The Devotional – 1454 – God loves the scoundrel!

The Devotional – 1454 – God loves the scoundrel!

Proverbs 28:16 – A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor, but he who hates covetousness will prolong his days (NKJV) or (NIV) a tyrannical ruler lacks judgment, but he who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life.

Comments and challenges

While working for a small town in Connecticut I was often blessed to see the LORD working. For example I was hired as the maintenance supervisor, but when the director for the housing authority left for a better job in Hartford I asked the municipality if I could fill that position and they agreed. I served in that position for fifteen years and then retired in 2009. Often as the director I would call on God to help me with decisions that directed the future families that were under my immediate responsibility, so here is an event of a man and his boy.

The man lived alone, but through a previous marriage had a son. When I met the son he was around five years old, so this means that when I retired the boy was a young adult of at least twenty. The man who lived alone in accordance with the lease he signed, really did not live alone. The boy as it turned out lived many days within the father’s household. Oh! There were arguments of abusing the lease or rental agreement. There were oppressive moments when this ruler of his household lack judgment or coveted others belongings. “The stories, awe the stories I could tell”.

Once after a moment of intense argument, he decided to sue the housing authority because his vehicle was all pitted on one side with rust spots from sanded roads caused by the weather. His claim was that the housing authority did the damage during the grass trimming around his vehicle and the person trimming did not take care to protect his vehicle. Of course he won and his claim was settled for nearly a thousand dollars on a vehicle that was above fifteen years old. “Awe, the stories that could be told are many”.

Here is the Story! The man was obnoxious, a thief, a liar and many who knew him were afraid of his presence. Yet God gave me the opportunity to know the man for ONE reason and that reason was to be a witness of FAITH in Christ. In the fifteen years that I knew the man I witnessed to him of the love of Jesus Christ. Was I perfect in this? NO, not at all! But there were times that he and I sat alone in his apartment talking about the LORD. One day at one of these moments in time, he accepted the LORD’s sacrifice for his sins and became saved.

Some months later, the man suffered a heart attack and nearly died, but he recovered and when a neighbor’s husband died, he married the widow. This family was saved so they were friends before the man died. Oh! The buzz in the apartment complex about that was as heavy as any love/hate novel on the book shelf today. The young boy, well he was there cheering his father along and by now a senior in high school. My wife and I attended the wedding reception.

Why do I tell you this? I heard within the last couple of years that the man has gone to be with the LORD. It is important to each of us (saints) how we treat the people around us. We are not perfect and while we expect to be, I praise God that He knows we are not. Yes God does command us to be Holy and blameless before Him in LOVE, otherwise we are not able to approach HIM. Colossians 1:22.

If we try to be holy and blameless around the people God has placed in our path, it does not take them long to do something to us to show to them our real nature. Don’t be holier than you know you are, be real but also be the saint that God would have you to be. “Be ready to give an answer” as in the following verses in 1 Peter, God calls us to suffer for right and wrong in order that we may be a good testimony at the right time, 1 Peter 3:13-17.

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled”. But sanctify the LORD God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.