Ecclesiastes 9:3b- "...the hearts of the children of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live...
Recently, i heard a story of a teacher and his student. One day while allowing the student to take a make-up test, the teacher noticed the student working feverishly on her exam. Except something was out of place. Instead of making an effort to finish the exam in front of her, the student was working to transfer answers from one exam to another without being seen. Yes...it's the old friend's exam in the desk trick...happens all the time.
The teacher called the student out, discovered the borrowed test, and decided to discipline the student accordingly. This was done by giving the student a grade of "0" on the exam, and having the student call her mother to tell her what she had done.
Now it gets exciting...
The mother agreed wholeheartedly with the teacher that what happened was wrong, and that the student should be punished. But when the mother found out that the student was to get a "0" on the test, she became fanatic. "Why would YOU GIVE (note who's fault she is implying) my child a zero. She knows what she did was wrong...couldn't you give her a 50 instead! When the teacher responded "No," the blame shifting continued. "I pay so much money for a tutor to help my child out, and this is the thanks I get?"
The parent ended the conversation in a manner that was trying to blame the teacher and the tutor for their child's test score.
HAVE WE LOST OUR MINDS, AMERICA?? Notice what happened here. The mother blamed the school workers for HER and HER CHILD'S SIN!!! In the words of my great friend, Brian R. Mahon, "what the crap" is going on? Did she forget that her child was willingly cheating, something that most schools have awarded "0's" for or worse over many, many years. I am not that old, but still remember the days in elementary school when a good spanking with a ruler was an acceptable form of punishment. Now, a short 15 years later, schools are not supposed to punish cheating the way they have been for years because it's "too severe" a punishment!?
Ecclesiastes sheds a great light on this subject. Our hearts as humans are full of evil, madness even. And because of this, one thing we do is not want is to take the blame for our own mistakes and sinful behaviors. We want to shift the blame to someone else...and in this case, the mother blamed the tutor for her daughter's sin, basically saying that she wouldn't have had to cheat if the tutor would have done his job. The teacher was then blamed, saying that he was too strict for even considering punishing this girl. And if the mother DID succeed in her endeavor, what would she be doing? She would have taught her daughter that it is OK to sin...and it is possible to sometimes "get out of the consequences."
John Owen even wrote, "He that has slight thoughts about sin never had great thoughts about God." We will do well to realize that sin is a chronic condition, eating away at our very souls day by day. And its effects continue to grow until our sin is washed by the blood of Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, may we be all the more diligent to seek for and allow Christ to destroy our old selves and the sin that clings to them. May we not be satisfied by living for ourselves here and there, but may we truly live the way we should having been already crucified with Christ.
And to those reading who do not have a saving faith in Jesus, please understand that if you find yourself siding with the mother in this story, please understand that when i say you are wrong, it is said in love. Realize that all people have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and that sin=death. No one short of Christ has lived without sin. There is no denying it, and to see sin's effects, one need go any further than to turn on the TV or look out the window. If you are just now realizing that you live in a state apart from Christ, the beginning of life in Christ does not start with you getting your act together. It begins with repentance. Repent of your old, selfish ways that are full of the enemy, and trust in Christ, allowing Him and His Word's to mold your act for you. Confess Him as the Lord who He really is, and allow Him to soften your heart of stone towards one bent on Him.
