Prison Ministries

Read 1 Peter 1, Psalm 107
Don’t Lose Your Claim Check

“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God?” Job 19:5-26 NLT

When we carry our claim check in our heart we can be sure that a glad welcome awaits our eternal home in heaven which Christ has gone ahead to prepare for all of His redeemed.

Claim Checks have long been the means for redeeming baggage and hocked items from pawn shops, cloak rooms, and laundries. The old saying “no ticket, no laundry” became a watchword for safeguarding your claim checks.

When it comes to redeeming our souls, it takes more than a cardboard ticket. It takes the washing away of sin and death by faith in the blood of Jesus, which is evidenced by a new birth through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, He was in effect saying “no laundry, no ticket!” Unless we wash away our sins in the blood of the Lamb, we will never know the peace and joy of eternal life now and forever.

In addition to being made clean in God’s sight, the Holy Spirit begins the life long process of cleansing, sustaining, and empowering us to become more like Christ in our everyday life.

The transformed life is the outward evidence that we have been redeemed and born again into the freedom and new life in Christ. Our conduct should reflect the inward cleansing of our hearts that only happens when our belief moves from our heads to our hearts. Scripture makes it very clear that all who profess faith are saved. If we are merely hearers of the Word who only “talk the talk” without “walking the walk,” Jesus will say He never knew us.

Father, may you never be ashamed to call me one of your redeemed. In Jesus’ name, Amen