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DIECAST Collectible
Model Cars And More
| Item# |
Description |
Stock
Status |
 |
Mattel Hot Wheels - Ferrari 599XX Hard Top #3 (1:18, Red) V7432/9964 |
New |
 |
Mattel Hot Wheels Batman - TV Series Batman's Batmobile (1966, 1:18, Black) W1171/9964 |
New |
 |
Mattel Hot Wheels - Ferrari 599XX Hard Top #27 (1:18, Blue) W1774/9964 |
New |
 |
Mattel Hot Wheels - Ferrari 599XX Hard Top #20 (1:18, Matt Grey) W8504/9964 |
New |
 |
Welly Premium - Ford Mustang Coupe Hard Top (1964 1/2, 1:18, Black) 12519H |
Restock |
 |
Welly Premium - Ford Mustang Hard Top (1964-1/2, 1:18, Red) 12519H |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Volkswagen Classical Bus (1962, 1:18, Red) 12531 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Land Rover Range Rover SUV w/ Sunroof (2003, 1:18, Black) 12536 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet El Camino SS 396 Pickup Truck (1970, 1:18, Black) 12543 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet El Camino SS 396 Pickup Truck (1970, 1:18, Red) 12543 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Camaro SS Hard Top (1968, 1:18, White) 12556 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Hard Top (1972, 1:18, Blue) 12566 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Porsche 911 (997) GT3 Hard Top (1:18, Red) 18024R |
New |
 |
Welly - BMW X6 Hard Top (1:18, White) 18031 |
New |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Corvette Convertible (1999, 1:18, Red) 19840 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Ford F1 Pick Up Truck (1951, 1:18, Green) 19847 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Ford F1 Pick Up Truck (1951, 1:18, Red) 19847 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Mini Cooper Hard Top (1:18, Red) 19851 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevy Chevelle SS 454 Hard Top (1970, 1:18, Silver) 19855 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Impala Convertible (1963, 1:18, Black) 19865 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Impala Convertible (1963, 1:18, White) 19865C |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Impala Hard Top (1963, 1:18, Black) 19865H |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Impala Hard Top (1963, 1:18, Red) 19865H |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Chevrolet Fleetmaster (1948, 1:24, Dark Brown) 22083 |
New |
 |
Welly - Land Rover Defender w/ Sunroof (1:24, White) 22498 |
New |
 |
Welly - Back to the Future II DeLorean Time Machine (1:24, Silver) 22441 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine (1:24, Silver) 22443 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Back to the Future III DeLorean Time Machine (1:24, Silver) 22444 |
Restock |
 |
Welly - Audi R8 Hard Top (1:24, Matt Black) 22493 |
New |
 |
Welly - Porsche 911 (997) GT3 Hard Top (1:24, Black) 22495 |
New |
 |
Welly - Porsche 911 (997) GT3 Hard Top (1:24, White) 22495 |
New |
 |
Welly - BMW X6 Hard Top (1:24, Red) 24004 |
New |
 |
Welly - BMW X6 Hard Top (1:24, White) 24004 |
New |
 |
Welly - London Bus Open Top (4.75, Red.) 99930CW |
New |
 |
Welly - London Bus Hard Top (4.75", Red) 99930HW |
New |
 |
Welly - Construction Vehicles (8", Asstd.) 9280D |
Restock |
 |
Jada Toys Dub City - Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Hard Top (1:24, Black) 92082UA |
Restock |
 |
Jada Toys Heat - Chevy Camaro SS Highway Patrol (2010, 1:24, Black) 96090 |
Restock |
 |
Jada Toys Dub City - Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 (1:24, Black) 92081 |
Restock |
 |
Jada Toys Bigtime Muscle - Chevy Camaro SS Hard Top (2010, 1:24, Asstd.) 92488 |
Restock |
 |
Castline M2 Machines Auto-Thentics - Release 18 (1:64, Asstd.) 31500/18 |
New |
American Diorama
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Thank you
Lu Su
Toy Wonders, Inc.
www.toywonders.com
201-229-1700
God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
What is Grace? (part 3 of 4)
By Lu Su
Now that you know the definition of grace, we're now at the stage where I'm suppose to give you examples of grace and an application. Without a practical application, grace will be about as useful to you as Planck's constant (the proportionality between the momentum and the quantum wavelength of any particle). I don't want this spiritual concept of grace to be like this also invisible physics concept where you understand the definition (kind of), but it has no relevance towards your life.
If you have been with me on this journey, you'll remember that grace is unmerited favor. Grace is getting something you don't deserve. Grace is a gift from God. It's all those things and more. Very early in the creation God said,
"Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness," -Genesis 1:26,
Though some religions do not acknowledge this, God purposely made us different than fish, birds, livestock, wild animals, and creatures that creep along the ground. I like that description, "creatures that creep along the ground." I wonder which of the above category lawyers fall into -you know, a person you hire to protect yourself from another person of the same occupation (just kidding. I'm really okay with lawyers. I married one).
From my reading of the Bible, God does not extend grace to animals, birds, insects, heavenly creatures or demonic ones. God only seems to extend grace to man. This is an important point. So let me say that again with more emphasis and in a less chauvinistic way. God only extends grace to mankind. And in turn, only mankind has this ability to extend grace to others.
So in short grace is like this power that God gives us. Since it is a gift, it's not forced on us; we choose whether or not we want to receive it or not. Once you have this power, then you decide whether or not you want to pass this power on to others. I have young boys. If I told them grace is like a power that God gives you, their going to think grace to a sword or a machine gun. But the power that comes from grace is very different. Grace isn't destructive. it restores and preserves life. And unlike a sword, grace works from the inside out.
I know most of us live busy lives. It's a busy world with lot of distractions. But if you take just a little time to contemplate the creation, God, sin, and this powerful concept called grace, you inevitably will yourself, "Who are we to be lavished such a gift?" But you would not be the first. A few thousand years ago, this shepherd boy who then rose up to be a great king said,
"what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:" -Psalms 8:4-6
So all four essays stressed this point: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. If you can accept this gift, you'll immediately get adopted into God's family. But this sounds way too easy right? Surely there must be a long list of things to do. And perhaps an ever longer list of things not to do. Religions of all types teach that there is a level of performance you need to reach before you can be morally "good" enough to advance (get the carrot). The Bible teaches that there is no quantity or quality of good deeds (works) that you can do to save yourself. It's God's grace that saves you.
This is a very difficult concept even for Christians to understand and even these prerequisite items incorrectly creep into the Church (e.g. confession, sacraments, tithing, help your neighbor, be kind to animals, obtain the Wicked Witch of the East's broomstick). But don't get me wrong, these are all good things to do and there is certainly nothing wrong in doing all the stuff on that short list (plus, if you get the broomstick, let's sell it on Ebay and donate the proceeds to charity).
You don't enter God's family by doing stuff, any more than you enter your earthly family by doing or accomplishing something. It is God's grace that can bring you into relationship with God. Since service is not a requirement, then technically Christianity is not a religion. But if Christianity isn't a religion, what is it? Christianity is a relationship. Realize that you can be very religious, but have no relationship with God.
Let me give you an example of God's grace.
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
-Luke 23: 32-43
This criminal, who admits that he deserves the death penalty, makes it into paradise by doing what? He obviously didn't live what society would consider a good or moral life. After his encounter with Jesus, he had no time to fetch the broomstick. There was nothing this criminal could do, except to believe in the One that God had sent. But unlike the other criminal that just hurled insults, this man said, "Remember me when you come into YOUR kingdom." Every kingdom has a king. This man simply acknowledges Jesus as king. And right there, in that unpleasant venue, he was granted citizenship to God's kingdom. So it's grace and not works that gets you in.
Probably the best story about God's grace is found in the Bible. It's a store that Jesus told about the Prodigal Son. But I don't want to use that story for my second illustration, because I feel that you need to be pretty advance with you walk in order for that story to have deep meaning or impact. But do yourself a favor, read the story. It's real short (Luke 15: 11-31). And then go read Timothy Keller's The Prodigal God and 20+ light bulbs will turn on inside your head.
My favorite illustration of grace is through this famous story by Victor Hugo called Les Misérables. I know many of you probably saw and experienced the famous musical. But I think much of the conversation gets lost in the singing and music. No doubt it is/was a great musical, but it's very easy to miss the example of grace. Hope you have the patience to read the excerpt. And how many places can you read about diecast cars, the Bible, and a score from a broadway musical?
If you recall, the main character Jean Valjean who is a wanted criminal. His crime? Stealing bread to avoid starvation. Jean Valjean is constantly on the run and can never put down roots. This tireless inspector is hunting him down. One day, Jean Valjean is befriended by this Bishop. The Bishop takes him in, feeds him, and give him a place to stay. Jean in return the favor by stealing from the Bishop. That evening, Jean Valjean steals the silverware and flee's the Bishop's home, but get's caught.
The next morning at sunrise Monseigneur Bienvenu was strolling in his garden. Madame Magloire ran up to him in utter consternation.
"Monseigneur, Monseigneur!" she exclaimed, "does your Grace know where the basket of silver is?"
"Yes," replied the Bishop.
"Jesus the Lord be blessed!" she resumed; "I did not know what had become of it."
The Bishop had just picked up the basket in a flower-bed. He presented it to Madame Magloire.
"Here it is."
"Well!" said she. "Nothing in it! And the silver?"
"Ah," returned the Bishop, "so it is the silver which troubles you? I don't know where it is."
"Great, good God! It is stolen! That man who was here last night has stolen it."
In a twinkling, with all the vivacity of an alert old woman, Madame Magloire had rushed to the oratory, entered the alcove, and returned to the Bishop. The Bishop had just bent down, and was sighing as he examined a plant of cochlearia des Guillons, which the basket had broken as it fell across the bed. He rose up at Madame Magloire's cry.
"Monseigneur, the man is gone! The silver has been stolen!"
As she uttered this exclamation, her eyes fell upon a corner of the garden, where traces of the wall having been scaled were visible. The coping of the wall had been torn away.
"Stay! yonder is the way he went. He jumped over into Cochefilet Lane. Ah, the abomination! He has stolen our silver!"
The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he raised his grave eyes, and said gently to Madame Magloire:--
"And, in the first place, was that silver ours?"
Madame Magloire was speechless. Another silence ensued; then the Bishop went on:--
"Madame Magloire, I have for a long time detained that silver wrongfully. It belonged to the poor. Who was that man? A poor man, evidently."
"Alas! Jesus!" returned Madame Magloire. "It is not for my sake, nor for Mademoiselle's. It makes no difference to us. But it is for the sake of Monseigneur. What is Monseigneur to eat with now?"
The Bishop gazed at her with an air of amazement.
"Ah, come! Are there no such things as pewter forks and spoons?"
Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders.
"Pewter has an odor."
"Iron forks and spoons, then."
Madame Magloire made an expressive grimace.
"Iron has a taste."
"Very well," said the Bishop; "wooden ones then."
A few moments later he was breakfasting at the very table at which Jean Valjean had sat on the previous evening. As he ate his breakfast, Monseigneur Welcome remarked gayly to his sister, who said nothing, and to Madame Magloire, who was grumbling under her breath, that one really does not need either fork or spoon, even of wood, in order to dip a bit of bread in a cup of milk.
"A pretty idea, truly," said Madame Magloire to herself, as she went and came, "to take in a man like that! and to lodge him close to one's self! And how fortunate that he did nothing but steal! Ah, mon Dieu! it makes one shudder to think of it!"
As the brother and sister were about to rise from the table, there came a knock at the door.
"Come in," said the Bishop.
The door opened. A singular and violent group made its appearance on the threshold. Three men were holding a fourth man by the collar. The three men were gendarmes; the other was Jean Valjean.
A brigadier of gendarmes, who seemed to be in command of the group, was standing near the door. He entered and advanced to the Bishop, making a military salute.
"Monseigneur--" said he.
At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, raised his head with an air of stupefaction.
"Monseigneur!" he murmured. "So he is not the cure?"
"Silence!" said the gendarme. "He is Monseigneur the Bishop."
In the meantime, Monseigneur Bienvenu had advanced as quickly as his great age permitted.
"Ah! here you are!" he exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. "I am glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for which you can certainly get two hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and spoons?"
Jean Valjean opened his eyes wide, and stared at the venerable Bishop with an expression which no human tongue can render any account of.
"Monseigneur," said the brigadier of gendarmes, "so what this man said is true, then? We came across him. He was walking like a man who is running away. We stopped him to look into the matter. He had this silver--"
"And he told you," interposed the Bishop with a smile, "that it had been given to him by a kind old fellow of a priest with whom he had passed the night? I see how the matter stands. And you have brought him back here? It is a mistake."
"In that case," replied the brigadier, "we can let him go?"
"Certainly," replied the Bishop.
The gendarmes released Jean Valjean, who recoiled.
"Is it true that I am to be released?" he said, in an almost inarticulate voice, and as though he were talking in his sleep.
"Yes, thou art released; dost thou not understand?" said one of the gendarmes.
"My friend," resumed the Bishop, "before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them."
He stepped to the chimney-piece, took the two silver candlesticks, and brought them to Jean Valjean. The two women looked on without uttering a word, without a gesture, without a look which could disconcert the Bishop.
Jean Valjean was trembling in every limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically, and with a bewildered air.
"Now," said the Bishop, "go in peace. By the way, when you return, my friend, it is not necessary to pass through the garden. You can always enter and depart through the street door. It is never fastened with anything but a latch, either by day or by night."
Then, turning to the gendarmes:--
"You may retire, gentlemen."
The gendarmes retired.
Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting.
The Bishop drew near to him, and said in a low voice:--
"Do not forget, never forget, that you have promised to use this money in becoming an honest man."
Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised anything, remained speechless. The Bishop had emphasized the words when he uttered them. He resumed with solemnity:--
"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God."
This is the climax and the event that triggers the eventual transformation in the main character. This is where the grain of sand enters the oyster. Jean Valjean deserved punishment. He betrays the Bishops trust. Jean Valjean stole from the Bishop (but ultimately from God). He deserves to be locked up, but what he receives is better than mercy. Jean Valjean receives grace. "Here are your candlesticks. Take them." And the best line in the entire book?
"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God."
Interesting. Jesus referred to Judas as "the son of perdition". If you know the story, this isn't at this point where the main character under goes a transformation. It's much later when Jean Valjean keeps reflecting on this single gracious act. All these tough and unkind years have toughen Jean Valjean. But it is this act of grace that first sickens Jean Valjean because it throws light on the man he has become (and he finds that man unacceptable).
I need to end here for now. Next time, one more example of grace. It's from a famous movie. And I bet you've seen it. And then the application.
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