Permanent Membership

Have you ever thought you had a membership card to your favorite store or gas station, but when it came time to present it for your discounted purchase, it’s nowhere to be found in your wallet or billfold?

Or, you may be making an online purchase, or booking a flight or hotel, and the box pops up to enter your club ID, and you search all your belongings in the house, plus your “secret” files of important information….but your Privileges Number comes up mysteriously missing!  Ugh! There goes 15, 20, even 25% off the regular price!  What a missed opportunity to save!

Just the other day, I was searching for the best possible deal on a hotel for a little family weekend getaway, and found an incredible rate for a certain auto club for which I just knew I was a member!  I turned the house nearly upside down, looking in all my many carry-cases and folders of important “stuff”….only to find an expired, flimsy, temporary paper replica.  No official card could be found anywhere!

Well, being in the desperate, self-inflicted state of frenzy I had gotten myself into through my absent-mindedness, I determined I had reached that bottom line that any technology nut occasionally (tho’ reluctantly) falls to….I had to call the travel company’s customer service line.  Knowing my membership card was undoubtedly buried in a garbage heap somewhere by now, and seeing that the provisional one was now outdated, it was my last-ditch effort.

With only enough faith to “give it a try”, I expected to hear the dreaded words, “Sir, you will have to buy a new membership.  Yours has expired.”  But instead, to my shocking surprise, the nice CSR lady on the phone joyfully replied, “Mr. Elkins, I’ve found your registration information, and am pleased to tell you that you have a permanent membership”!  After what seemed like a speechless minute, I accepted this quite unexpected but pleasant news and finally exclaimed, “Oh, that’s terrific, thank you, Miss!”, and proceeded to then apply my discount to my online booking!

Almost instantly, the Holy Spirit then poured out a breathtaking, heavenly blessing on this undeserving boy.  He reminded me that Jesus did exactly that when He gave His life on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave 3 days later….He granted me Permanent Membership in Heaven and adopted me into the Family of God by faith in his all-sufficient sacrifice!  That’s terrific!  No, wait, that’s more than terrific…that is the most awesome promise I could ever receive!

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” – Ephesians 1:13

Because of my sin, I had lost my rights to benefit from God’s glory and riches.  But when He sealed me by His Grace the day I trusted Jesus as my Savior, I was given a Permanent Membership Card, one that can never be misplaced again!

Now there’s some wonderful news!!