Owing and Not Knowing

After dining recently at the Southern Thymes Café in downtown Greer, S.C., I did a bad thing, and Uncle Fred had to “make things right.”

My wife, Carol, did not travel with me, so I drove alone from our home in Southern Pines, N.C., on Saturday, July 17, 2010, and stayed in Greer at the home of my Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred Crain. I spoke the next day at Faith Temple Church of Taylors, S.C. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Raymond D. Burrows, said to me, “Take your liberty,” as he introduced me as a guest speaker. I grew up attending Faith Temple. Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred are charter members there.

Carol and I have two children, Janelle and Suzanne. Janelle, our older daughter, and her husband live in Taylors. She attended the Sunday service with us and prepared to travel with me to N.C. on Monday for a visit. I needed to return to work at Gulistan Carpet on Tuesday.

On Monday, Aunt, Uncle, Janelle and I enjoyed lunch at the Southern Thymes Café. I ordered country-fried steak, “tater salad,” turnip greens and peach cobbler. Good eatin’. Our waitress placed two “guest tickets” on our table. I grabbed them and argued with Uncle Fred.

“Give me them,” he said.

“No, I’m paying,” I said. “You paid Saturday.”

I stuck the tickets in my shirt pocket, laid down a $6.00 tip, finished eating and snapped some photos. On the way out, I saw friends and talked for a few minutes. Standing on the sidewalk in front of the café, I made more pictures.

Janelle and I stopped at a convenience store in McAdenville, N.C., near Charlotte. I entered the store and noticed something in my shirt pocket. I pulled out two “guest tickets.”

“Oh, no!” I thought. I showed Janelle the tickets and asked, “Would you mind paying these?”

She looked at the tickets, and her mouth dropped open.
“Woo-eee!” she said.

I called Uncle Fred. He said he had noticed our waitress standing at the cash register as we left the café, but he thought I had paid. He went the next day and paid the nearly $24.00 owed. He apologized to the waitress who served us. She told him, “At least there are some honest people.”

I had driven from Greer to McAdenville and was unaware of my guilt that whole time.

Perhaps you are a person who is unaware of an unpaid bill you owe. That bill is the “sin debt.” Perhaps you go day to day, thinking you are okay, believing your good deeds outweigh bad deeds you have done. Maybe you compare yourself to others, and, in your estimation, come out “looking pretty good.” That kind of thinking is based on the idea that people get to heaven because of “good deeds.” That kind of thinking is wrong, according to the Bible. There is a debt you owe, a debt you cannot pay.

The Bible lays out the story of man’s predicament. Because of “original sin,” no one can enter heaven. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Sin” is defined as “missing the mark.” What mark? God’s “mark,” or target, is complete holiness. He is holy, and nothing unholy can find a home in heaven. We humans have missed God’s target or “mark” – and we were born unaware of that fact. We were born with “original sin.” Original Sin is the genetic defect we all inherited from Adam and Eve. Through this defect, we inherited death – both physical and spiritual – and were separated from God. Through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection (he paid our sin-debt), we have the avenue by which to conquer the genetic “sin and death” defect and be reconnected eternally to God.

“For the wages (the payoff) of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life…He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are walking around with a “sin-debt ticket in your pocket.” Perhaps you were unaware you owed such an incredible debt. Today, ask Jesus take care of it for you. He will.