Join us sundays at 8:00 & 10:30 AM

Friday, August 21 - Devotional with Pastor John

August 21, 2020 by Rev. John Hartman

“Yours, Mine, & God’s”

There’s a famous story that St. Augustine tells in his Confessions about a time he and his friends snuck into an orchard one evening and stole a bunch of pears. Later on as he reflected on it, Augustine admitted that he stole those pears simply for the thrill of it. His family wasn’t rich. In fact, he had everything he needed. He even said he had better pears than the ones he had stolen.  And, it wasn’t that he even really “wanted” the pears, because he ended up throwing most of them away. Augustine says he stole those pears simply for the excitement of doing something forbidden, and as an act of rebellion against God, -- almost as a way of trying to establish his own sovereignty apart from God.  But, he said that it was all just a feeble hallucination of power, -- an illusion of liberty.

Now I think Augustine was onto something. You see, deep inside each us is a continuing struggle over who is going to occupy the throne of our lives.  In other words, who is going to call the shots? Who is going to be Number One? Will it be God? Or, will it be ourselves? If you think about it, sin, in whatever form it takes, is a kind of pushback against God. It’s an attempt to assert our supposed sovereignty over His. Augustine understood this, and he understood that this is why God commands us not to steal.

Of course, there are all sorts of reasons we shouldn’t take what isn’t ours, from promoting a just and stable society, to honoring the work and achievement of others. But, at its core, this is such a simple commandment and it’s very hard to misinterpret. Almost everyone knows it’s wrong to take someone else’s stuff. And so, when we do, it’s not out of ignorance or because we didn’t know any better. Rather, it is out of a willful desire to assert our own power, and to set ourselves as above and apart from God.

Please join us at Chestnut Level for worship this Sunday, August 23, at either 8:00 am or 10:00 am, as we look at the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal.” Instead, “steal” some time away with God as we worship Him in spirit and in truth on Sunday morning. And as always, I hope you will join us!

Pastor John Hartman 

Quote of the Week

“Thieves respect property; they merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”  G.K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Time magazine observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out."