This story was inspired by a conversation I recently had with a friend over lunch. I told her that it could be the start of a story, and indeed it was! I’ve changed the names and fabricated all sorts of juicy details. Oh, because of my conservative nature I considered changing the ‘item’ to a can of motor oil. Instead, I chose to keep the ‘item’ faithful to the real life story. The story works so much better that way! What is that ‘item’? Read on!

The Judge banged his gavel and gruffly commanded, "Be seated."

The bailiff stood up and called out to the full room, "Next case, Amy Doyle verses the State of Tennessee. The charge is shoplifting."

Amy started to shrink into the bench, but was prevented from completely disappearing by her mother's strong arm, which was tugging her up. Involuntarily, she sprung to her feet. Every eye followed her to the front of the room. People seemed to be shaking their head as they watched her.

Amy took her seat next to her mother at a table in the front. Her grandmother remained in the back of the room, too ashamed to allow her connection to the accused to be public. The judge ruffled through a stack of papers.

Amy's mind then traveled back two months to the 'scene of the crime'. She, and two of her friends, had taken the bus to Wal-Mart. They didn't have much money between them, but it didn't matter. The object of the day was to have fun. They strolled past the greeter but were too absorbed in giggles to notice her. Then they entered the young ladies department. The teens showed each other outfit after outfit, making as much noise as ten young people.

Then Rachel, a year older than the other two, towed her friends to the 'Intimate Apparel' department, or 'underwear section' as it is commonly known. The mood had changed, and the girls spoke in serious hushed voices. Rachel's mischievous smile told her friends that she was cooking up something bad.

The three teens lined up in front of the soon to be famous garment. It stood out from all the rest. The style was definitely racier than her mother would permit. It was almost too wicked by Wal-Mart's standards.

Amy gasped as Rachel lifted the 'item' off the rack. She then removed the hanger as she bumped into Amy. "Put this in your pocket," she whispered. Instead of refusing to participate in the plan, Amy froze, and Rachel jammed it into her coat pocket for her.

Now it was time for the getaway. The giggling had ceased. Amy felt as if a large stage spotlight was following her as she moved around the store. As she passed the customer service desk she slipped her hand into her pocket and brushed against the silky garment. Upon contact, she reacted like it was charged with 50,000 volts of electricity, whipping her hand out of her pocket. She felt like her face was as red as the stolen apparel.

The trio strode past the cash registers. Amy was sure that the cashier could hear the pounding of her heart.

Amy spied the front door. She forced her legs to plod onward. At last she laid her hand on the door's metal handle. As she did, a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Would you please come with me?" a man's voice said.

"Bang! Bang!" rapped the judge's gavel. Amy was torn from the Wal-Mart to the courtroom in a flash. "The state calls Bob MacDonald to the stand." Said the angry looking man at the other table.

The back doors opened and the man who had tapped Amy's shoulder two months ago walked in. He looked the same to Amy, only today he was wearing a suit and tie. He took a seat in the box next to the judge. For an intense moment the judge, bailiff, prosecutor and Mr. MacDonald's eyes glared at her disapprovingly.

The prosecutor asked the store manager if he could point out the person who attempted to steal the merchandise from the store. Before he could finish the question, Mr. MacDonald's finger was pointing at Amy like a compass needle would to an MRI machine. "That's the one!"

"And when you asked the defendant to empty her pockets, did you find anything that belonged to the store?" Asked the prosecutor.

"I certainly did." Mr. MacDonald answered.

The prosecutor spun around and scooped up something from a table. This was to be the most terrible part of the day. Though the baggie and its contents weighed only ounces, he used both hands for effect. "Do you recognize... THESE?" he asked as he held up the bag high enough for the entire room to see. He held the bag taught as he pivoted around. The gallery all pushed out the air from their lungs simultaneously.

Amy's heart was drumming out a new rhythm, more intense than a metal band. As the bag marked 'EVIDENCE' waved in the prosecutor's hands a moan was heard from the back of the room as Amy's grandmother fainted.

God tells us in Ecclesiastes 12:14, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” From this, and countless other references, I can conclude a few things.

One is that God knows everything. There are no secrets with God. You can keep a secret from me, and chances are pretty good I’ll never know about it. God is different. My secret is a front-page headline to God. The heavenly networks interrupt their programming with news flashes of my secrets. It is fruitless to hide things from God. The mere fact that I sometimes do, illustrates that I have a lot to learn of God’s nature. Omniscience is more than a great Scrabble word, it describes God’s complete knowledge of every detail in our lives, and not just the ones we want Him to know about. I may think I’m pretty sneaky hiding sin in my coat pocket, but I’m actually a bit goofy. I’m not really hiding it, I’m just not dealing with it.

Secondly, God thinks sin is a big problem. I think we sometimes become numb towards sin because is so rampant. It becomes like the litter on the side of the highway. We seldom notice it. Sin is the manifestation of our rejection of God. Every lie, every gossip, every stolen garment is our sinful nature announcing we want God to go away and leave us alone. We need to hate sin, not hide it. Only when God shows us that our love of sin is really a continuation of Adam and Eve’s belief of the serpent’s lie that they “shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5) can it be dealt with. It seems that if we can ‘get away’ with something, we start to feel like we’ve pulled one over on God. Really, we’ve just pulled one over on ourselves!

Lastly, salvation, while easy for us, is no less drastic than major surgery. When we ask God to forgive us of our sins, He does. When we ask Him to be our Lord, he reaches inside our soul, and cuts. Paul writes in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Biblical sacrifices have always involved both life and death. In the Old Testament, a lamb was killed so that people could live with God in eternity. It was a symbol that pointed to the New Testament sacrifice given by Jesus on the Cross. He died so that our sins can be erased and we can join God in heaven for eternity. Romans 12:1 refers to the death of our sinful nature, and its replacement with a forgiven one. Once we make God our Lord, we cross the battlefield and fight for the other side. Once we fought God, now we fight Satan.

Consider Acts 17:29-31 “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.” Here God shows us that Godly things are totally different than what we are used to. Then verse 30 “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent” Thankfully while forgiveness is instant, God’s punishment is not. If it was instant, we’d be dead the first time we disobeyed our parents. God allows us time to find out about our desperate need of His forgiveness through Jesus. Notice that the verse states that ‘NOW’ we are to repent, or turn away from sin. Now that we are aware of our need, we must do something about it. It doesn’t say ‘next week’, it says ‘NOW’. Finally a verse many would rather cross out from their Bibles, (31) “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” He speaks of Jesus here. We are judged by the standard He set while he walked this earth. That standard was that He never sinned. Never, not even once! I can’t say that about myself. In fact, Gods Word says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We all fall short of that impossible standard. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death;” I deserve death. My defiance towards God has earned me death both as a punishment in hell, and as eternal separation from the God who made me. I deserve nothing better than everlasting misery. God has provided one way out.

The second part of Romans 6:23 says, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus stepped forward on my behalf and has taken my punishment. He has made my relationship with God right again. All I did was believe and ask. I believed that He is powerful enough, real enough, and good enough to cancel my sin through Jesus. Then I asked Him to go ahead and start work. I asked him to lift that sin off of my shoulders and take them to the cross with Him. Then I gave Him access to my life and permission to do construction (and destruction) on it. He’s not done yet! You can say that I’ve sold out to Him. Amazingly, he bought me! 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

I say all of that not to brag. I was totally unworthy of any of God’s mercy and gifts. I speak of God’s work in my life as an advertisement of God’s offer to do the same in your life. Won’t you believe and ask too?

Romans 5:8-11 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (11) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

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