Someone wrote me yesterday and told me they enjoyed WFTD because I was transparent and readily admitted that I’m not perfect. I was counseling a young man who had some serious drug problems yesterday and during the conversation I explained how he could become a Christian and then how he should deal with the sin that would come into his life afterwards. (And I made clear that he should make no mistake about it, Christian or no Christian; he will never lead a “perfect” sin-free life.)
I told him, “First you must accept God for who He is, the living Son of God who came to this earth and lived a life free from all sin, and then willingly allowed Himself to be crucified on a cross as a perfect and acceptable sacrifice for our sins. Next you must confess your sins and tell God you are sorry for them, and ask for forgiveness. Finally you must repent, or turn away, from those sins ‘as best you know how’ and follow Jesus and not the world.”
I told him the next step would be to put on the “full armor of God” as described in the Bible in order to resist temptation from satan and his fallen angel demon Army. I told him God’s armor consists of daily prayer, daily Bible study, fellowship with other Christians, faith, and righteous living.
I asked if he knew what righteous living meant and he shook his head no. I told him it was the opposite of “wrongeous” living; if he knew right from wrong he would do what was right instead of wrong. And then I told him that he would not always succeed in doing the right thing, but importantly when he messed up he would feel bad about it and ask God to forgive him.
I warned him that anyone who claimed to represent Christ, be it pastors, deacons, or church-goers that told him differently on that count was either misinformed about satan, or belonged to him, because no one aside from Jesus Christ ever lived a perfect life and the Bible tells us no one aside from Jesus Christ ever will lead a perfect life. If we could be good enough to get into heaven it would not have been necessary for Jesus to come to this old earth in the first place.
I was standing in our brand new 3000 square foot Honey Lake Chapel talking to the master craftsmen who built it. It is truly something to behold with its gorgeous stained glass windows, tongue and groove pine walls standing 22 feet tall, coffered ceilings, heart pine floors, gorgeous light fixtures, and the large clear windows at the front of the church that are adorned with three rugged looking pecky-Cypress crosses that give those inside the church a spectacular view of one of God’s finest creations, His masterpiece, Honey Lake. I can already feel the presence of God in this beautiful place of worship and simply cannot wait to complete it.
Then our conversation turned to the recent break in and theft of our $10,000 lawn mower and $1,500 trailer at Honey Lake. Standing right in the midst of that special place of worship I referred to the thief as being whelped out of a canine. Immediately my master carpenter told me to not to use that type of language in that special place. I then mentioned that I wished I had caught the thief in the act and shot him right in his posterior. More bad language and crude dark thoughts.
Hmmm… As I thought about this incident in the days that followed I was genuinely remorseful and I prayed and asked God to forgive me for my bad language and dark thoughts and I vowed to do better.
I’d told the young man that I counseled that it was an honest mistake the first time we commit a certain sin, but nothing more than a dumb mistake the second.
Yesterday I was informed that someone broke into a warehouse that we own in Atlanta. The thieves stole all of the components out of the six air conditioners that cool the building.
I was disgusted and angry, BUT I did not refer to the thieves as being whelped from canines, nor did I express a desire to shoot them in their posteriors.
Progress?
Perhaps for those old hypocrites out there I am just a nasty potty mouthed lost soul, but in my mind this old forgiven sinner made some great progress in spite of my dark nature.
The parable below sums up the message that Jesus addressed to some scribes and Pharisee hypocrites of His day. It still applies today to our modern day scribes and Pharisee hypocrites. I wonder what He wrote in the dirt, Ten Commandments maybe?
Have a great weekend and go to church Sunday!
John 8:1
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”