[For publication in the Decatur County Chronicle]

OPEN HEART LINES

4-15-08

I never cease to be amazed when I read about God referring to the David, the shepherd boy who slew Goliath and later became a king, as a “Man after His own heart” (Acts 13:22; 1 Samuel 13:14).  It most definitely was not because David was perfect.  Numerous times David failed God and committed gross sins. 

There was a time when David allowed his heart to be lifted up in pride.  Against the advice of his mighty General Joab he ordered a census that revealed an army of 800,000 valiant men.  David was forgetting that his strength was in the Lord and not the arm of flesh.  His action resulted in the death of 70,000 innocent men. You can read the account in 24th chapter of 2 Samuel.

Almost everyone knows about the sin of adultery and murder committed by David in the matter of Bathsheba, the wife of one his most devoted soldiers.  All this causes me to ask the question, “How could God possibly say of David that he was a man after his heart?”  I come up with only one feasible answer.  That being it was because David had a repentant heart.

Last week Dr. Tom Rakes, chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Martin addressed a group meeting at Parsons First United Methodist Church.  The keynote of his talk was about two words that we all are doubtlessly guilty of saying; those two words are “If only.”

I surmise that David must have said “If only” while repenting of his deeds –because those words are associated with remorse.  Many are the times I use those very words: “If only I had been better prepared to preach that sermon, if only I had extended the invitation, if only I had been a better pastor, if only I had thought the matter through before acting so foolishly, if only I had paid in more estimated taxes during the year” (I had to get that one in since today is April 15).  My list is endless.

Back to Dr. Rakes.  He suggested that we learn from our mistakes and failures.  He offered an alternative to dwelling on the negative side of our regrets by taking the positive side of life by saying, “Next time!”  Next time let’s do better; next time let’s get it right.

 I conclude that we should always strive to do what is right. If we fail, we should make it right as quickly as possible. While making recompense for wrong is noble, it is always best to do the right thing to begin with. Countless numbers of people live out their days doing what is wrong, and then make confession to someone they refer to as “father,” or making overtures of contriteness to some religious leader for forgiveness. It is sad to think that such an act of doing penance would ever equal doing the right thing in the first place.

I want to invite everyone to Decoration Day and Homecoming the first Sunday of next month, May 4, 2008 at Yellow Springs United Methodist Church.  I will be preaching in the annual event that opens with congregational singing at 10:30 in the morning service.

4-8-08

A few years ago I moved to pastor a church in Kentucky. Shortly thereafter a woman called on me at my Pastor’s Study. In tears she told a horrifying story about the brutal murder of her grandson, age ten. She then proceeded to tell of how her daughter, the mother of her only grandchild was being charged with the murder.

The case was covered by the national news media. I attended the trial and was shocked when a jury brought in a verdict of guilty for Julie Rea-Harper. The prosecution had presented a case built entirely on mere conjectures.

After a year in prison Julie was finally release due to some legal technicalities in the original trial. She was immediately re-arrested and a second trial was set. This time lawyers from the “Innocence Project” represented Julie and a verdict of NOT GUILTY freed her from life imprisonment. Serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells on death row in Texas confessed to the brutal homicide. Just think of the pain of losing a son that was brutally murdered by a serial killer and then being tried and sent to prison for the rest of your life with the charge of committing the crime.

Recently, I read about another person that spent twenty years on death row for murder, but was released on bail. The Nevada Supreme Court reversed his conviction.

He told reporters, "Overwhelmed is probably an understatement. I'm going to try to enjoy every minute as it comes along and just be thankful these minutes are here." He was given a retrial and was found innocent.

I also read a book some years ago about a man who was only minutes away from execution by the electric chair when the courts reversed the conviction and he was actually later released. Think of it – only minutes away from electrocution.

The late theologian, Jack Shuler, wrote: "I have never endured the cramped confines of a dingy jail vault or suffered the horrors of imprisonment within guarded gates and towers. Yet all the while I was a prisoner.”

Friends, there are no walls of earth that close one in so securely as those which compose a Bastille called Sin. Nor does the world afford chains that bind more securely than the thongs of an evil habit.

Conscience and memory stand as overpowering guards to remind us of our guilt and of impending judgment and sentencing.

Yet there is good news in the midst of all that doom and gloom. There is a pardon for you and me. Someone has paid your debt. Yes, standing at the bar of God's infinite justice in garments dyed red in the perspiration of His holy agony, Jesus paid the price with His life.

Oh yes my dear friend, we were prisoners, but all we needed do is to discovered God's Emancipation Proclamation. The Psalmist declared, “He brought me up out of a horrible pit and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings."

The Holy Scripture also declares, "Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!" Because of that I am no longer a prisoner, I am now an heir of God!

April 1, 2008

One lesson from my childhood that has stayed with me through the years is “You can’t do wrong and get by.” Recently I saw a documentary on TV about a man named Alan Rhodes. He was in Albany, New York working at his marina in the summer of 2000 when a Florida law officer approached him. I took note that the incident was circulated by the local and national news media.

He said, "You are under arrest for the 1979 murder of your wife." Rhodes stood stunned for a moment and said, "I think I'm going to faint! Yeah, you got me!"

Nearly twenty-one years had passed since the alleged crime, but law officers said they never stopped working on it.

It was reported by lawmen that Rhodes said he had been haunted by the crime for twenty-one years and being arrested was a big weight off his shoulders.

Shirley Rhodes' body washed ashore near Florida's Sanibel Island, a 14-pound diver's belt buckled around her waist. She had been bludgeoned to death prior to being dumped in the Gulf of Mexico. The sheriff reported it was a crime of passion. Investigators believe the victim had expressed interest in dating other men. When a warrant was issued for his arrest, Rhodes fled, got a new social security number and changed his appearance. He got away with it for over two decades.

It is very difficult to hide from the eyes of men. With new technology it will soon be virtually impossible. So how do people think they can hide from God? King David wrote in Psalm 139 that no matter where you went, how high the sky, or how low in Hell itself, God's presence was there.

The poet king of Israel added, "Even the darkness is like daytime to Him." Yet, like some modern Adam and Eve, many people try to hide from their Creator. They might as well try to dip out the Atlantic Ocean with a soupspoon. It cannot be done.

The wife killer here stayed undetected from lawmen for twenty-one years, but God knew where he was all the time.

In closing, I want to lift up the monthly meeting for “Men on a Mission.” It will be hosted Thursday evening, April 3, 2008 by the Linden Church of God located on Hwy 412 West in Perry County. We are to eat at 6:00 o’clock and the service starts at 7:00. I hope to see all you men and boys there. It is always a great event!