Tim Franklin
· ”"Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.“ Numbers 5:6-7 ESV Let me confess a wrong I committed many years ago when I took a friend hunting. We were in a county where shooting spike bucks was illegal, and I shot a spike buck. As usually happens whenever I do something wrong, we were stopped by the game warden and we were both fined for being in possession of an illegal deer. Fast forward a number of years, I accepted Christ as my savior and he began to remind me of this incident where I caused my friend to pay for my crime. I was convicted that I needed to repay him, not only the cost of the fine, but also extra to cover what he could have gained if he had never lost that money. What I have learned over the years since I became a Christian is that God wants us to be honorable people. That may mean we have to humble ourselves before others in order sit in right standing before our Lord. Apologies are not always accepted, we likely will not be thanked for the restitution, but our audience of significance is not those people, it is God. For me, it is a good feeling to know I have done what God has required of me; it lifts a burden off my spirit that needs to removed. I pray God will continue to prepare my heart to be given over to him by cleaning up those things that stand in the way. Sanctification is not always a fun process, but the fruit of it is sweet. Pastor Tim Franklin
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