"Go with me to the concert this afternoon," said a city salesman to a new assistant at the warehouse.
"I cannot," was the reply. "My time is not my own. It belongs to my employers during business hours.”
The next Sunday afternoon the same salesman said to the young warehouse clerk: "Go with us and have a good time today.”
The same reply came: "I cannot; my time is not my own. It belongs to the One who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
Years passed, and the young clerk was near the end of the pathway he had consistently followed for the glory of God. He had risen to an excellent place in business, and life lay fair before him. But now that life was fast ebbing away. "Are you ready to go?" asked a friend.
"Certainly," was the triumphant answer. "I have sought to obey God and to live for Him. He has directed me thus far, and I am in His hands. —My time is not my own.”
"We thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." 2 Cor. 5:14,1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15).
"THERE IS NONE
THAT SEEKETH
AFTER GOD."
"THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO
SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT
WHICH WAS LOST."