons was little, and he told me over the phone about his new bow and arrow. I shared his excitement, asking, "Did you get a target?" and his answer was, "No, I didn't get it at Target, I got it at Walmart!"
Sin is often described as "missing the mark." The aforementioned song writer realized before it was too late that he had missed the mark with his life and thankfully made heaven his target for the rest of his days.
Satan promises many free passes in the temptation to sin, only to pierce one's soul with its consequences, for James 1:15 says, "Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
We'd had communion at church that morning and were reminded that the fruit of the vine we drank from represented the blood Jesus shed for us, so as to be forever adopted into His family, becoming heirs and joint heirs with Him, even as our grandchildren are now legal heirs of their father's estate. Now that's a free pass!
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