Free Toner Cartridges?

By Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg

When I saw "Laser toner cartridges - free" and the email was from my friend, I was sure someone had hi-jacked his email name and used it for a pfishing expedition to try and scam me or anyone else who would bite.

Just to be sure I hovered over my friend’s name to see if there was a scam email beneath it, but to my surprise it seemed it really was from him, so I read the email.

I’m from Missouri

But I was still totally skeptical. After all I am from Missouri (literally and emotionally) so I don’t usually believe anything that sounds too good to be true. It turns out however, that sometimes there really is a "Free Lunch"!

As it happens my friend had bought a new laser printer and had new cartridges he had been buying in bulk for ten years. He still had three, but he could no longer use them because they didn’t fit his new printer. Rather than trash them and fill the dump with something valuable, he sent emails to his friends to see if anyone could use them.

So, as I said earlier, sometimes there really is a free lunch—but only I may add, if someone else pays the bill.

This is not the first time this has happened to me and the other time was even more significant than free toner cartridges. I was a sinner, separated from God. I was mired in the shame of my ungodly behavior and un-Christ-like attitude. I didn’t deserve forgiveness or the removal of my sin and shame, but Jesus Christ had already paid the bill for my forgiveness. All I had to do was accept it as a free gift from God!

Having grown up in the church I had been taught this for years so I already knew it to be true, but it was so much more amazing when I could apply this truth to my own situation. I thought God was mad at me for my bad attitude and behavior. It only made sense that I had to do something to earn forgiveness, but no!

Salvation really is a free lunch!

Salvation is a free lunch only because before the world was created God planned for our forgiveness. It’s free to us only because Jesus Christ, God’s Son paid a terribly high price to make it available, not only to me, but to every person on planet earth.

If you haven’t yet accepted God’s forgiveness, know this: God has already forgiven you because Jesus paid the price for your salvation!

That’s what I call really, really, really, “Good News!”

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s

My View

from Tanner Creek.