"My wife killed herself. She just wouldn't eat any more. My son killed himself, too. You, know some churches think you go straight to Hell if you kill yourself."
"Well, there isn't any mention of that in scripture, Burns.". This answer seemed to cause him to think for a moment. I asked him where he thought he would end up.
"Well, there are degrees of punishment you know.". He drew out levels in the air with his hands.
We talked about lying and stealing and blasphemy and he admitted to being guilty of it all. But then he justified each instance.
"But I've never committed adultery", he announced self-righteously.
I explained that Jesus actually kicked it up a notch when He said, "...whoever
looks with lust has already committed adultery."
Burns took offense immediately and began to justify his lust by talking about the short-shorts and tight-fitting, low-cut tops women are wearing.
"They make it hard on men! What are we supposed to do, huh? They deserve to be raped!" He yelled.
"They will stand before God one day and give an account of their actions, just like you will, Burns."
Since I knew that I'd told him everything he needed to know, I wound things up and handed him a gospel tract.
"You know Burns, it sure would make me happy to think that you would read this."
He snidely replied, "I'll read it but I'm not planning on doing anything about it."
Yes, I am kicking the dust off of my feet with him but before I go...let me just say a little something about the way people in general are dressing now. What happened to dignity? Respect? Gals, do we really need to be reminded about modesty? How long has it been since we heard a good sermon on holiness? Would we even tolerate it, if we did???
The message we bring must be pure, not sullied by our politics, our attitude or our clothing. The glorious gospel that we are privileged to carry must not be mixed!
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