“You will never get to heaven, if you break my
heart.” – Dionne Warwick
lyrics (1964).
The Pastor of Hill Road Baptist Church must have been very upset that
someone inconsiderately and so irreverently stole his church’s AC units. We can
understand his anger. It must have taken quite an effort to get the people to
contribute the funds to have them installed and now someone has taken him back
to square one!
It took me a while to get the humour in his message to the AC thief; but
when I did, I found it both hilarious and worrying at the same time. Sure, the
message was a tongue-in-cheek reference to where the thief was going to spend
his or her eternity in, but considering that this was coming from a church it
was not well thought through.
In the U.S. church signboards are usually for making service
announcements and for evangelism messages. What message were they now sending
to the Hill Road community? That they wish whoever does them wrong ends up in
eternal Hell? What ever happened to “Bless
them who persecute you: bless, and curse not”? or “Recompense to no man evil for evil”? or “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”? (Rom
12:14,17,21).
They are most certainly not practicing the forgiveness that they preach
on Sunday mornings. No thanks to their bitterness, the whole community (and now
the whole world) has a wrong notion of Christians and Christ. What’s worse, the thief, the person for whom
they put their whole reputation on the line for, may never even get to see this
sign.
Beloved, forgiveness may not be easy, but the converse is expensive.
Here’s some wise counsel from Apostle Peter:
“Never return evil for evil or
insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary
blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness, and protection, and truly
pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called.” – 1 Peter 3:9 (AMP).
Keyword: FORGIVENESS
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not
miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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