A little boy (Jim) comes home covered with dirt and had obviously been playing in the creek all day.
His mother asks did you do the things your father asked you to do. I gave you the list this morning. I know you have it, I watched you put it in your pocket. Jim reached into his pocket and could feel it was still there. By now it was a gummed-up mess of illegible mushy paper.
Jim knew he was probably going to get in a bit of trouble. He had never looked at the list and was not supposed to play in the creek in any case. He was definitely going to have an upset father on his hands.
At this point he could simply wait till his father gets home and take his punishment. "Oh Dad, I am sorry for what I have done. Tomorrow, I will do everything I am supposed to do."
Jim could just slip out the back door, try to dry his clothes and somehow, figure out what the list said. If you got it "sort of kind of" done, perhaps he could pretend that all is well.
Jim's father would do what he thought was best to teach his son discipline and to let his son know that he loved him and that he wanted him to grow into a strong and honorable man.
Don't we do the same thing. God says that we shouldn't steel (sin), but we do. (Exodus 20:3-17) We rationalize. It was only a little thing. It's not like I took a car or something. God says we shouldn't lie, but when we don't confess our sins to him isn't that a lie. It is a stupid lie to boot. God knows what we have done.
The worst part is we have a list (the Bible). He has told us what to do and often as not, we don't think about the list or what is on it or where it is. (Proverbs 3:12) He has even told us ahead of time what the punishment will be for not obeying or ignoring him (sin).(Matthew 25:46)
We are much worse than Jim. We disobey God in countless huge ways. We only do the parts we like. We let the culture dictate what is right and wrong and ignore Our Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:9-13).
We can continue with the status quo. We can plead ignorance (we haven't read the list, Bible). We can minimize in our mind what we have done and pretend like it is not so bad. Perhaps we could hide from God. (Didn't work out for Adam and Eve, Genesis 3:10). We have been told what will happen in this case.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Or we can truly repent of our sins and believe on the Lord (Mark 1:15). This is more than just saying we are sorry. We must turn away from our sin and let our fate lie with the grace of God. This of course also implies that we should "Read the List".
Ok, so what are you going to do about it?
Comments