Easter Devotional 2014

Guilty Until You Prove Yourself…

What?? We know that that is not how the wording goes. What if you were accused of wrongdoing and had to prove yourself innocent? Not the way we know it – that the accuser has to prove that you did it. Could you?

Maybe you’ve seen this engraved on a plaque or etched in a polished rock on someone’s desk:  INTEGRITY is how you act when no one is watching. The fact that you have integrity makes you act in an honest and upright way. It’s not the other way around.

Are you innocent because you haven’t been caught? Are you innocent because no one can prove that you actually did what was said? Of course not. I believe that there is a difference in being innocent and being not guilty. An act planned and executed with malice that goes unchallenged or unpunished does not render a person innocent – simply ‘not caught’. Unfortunately our news and sports stories are filled with those who seemed to be acting on the up and up only to be revealed as having been on a self-serving mission from the beginning. I follow cycling. Without me mentioning any names, you still won’t have trouble coming up with the one who has given this wonderful sport a black eye. The actions of one can taint the whole. If we as Christians SAY we are Christians and set out to do what appears to be the right thing only to be uncovered as acting to serve ourselves – well, we really didn’t have our integrity in check now did we. The actions of one…

Saved is what we are when no one is watching. I don’t know when I was saved; was it on Friday when He hung there alone and said, “It is finished”? What was finished? His mission here on earth? Was death finished? Was my sin finished – forgiven forever? Was it when he lay in the tomb alone? Maybe it goes back before that when, in the garden, with no one watching, he said (paraphrase) “Dad, I really don’t want to do this. But I’ll follow your plan; I’ll not follow mine.” He could easily have run away. Remember no one was awake with him. Once the guards arrived he had to be identified with a kiss. Off into the crowd he could have gone.

I like to read church marquees as I travel. Some are whimsical and fun and make me laugh. Some are judgmental and harsh and make me frown. And then there are some that make me think. Here’s a recent one:
DON’T CONFUSE THEIR ORDER.
SAVED BY GRACE
TO DO GOOD WORKS.

Integrity is what you have when no one sees. Honesty is how it gets presented to the world. Saved is what you are when no one sees. Helping the lowest, the lost, the least is how it gets presented to the world.

My prayer this Easter is that when we are alone we realize and recognize the sacrifice made to set us free and that we go forth into the world doing good things and proclaiming, HE IS RISEN.

Steve Matthews