Oh dear, I seem to have got on the wrong side of the Polokwane Municipality. On the cover of my rates invoices for January and February there is a fiercely worded notice headed: “FORMAL NOTICE (TERMINATION OF SUPPLY)”. In the text that follows it is noted that there is an overdue balance and that the water /electricity supply to my property will be disconnected after 14 days.
When you look inside, the invoice it correctly lists regular payments and no arrears. Then again it is curious to note that I do not receive water or electricity from the municipality at my smallholding, nor does the municipality remove refuse or even scrape the dreadful access road. Perhaps everyone gets the threatening notice as a matter of course. It’s good to know that we’re all equally guilty or perhaps some especially naughty people are in arrears with their municipal accounts, but will be lost in the general accusation.
On a much more serious level, the Bible states that all people are guilty of falling short of God’s standards and deserve punishment. When we look about and listen to the news, there is little doubt that mankind has fallen very low indeed. If we examine our own lives and thoughts carefully, we may have to concur with the judgement of the guilty. The blessed good news is that our loving Father God caused Jesus to take the punishment we all deserve upon himself. Only Jesus, who came from the Father in heaven to share our humanity but not our evil ways, could be the sacrifice that allows us to escape our penalty at the final judgement and gives us the assurance of eternal life with him.
To benefit from this gracious gift of our Father, we need to understand who Jesus is, to believe in Him and to allow Him to wash us clean from our wrong actions as we lay them out before Him.
With His forgiveness comes a new peace and joy and a chance to accept Him as our Lord to love and obey. The promise is: “To all who received
Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
I may not get mercy from Polokwane, but as a child of God, “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever”. (Psalm 23:6)
