Scripture

The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

~Luke 15:12, NLT

Quote

I was greedy for another persons loss.

~Augustine {My Confessions, Book II, 9.17}

In his youth Augustine ran with a company of boys who stole pears from one of the neighbors. They didn’t steal because they were hungry for in truth, none of the boys were crazy about pears. They stole for the pure delight of taking something forbidden. Augustine said, “We were attempting a shady imitation of omnipotence by getting away with something forbidden.” Yet it was this sin that hounded Augustine and eventually brought him to conviction. What seems like a childish prank became a haunting regret. He had stolen another man’s property and had given no consideration to person to whom the pears belonged. Greed is a thief and it gives no consideration to those it defrauds; legally or illegally. One thing a thief cannot tolerate; is to be robbed by another thief and this is what happened to young Augustine.

He stole the pears but taking the pears robbed him of peace, which he desperately wanted. Greed is a thief and it will certainly rob you of joy and peace. Greed is very selfish and never considered the other person’s lost. I will give you a case in point: forty-five years ago, I meet a man in the little village where I pastored. We were talking tractors and I was looking for a Super-A Farmall and he had one. He told me how he came by the tractor and the story chilled my blood. He said I got this off of an old widow woman. He said it was in a shed behind her house and so I stopped and knocked on her door. I asked her if the tractor was for sale. She said, “I hadn’t thought about it. It was my husbands but he died years ago. I don’t need it so I guess it is for sale but I do not know what it is worth.” He offered her $100 in cash and it was worth eight times that amount. She let him have the tractor for one hundred dollars and now he is bragging to me about taking advantage of the widow. What the man did was despicable! All he was thinking about was his gain: he never considered her loss. You can rest assured there will be a judgement for such things. This is not loving your neighbor the way you love yourself.

Back to Augustine: your sins will hound and haunt you. They may be back in the distance but you can hear the hounds barking even when no one else hears them. They will find you eventually. Augustine confessed, “I was in love with my own ruin.” This is the nature of sin; it carries its own judgment. The moment we turn from God to partake of the forbidden, disenigration begins. Disenigration is the opposite of integrity. When guilt floods your conscience, you can’t possible have integrity, let alone joy and peace. When we turn our back to God, even if it for a misdemeanor, the disenigration begins; you begin to come apart on the inside. There is no peace until you make peace with God. Are the hounds still back there? Yes, I am afraid that is true but at least when they catch us, we will have an advocate. Confess and make peace with Christ and leave the rest to him but know one thing: no sin is worth the consequences it produces.

One final thought: where did the Prodigal’s greed get him? It robbed and stripped him of everything. Don’t trust greed, it is nor your friend.

Extra

Third week in a row of low attendance but we had a good service and I am thrilled to announce that we had $20,200.00 donated to the BUILDING FUND yesterday. This gives us a grand total of $53, 980.00. My July goal was $40,000 but the LORD had something better in mind. Hallelujah, what a Savior! We may reach the $100,000.00 mark by Christmas.

More good news: our VBS {July 11-13} will be a morning VBS {9:00-11:00}. I tried to talk Josh into a four day school {Monday-Thursday} but I am thankful for the move to day time VBS. DBC has a day school and they averaged over 200 per day: got up to 238 on Thursday. As has been the trend for the last 20 years, attendance fell on Friday. I think it is due to families going out of town for the weekend.

Gregg and Traci got back safely and both were at the picnic last night. Gregg get’s three weeks off {no chemo} and then goes back to Little Rock for stem cell treatment. Joyce is getting weaker by the day.

Great attendance at the VBS picnic last night and the ice cream was delicious. Thanks for reading the blog and have a great week.