of crowds.” She said triumphantly, “Now I’m not. I got things right with Christ.” It was not easy for her to say to herself, “I’m just a plain woman who is living in fornication, wickedness and violence.” You see this breaks the image we have of ourselves. A veteran of the Korean war sought counseling. He had been “shell shocked.” The experiences of battle left him on the ragged edge of men tal stability. No one could help him physically. Seeking the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit the talk was conducted. He was told frankly, “You may be offended at this, how ever, the question must be asked. Yotir medical and psychological examina tions show that you have various ner vous tensions and all kinds of pain. Could it be that you left a child in Korea which you fathered and yet, for which you have never taken the re sponsibility? He turned ashen gray and shouted, “No man knows this! How do you know it?” Quietly the answer came, “It is enough that both you and God know it. It cannot be hidden longer.” He admitted his sin before the Lord, asking for cleansing. He told his wife about his unfaithful ness. She forgave him. He took respon sibility for that little child and his physical and mental problems were cleared up. So long as that man was not honest he couldn't live with him self. You cannot grow in grace unless you will be honest with yourself and your family. So often we distort the evidence and endeavor to detach ourselves from the truth. If the problem gets bad then many people will run away from it. That doesn’t solve anything. As an example here is a Christian wife and mother. She does not assume her re sponsibilities in the home and is irri table. She is a very poor housekeeper and doesn’t bother to cook well. She is always running off to church meet ings. This avoids the real circum stances. Let me tuck in here the fact that there is a correlation between the peace which we have inside and that which we live in outside. It is very difficult to live at peace with yourself
if you are living in a messy home. The Lord never intended it to be this way. If you have an unpleasant duty to perform you do not seek to avoid it by trying to be busy doing something else. One reason why some people like to look at the TV all day, or read cheap books, or even go to church meetings all day or all night is that they want to get away from doing things they know they should do. Don’t misunder stand; this is not to minimize going to church. The Lord says, however, “If you come to My house and you have a gift for Me, but you have ought against your brother, get it straight ened out first of all.” Don’t think you can bribe God by going to church meetings. You have obligations to ful fill first of all. There are so many dis- tractive devices. Then we need to think about ration alization, which' is summarized by giv ing a reason which is not the real rea son. There are many kinds of this, self-justification, false compensation, exception making and so on. Blaming things on other people will excuse us. This way we can criticize. When Adam was asked of the Lord why he sinned, he foolishly replied, “Well, God, it’s this woman You gave me.” You see, to keep his self-image, he had the foolish pride to blame the Lord. There is many a man who blames his prob lems on his wife, and many a wife who blames her problems on her husband, and as a result lives and homes are shattered. We must learn to take the responsibility for what we are and then to have the fortitude to make them right with God and man. When Eve was asked about her sin, instead of asking for pardon she began to blame it on Satan. A college student asked me the question, “Are we al ways tempted by Satan ?” I said, “Son, Satan has some of us so well organized he could go away, take a vacation, and we’d carry on without him being around.” If we want to grow in grace and maturity we must be honest with ourselves and with the Lord. By His grace we will become more Christlike and loving. 10
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