Routinely Unfaithful?

Close friends gave me a Day by Day Bible desk calendar for Christmas. You've probably seen them. It's the kind that has tear-off sheets for each day of the year. Each sheet has a Bible verse. I've referred to the pages nearly every day I've been in my office.

The gift didn't surprise me. From all external signs, she and her husband of fifteen years seemed a model Christian couple. They attended worship services each Sunday, served as ushers in their church and sent their two children to Christian school.

A few months after they gave me the gift, her husband discovered she had been routinely unfaithful to him for more than a year.

I know it happens all the time -- people go to church, say the prayers, read the Bible . . . even teach Sunday school classes. But beneath the religious activity lurks a Judas.

Yes. It happens all the time, but what concerns me, what causes me to tremble, is to think it might happen to me, that I might fail miserably in my responsibility to walk in a manner worthy of my calling.

No one walks away from Christ overnight. It's a slow process, a day at a time, a compromise, another excuse, another rationalization . . . and the heart hardens by degrees.

That's one reason I bring myself to the Father every morning -- every morning -- in prayer, study of His word, worship. I do it because, frankly, I know, given the right circumstances, I can deny Him three times, or worse. I could betray Him.

And so can you.

Lord, help us labor without ceasing to remain honest and pure. And holy. Any of us can prove to be routinely unfaithful -- to our Bridegroom.

rich
rmaffeo@comcast.net