What is Your Price? ...the Wayfarer 2/17//17

What is Your Price?
 2/17//17

Mark 8:36

King James Version (KJV)

³⁶ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

I have heard time and again what purports to be an old proverb that every man has his price.

Unfortunately, that old proverb has held true for far too many, for far too long, for those who fail to comprehend the true price held within their bargain being made.

Some bargain cheaply for a hand full of pills, a bag full of crystals, vials of liquids that never provide what is sought through their use, and cannot do so, either in life, or, in the end, death, which is what was in reality the bargain made for such a cheap price.

Others gladly supply the things bargained for, willingly stating their price, as defined by the monetary gain to be had through that supply, also bargaining cheaply for their own value.

Men go through life constantly bartering, making decisions on the value of the things they see around them.

Work is traded for an agreed upon value that in turn is exchanged for needs and wants of the barterer, whether the value of either the work or the things produced through that work prove to hold the actual value promised.

No matter the actual value of what is acquired, once acquired the bargain has been consummated, decision made and followed through to its end.

Few are able  to request and obtain refund for products that once consumed cannot be returned.

Whether large or small, once a purchase is made, what has been spent for it cannot be expected to be returned, whether that price is monetary, of time expended, of effort expended, any value expended is in fact expended.

Too often lessons are learned through buyer's remorse that could have been avoided had true value of the expenditure been evident to the purchaser.

Thankfully some of these lessons CAN be learned rather than continuing to make the same exchanges over and over again... IF the purchaser observes and remembers the lessons given.

Trades have been made since the advent of mankind, more often than not taking far more value than any given in return as the glitter and glamor of false promise are taken in exchange for the initial true, and permanent promise and intent of our Creator.

Jesus faced the bargaining power of the one allowed to present the "values" contained in this world, but was not fooled by the glitter or glamor presented.

Matthew 4:1-11

King James Version (KJV)

4 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

² And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

³ And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

⁴ But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

⁵ Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

⁶ And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

⁷ Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

⁸ Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

⁹ And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

¹⁰ Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

¹¹ Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

The things used to tempt Jesus  are at the core of all that is faced by all men throughout the bargaining process that constitutes life itself.

Unlike so many before Him and after Him, He knew the value of what was being bargained for, and knew the lack of value of what was offered in exchange for it.

Nothing on this earth held comparable value to what was being asked of Him as He went through these tests, and all those tests that followed as he sealed the bargain with His Father for the priceless souls whose costs demanded that supreme value that could be expended only by Him.

He paid the price required for the value placed on those souls, for those willing to recognize the value of both what was being bartered for, and what was given in return for that value.

Every man does indeed have a price.

Every man must determine the value of what is paid and what is bought, and who is paying the price.

Price has been paid in full for all willing to see the value of what was paid, any other barters hold empty and valueless trinkets that cannot and will not supplant that final bargain, no matter how glittering, glamorous or desirable at the moment.

I would leave you with a single question.

What is YOUR price, and has payment been taken, and if so by whom?

2 Timothy 1:12

King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen

the Wayfarer