2007 Mercury Grand Marque

The Giveaway

     My wife, because of some spinal issues that had limited her mobility, got to the place where was doing only a small amount of driving by herself. So we decided to sell our older car that she had been driving. It was somewhat a classic car being almost 16 years old. It had only 117,000 miles on it with almost new tires and had been fairly well kept. The body was also in pretty good condition and a nice design. I had it waxed and cleaned it up and even bought some new front floor mats for it. I put a "For Sale" sign on the window and parked it on the street next to our house. I received a number of calls from people who were interested in buying it. However, no one wanted to pay what I thought that it was worth. I had actually lowered the price by $1,000 from what I had originally wanted to sell it for. As several weeks past and I continued to pray about lowering the price further, I came to believe that God wanted us to give it away to a friend who had had a very hard life and could use the car. However, before I did anything, I checked with with my wife and she said that see was thinking the same thing. That was a confirmation to me.

    Now you would think that it would be easy just to sign the title and it would be done. Yes, I knew that he would also have go to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and sign some papers as well for the transfer to be complete. However, when I took the individual to get the transfer done, we found out that he needed his driving license as identification. However, the individual had let his driving license expire some years ago and also the license was from out of the state. He had a copy of his Birth Certificate, but it was so beat up and worn that no one would accept it. The Birth Certificate was also from out of state. He tried several times over several days by phone to get hold of the correct office in the small town where he was born. Finally, he did got hold of the correct person, then he had to fill out some personal information and send it back with a money order as a fee and wait for the office to sent him a copy of his Birth Certificate. 

    Then using the new copy of his Birth Certificate he contacted the office for the Department of Motor Vehicles and discovered that he had to renew his information from out of state to his new address. In this, he also had to validate his new current address. He is making progress right? Well that was one more thing. When he went to see about taking his driving test at the Texas Department of Pubic Safety, they found out that he owed a fair amount of money for tickets that he had previously received. This meant that he could go no further without paying the amount or go to jail. I then had to drive him to another location to go before a Judge to pay the fines. The problem was that he didn’t have the money to pay the accumulated fines. However, the Judge was generous enough to allow him to work off fines by doing community service. He got a job with a Christian store which sold used goods and did about a week’s worth of work. 

    So he was another step closer to taking his test. Now, he had to sign up and using my computer to watch several videos on distractions such as texting, talking, and not paying attention when you are driving. There was also material about drugs and alcohol that cause wrecks, major injuries, and even deaths. I then drove him to the Texas DMV and waited in my car for him to take the written driving test first and he passed it. Good. The next day I took him to take the actual driving test, but he failed it. So again, the next day I took him back again and this time he passed. Praise the Lord. Now is everything done? No, he had to get insurance for the car that I was giving to him, so I had to take him to car insurance agent's office. Next, he had go back to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to get the title transferred. I had already signed the title when we were first started the process a several weeks earlier, so I just waited again in my car.

    Please understand, I had been escorting him back and forth cross town to the various offices, helping him to use my computer to get various identifications sent to various locations, had to wait in my car while he was trying to get things accomplished, and even loaned him some money to get some to cover some of the issues.

    Yes, in all this, God was teaching him not to procrastinate about taking care of his life. He also noted that I hadn't gotten angry about having to face all the issues delaying the process. However, through all this, I was asking God why I needed to go through this process with him. The following is what God revealed to me.

God revealed to me a beautiful picture of our salvation in Jesus.


1. Salvation is a GIFT and God wants to give us eternal life and many other things that would accompany it.
2. God has already signed the papers in the Bible to give away eternal life.
3. We only have to to accept Jesus as our Lord and savior to receive the gift of eternal life.
4. We don’t have to pay a fee to have the transfer made for us to receive eternal life.
5. We don’t have a previous license of living in the kingdom of God.
6. When we receive eternal life, there is no expiration date or renewal date on eternal life as with our driving license or car tags. God renews us every day.
7. We don’t have proof of our identity with a Birth Certificate. God knew us before we were born.
8. We don’t have to validate our past or current address. Our new address will be in Heaven.
9. We don’t have to acknowledge our gender in order to enter the kingdom of God. There is neither male or female in the kingdom.
10. We don’t have to check a certain race box. Jesus died for all people.
11. We don’t have to pay for any past violations to receive eternal life. Jesus has already done that for us.
12. We don’t have to get insurance before we receive eternal life. We get the insurance of the Holy Spirit when we receive Jesus as Lord.
13. We don’t have to have other people to validate who we are before we receive eternal life.
14. We don’t have to have any kind of experience of living the Christian life before we receive eternal life.
15. We don’t have to take a test on how many Scriptures that we have memorized to be saved.
16. We don’t have to be baptized as an infant or even as an adult to receive eternal life.
17. We don’t have to be a part of a mosque, temple, synagogue or specific church to be born again.
18. We don’t have to know or keep all the laws 613 laws found in Scripture to receive eternal life.
19. We don’t have to go knocking on a number of doors witnessing to be accepted in the kingdom of God.
20. We don’t have to make reparation for all the sins of our parents or grandparents to receive eternal life    .
21. We don’t have to know all the catechisms of the religion to receive eternal life.
22. We don’t have to take of the Lord’s Supper or Communion to receive eternal life.
23. We don’t have to know Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or Aramaic to receive eternal life.
24. We don’t have to speak in tongues or cast out demons to receive eternal life.
25 We don’t have to travel to Mecca, the Holy Land, or Rome to receive eternal life.
26. We don’t have to handle poisonous snakes to receive eternal life.
27. We don’t have to bow down before an image of anyone to receive eternal life.
28. We don’t have to be in a certain physical position as kneeling with our eyes closed to receive eternal life.
29. We don’t have to be in a monastery, seminary, or even a church building to pray and be saved.
30. We don’t have to be with other people when we receive eternal life.
31. We don’t have to be free of tattoos or have tattoos.
32. We don't have to have on certain physical clothes to enter the kingdom of God
33. We don't have to be a specific race or skin color to receive eternal life.
34. We don't have to have or not have facial hair or other hair to receive eternal life.
Some Scriptural References

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

“For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise”  (Galatians 3:18).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”  (Romans 6:23).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John12:32).

“And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32). .


salvation menu