How annoying! I was really ticked off. Getting a delivery of mulch dropped off on the nature strip makes sense. I have nowhere else to drop it off. If I drop it in my driveway it will stain the concrete. I can’t access any part of my property and have no spot to unload it, apart from the nature strip.

Getting a letter from the local council advising me that I am in breach of the law was a shock. Move it, or lose it… and a $2,000 fine for breaking the law! I was a law-breaker.

But I didn’t know! How’s that fair? But my local council applies the principle of grace…I was given 1 week to move it or the penalty would apply.

I did. They didn’t. And I am now conscious of that particular law.

In the same way, God deals with mankind. He has given us, and makes us conscious of, His laws through the Holy Bible.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Romans 3:19,20

The law was there specifically to make us conscious of our sin. And the penalty for sinning is death!

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

But just as I had broken the council’s law, and fell short as being a model citizen, their grace allowed me to make right the wrong, and once again I am righteous (right in their eyes), and all is forgiven.

In the same way, God makes a way for me to be righteous again in His sight.

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:23-26

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
Acts 13:38,39

The council gave me 1 week to make it right with them or the penalty would apply.

In the same way, God gives us our lifetime to make it right with Him. For when we die, it’s time up! We go to face Him and He will judge us accordingly.

Just as the council gave me a way out so as not to pay the penalty, so does God – it is called Salvation. And Salvation is available to you too… but don’t take too long to take up the offer for the deadline is approaching.