What Not to Steal

            I don't think this was such a good idea.

            Police say that Terry Davis entered a University of Louisville on-campus library last month. While inside, he chose to steal a textbook. But this was not just any textbook that he was stealing. The title was–RESOLVING ETHICAL ISSUES.

            This reminds me of something that Paul said in Romans chapter seven, while reflecting upon the predicament of humanity, “15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

            Reflecting upon his state, Paul lamented, “24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

            He then answered his own question, “25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

            Ethics, as wonderful as they are, are not the key; they serve as symptoms of the key—Jesus living in the human heart... and the behavior that He inspires and empowers.

Story Source: WORLD magazine

The Sinful Nature

           Calvin Jones was one of the brightest hopes in a poor town—Lake Providence, LA. At 18, he was not only an honor student and track and football star, he was a devout church-goer, taught Sunday school, and composed rap music urging younger kids to stay out of trouble.

            In January '94, his classmates and teachers selected him to be the keynote speaker for Martin Luther King Day. In his speech, he spoke on accomplishing one's goals, not falling prey to the culture, the importance of having God in one's life, and of getting an education. He urged the students to offer their best effort to meet their goals and not to become another victim to the drug culture.

            The night after his speech, Calvin got together with Charles Reed,19, a young man who was everything Jones was not: a heavy boozer and drug user filled with rage. Reed had never liked his do-gooder classmate.

            "I wanted to hurt that dude the first time I seen him. It's just something about people I have when I first see them. I just don't like them," Reed said.

            Still on that night, the two enemies got together and drank malt liquor. Then someone came up with an idea: let's torch the school! With the help of other juveniles, they did so.

            While the school burned, Calvin had the gall to return to the building to watch his handiwork. Standing among the crowd of onlookers, began to feel regret. Staring at the flames, tears streamed down Jones' face, as he thought about his father and brothers who had graduated from the burning edifice that had housed their high school.

            Three months later, Jones was sentenced to prison.

            Why did he do it? "There was no reason. I'm just sorry I didn't do more to stop it."

            I can think of no story that illustrates the sinful nature more effectively than this incident in the life of Calvin Jones. I trust that actions of attending church and demonstrating good citizenship accurately portray a section of Calvin’s heart—perhaps even the largest. Yet, there was a dark place as well.

            Here is the trap. It is easy to assume Calvin is guilty of having a sinful nature, while you and I are not. Not true. Oh, we may never burn down a school, but we have that dark place.

            I am not sure, who it was, who said, “I am not a sinner because I sin, I sin because I am sinner.” (The statement has been attributed to various people." Whoever it was, that person was right.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!

A few years ago, actress/model Shari Belafonte left her husband, film executive Bob Harper, for actor Sam Behrens.  Her justification?  "It took me 30 years to come to the realization that I'm not on Earth for somebody else.  Sam was the first thing that came into my life that I said, 'Forget what everybody else says-I want that, and I'm gonna have it.'  When I found Sam, it was like, 'Gimme, gimme, gimme!'"

I can think of no better parable to explain the sinful nature of man.  Whenever we sin, no matter what the sin, we have the fundamental attitude, at that moment in our heart, and will of, "I'm not on Earth for somebody else.  I want that and I'm gonna have it." Can you see the selfishness in this attitude?

Be aware, it is not in Shari Belafonte alone we see this attitude. We see it, when man seeks power in his business for his own personal gain. It lies at the root of the heart that motivates a wife to manipulate her husband.  It is the gut feeling within the teen-ager, when he commits to break the law by guzzling a cold one.

Jesus claimed to model, for us, the way to life. The aforementioned attitude is the antithesis of the mind of Christ. Check out what the Apostle Paul says about this in Phil. 4:1-8.

The Blind Side

We all have a blind side, and I don't mean one that requires a big left tackle for protection, either. According to Richard S. Tebow’s new book, DENIAL: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS FAIL TO LOOK FACTS IN THE FACE—AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT, Henry Ford made himself a wealthy man by building the Model T.

By the 1920s, customers began seeking automobiles of different colors. None of this fazed Ford. In 1922, he wrote what became a famous quote, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants as long as it is black." By World War II, his company lay near bankruptcy.

Henry Ford had a blind side. In spite of the data he was receiving, he refused to listen to the truth and it almost destroyed the company.

I often see a husband with a blind side. He is systematically destroying his marriage, and he is oblivious to it. I have seen mothers who are cold to their children; they have no idea they are emotionally devastating their own flesh and blood.

The sinful nature is programmed to distort our reality. That is one reason the Bible recommends close fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. Through their loving communication, they can tip us off to our blind sides. We will then, hopefully, respond before disaster strikes.