Dear Friends,
Thank you, thank you, to all of you who wrote in response to my poem in last week’s message. I treasure each and every one of those responses and I am so glad my words moved you to write.
. . .
Patricia and I have found it helpful and cost effective to order groceries and household supplies from Amazon which makes same day deliveries in our area.
In the gathering shadows of a late Thursday afternoon, a truck from the Amazon fulfillment center dropped off five boxes on our front porch. Patricia, who was home alone, moved the boxes one by one off of the porch through the entry and into the living room, less than fifteen feet away from the porch.
When Patricia came out for the fifth, last and largest box, it was gone, obviously stolen. Thieves plague neighborhoods in Southern California by following delivery trucks and brazenly stealing the delivered merchandise right off of the front porch.
Patricia told me about the theft when I called her while driving home from work. “What was in the box?” I asked.
“Thirty-six pounds of kitty litter,” she said.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“That’s it!” and we began to laugh at the thought of what the thieves thought when they opened the box expecting to find electronics or something else with resale value, only to find nice-smelling sand instead.
Later, a Scripture verse came to my mind that I hadn’t thought about since childhood. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” I didn’t know the reference so I looked it up — Numbers 31:23.
The verse was often used in object lessons in my classes at church and church school as a Biblically correct way of saying, “Crime doesn’t pay.” It was a warning to us kids that we could not expect to get away with anything because God would see us and our parents or teachers would find out. We would be punished now and in eternity if we didn’t confess our sins in sorrow and make amends.
The guilt produced by fear of the 24/7 divine surveillance caused us to confess many things the adults had no clue had occurred and likely would have never discovered. The warning “Be sure your sin will find you out” operated like one of those alarm service signs staked in the front lawn of a homeowner who hopes to warn off would-be burglars without actually purchasing the service.
Children should be taught about sin and the importance of doing the right thing. No question. But to talk to them about an “eye-in-the-sky” God ready to pounce on them every time they do something wrong without telling them about his unconditional love, mercy and grace for them is spiritually negligent.
I talked to a college classmate recently who was raised and schooled seemingly much as I was, except his parents and teachers never got around to talking to him about the grace part of it. When he was free of the strictures of home and school he rejected the “hall-monitor” God that he identified with them. He told me, “I am not a Christian, but I still hold to things from my upbringing I am a good person. I believe in the Golden Rule.” In other words, he is still locked into a tit-for-tat performance based on comparison with what others think and do. I know many others like him.
Blessedly, my parents taught me early on that there was a God who loved me and wanted to be my best friend. He loved me so much that he didn’t want any problem coming between us. He would forgive me for the wrong things I did if I asked him. My evening prayers always included a heartfelt request, “Dear Jesus, please forgive my sins and mistakes,” just as my parents would pray.
This merciful, forgiving God became someone who I loved and wanted to please. I knew when I had fallen short. My conscience would lead me to make things right with him and whomever of his children I had hurt or given offense by confession and asking for forgiveness and the strength and wisdom not to repeat the wrong. That’s how I began to learn grace and how I live with God to this day.
After the kitty litter theft, I looked up Moses’ warning and learned it wasn’t meant to be a guilt trigger. Instead “Be sure your sin will find you out” is an admonition about responsibility and accountability in community.
When the children of Israel neared entering the promised land, the cattle ranching tribes of Gad and Reuben wanted to occupy the grasslands in the land of Gilead on the east bank of the Jordan instead of entering the land of Canaan on the west bank. This would divide the fighting force and deprive the other ten tribes of the assistance of the two.
Moses warned them God, who wanted his people unified, would never approve such a split. The men of Reuben and Gad were obligated to the Lord to join with the others in the conquest and pacification of Caanan.
The men of the two tribes pledged that they would settle families and cattle into fortified cities and pens. Then they would help fight the enemies of the Lord for as long as it took to conquer and pacify Canaan before returning to their families. Moses told them this plan was acceptable. However, if they ever reneged or made less than a complete effort to support the other tribes he said, “You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out (Num 32:23).
The application isn’t hard to discern. The people of God need to come together in common purpose and support and care for one another, rather than dividing to pursue selfish interests. It is a variation on the great commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:26-28, quoting Deut 6:8; Lev 19:18).
When God’s people selfishly fail to honor our commitments to the Lord and each other, it weakens the community of faith and the reason becomes readily apparent. Together we are strong and peaceful showing the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). Divided, we are weak and fractious exhibiting the spiritually debilitating sins of the flesh (Gal 5:19-20).
When I finished reading Numbers 32, I had tears of sadness for all those boys and girls and men and women who have never known God as anything other than a harsh, condemning behavioral monitor, instead of a loving Lord and Savior who loves, forgives and strengthens us and wants us to encourage and support each other in love. What a difference of light and grace it would make if they knew the truth.
It is easy for busy, stressed adults to seek a short-cut of management of children by fear instead of doing the hard, often messy work, of teaching love. But what work is really more important than loving and teaching what it means to love. Loving, Scripture tells us, is meant to be our way of life (1 John 4:7-2).
The lesson that matters is always love, and love isn’t learned by happenstance or miracles. It is learned by merciful engagement with the ungrateful and selfish. It is taught by those who can accept and trust the grace God has for them and who understand that “to fear God” really means to pay attention to him in reverent devotion, not cringing obeisance. Men and women who know these things live the truth without fear because the truth of God is inseparable from the love and grace of God (John 1:17).
Lovers know when they have failed their loved one and desire more than anything to make amends and reconcile. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19) is the verse I probably quote the most in these messages because it succinctly reveals the Source of love and the effect of knowing we are loved.
Ultimately, the sin that finds us out is we haven’t loved. May the Lord, whose love knows no end, lead us to repentance.
“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,
Kent
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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.
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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.
Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.