Headed to the Redemption Center … again.

Are you old enough to remember Green stamps?

If you are a baby-boomer like me, I’m sure you remember your parents getting these special stamps for buying products at a variety of stores. Gas stations, grocery stores and all kinds of retail outlets would give you these little green stamps after a purchase. And, the more you bought, the more stamps you got!

The stamps were essentially money and came in a variety of denominations. They were usually single cent stamps, but there were also 50 and 100 cent stamps—those were really cool. In my home, these stamps would be stored in a designated shoebox until it was overflowing. At that point, my mom would bribe my sister or me to begin the pasting process.

To cash in your stamps, you had to paste them into special Green Stamp books—100 per page. Having learned the hard way that licking was only for novices, I would wet a sponge and begin. In time, a handful of books—full of stamps and bloated from moisture—was ready to be transported to the nearest, all-important “redemption center”.

Now the redemption center was not a church, but folks were pretty religious about this stuff. No, the redemption center, as it was called, was where the stamps could be redeemed or exchanged for something of equal value based on the number of books completed. Man, I loved to head to the redemption center with a pile of books; the place was jammed with goodies I wanted. To this day, I still remember fighting with my mom and sister about what to buy.

But when I turned 17, I learned what real redemption was all about.

That’s when a mentor explained to me that redemption literally means to “buy back,” and that is exactly what God has done for me (and you). Having been tossed out of the Garden of Eden because of my arrogance and pride (Genesis 3), God exchanged the precious blood of His Son, Jesus, for the freedom of my soul. Calvary, the place where Jesus died, is the real redemption center!

True freedom, therefore, depends totally on the redemptive power of God. Apart from Him, we are singularly focused on, enslaved to, and trapped by our own agenda and sin. But fortunately, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Jesus—a servant to God’s will—makes our escape from the prison of self-interest possible. We are free to turn our backs on the world and its grip on our lives through God’s grace. Praise!

This is my 39th Easter Week—my favorite week of the year. My hope and prayer is that it will be a joy-filled season for you as well. And don’t forget; our redemption center, known as Covenant, will have special services on Thursday night at 7pm, Friday at 11am and identical weekend services (with a family eggstravaganza following Saturday night’s service).

Thankful for Grace,
Charlie