At What Cost?





          A little over four months ago, my wife and I bought our very first 
house. We are in our mid forties, been married for over 24 years and have 
never had a house before. Cindy, my wife, handles most of our money matters 
and does an excellent job. So when it came time to decide whether we could 
really afford this house Cindy had a great deal of input in making the final 
decision. The mortgage payments are significantly higher than the rent we 
were paying making the purchase decision an extremely important one. In the 
end we decided to have the house built (by our friend Don) and so far we are 
extremely satisfied with the results. However, there is a down side. Both of 
us are working more hours at our jobs than before. Cindy especially even 
sought out ways to increase her income and was rewarded with the opportunity 
to work extra hours and thus a larger paycheck. She now has less time to do 
her chores at home, and much less time to do the things she really enjoys 
doing. Is this home worth the extra effort we both put in? Is it worth the 
huge mortgage we now owe? Is it worth the decreased time I have to spend 
with my wife? Yes!

          There is something worth even more to me though than this house. 
It is something that I have not paid for and in fact someone else paid the 
purchase price. The price for this "thing" was higher than any amount of 
money that I will ever have in my life time.  This "thing" I am talking 
about is the church. Only within the church do any of us have a hope of 
salvation. Consider what the Bible has to say about the church in Acts 
20:28. There the apostle Paul is speaking to the elders of the Ephesian 
church and tells them "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in 
which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord 
which he purchased with his own blood." Christ paid the greatest price 
anyone could ever pay; a price far beyond the cost of any new house. 
Ephesians 5:28 declares that ".Christ also is the head of the church, being 
himself the saviour of the body." The church, being composed of those 
faithful to God, is the place where one has to be in order to gain entrance 
into heaven. Salvation lies in no other place except the church. Christ paid 
the cost of our salvation. Was it worth the price that He paid? Indeed our 
Father thinks so: ".knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible 
things. but with precious blood, as of a lamb without spot, even the blood 
of Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but 
was manifested at the end of times for your sake, who through him are 
believers in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that 
your faith and hope might be in God" (1Pe 1:18-21). The church was worth the 
cost that Christ paid. All of us owe Him a debt we can never repay. But we 
can begin by being faithful to His word in obedience to the truth. It will 
be worth anything you may have to give up.





 In Christ, Steve Preston





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