1 Corinthians 6 verse 20 says, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s."

Several years ago I purchased a lawn mower at the beginning of spring. The mower was shiny and clean, started up just great and made nice smooth cuts across the grass. Well next spring rolled around and a little of the newness had worn off but the mower still performed quite well. As springtime continued to come and go the mower started looking old and worn, losing it's luster. It became harder to start and even harder to keep going. The ability to cut smoothly was lost as well. I imagine your starting to figure out what was happening to that lawn mower. I neglected to perform the proper maintenance that was required in the owner's manual. Therefore, it soon quit working all together. I would venture to say that something like this has happened to just about everyone at some time or another.

Just as the lawn mower quit working because of neglected maintenance, all to often this happens to Christians as well. After becoming saved we begin to grow, becoming shiny, anxious to make great accomplishments in our service, and eager to smoothly cut those things out of our lives that should not be there. But, without taking care of our Christianity by performing proper maintenance, we become rusty, unmotivated in our testimony to the lost. We let things slip back into our lives that should not be there.

We need to remember that the Lord bought us with a price and in order for us to properly glorify Him to others, we must keep ourselves from becoming corruptible just as the unmaintenanced lawn mower did.

II Timothy 2 verse 15 reads, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." As Christians we must stay in the word of God performing the proper maintenance on our Christianity in order to maintain our testimony. We can always go out and buy a new mower to replace the corrupted one, but we can't go out and buy a new testimony. Read your owners manual (the word of God) and perform the required maintenance lest we begin to fall away.

REMEMBER...The Lord purchased us. We come with an owners manual. Regular maintenance is REQUIRED!


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