{"id":652,"date":"2010-09-10T16:46:30","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T15:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pender.org.uk\/?p=652"},"modified":"2011-08-26T11:26:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T10:26:47","slug":"steal-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2010\/09\/steal-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Steal yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favourite moments each time I led the Alpha Course was \u00a0when I spoke about sin – not just because I am good at it!<\/p>\n

I drew a picture for the students. You are in the supermarket, by the stationery counter, and someone walks up to the shelf, picks up a pen and puts it in his\/her pocket, then just walks out of the store. Your natural reaction is to think, “He stole that.” You might even start to shout about it, or run to the security man and tell him. People shouldn’t be able to do that. They shouldn’t get away with it. It’s stealing. It’s wrong. It’s sin. “Thief! Stop thief!”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then I would ask them if they had ever been at work, or in the bank, or the Post Office, filling in a form, and just absent-mindedly popped the pen into a pocket or a bag. Many and most nodded. “So,” I would ask, “what does that make you?”<\/p>\n

Most of the time there would just be a gleam of realisation and re-thinking on their faces, but I remember one lovely lady diving into her bag, pulling out a pen and forcefully shoving it into her friend’s hand, almost in a panic. She had “borrowed” the pen some time before!<\/p>\n

Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal?
(Romans 2:21-22 NLT)<\/h4>\n

I feel that we can easily rationalise our own sin, so that it loses a lot of the horror. There is always someone out there worse than me. It’s only a pen, they only cost pennies. It wasn’t expensive, therefore it wasn’t stealing, therefore it isn’t a sin, therefore I’m OK. Therefore, I am a GOOD Christian and I am an example to all! I can teach others………<\/p>\n

The only problem is that I have this huge plank in my eye, and I can’t see where they are, eh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are in the supermarket, by the stationery counter, and someone walks up to the shelf, picks up a pen and puts it in his\/her pocket, then just walks out of the store. Your natural reaction is to think, “He stole that.” You might even start to shout about it, or run to the security man and tell him. People shouldn’t be able to do that. They shouldn’t get away with it. It’s stealing. It’s wrong. It’s sin. “Thief! Stop thief!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[38,40,48,286,69],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","tag-god","tag-guilt","tag-jesus","tag-romans","tag-sin","category-5","description-off"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfWaLo-aw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4531,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2019\/05\/a-shadow-of-my-future-self\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":0},"title":"A shadow of my future self","author":"Robert Pender","date":"01\/05\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_single_image image=\"4532\" img_size=\"full\"][\/vc_column][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_column_text css=\"\"]Many years ago I had a very sore back. It would come and go every few months. First one side would hurt and, just as it was getting better, then the other side would start to hurt. I have a very vivid memory of John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7131,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2022\/10\/7-the-big-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":1},"title":"7 – The Big Sea","author":"Robert Pender","date":"27\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=\"7132\" img_size=\"full\" alignment=\"center\" style=\"vc_box_shadow_3d\"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]For most of the first 20 years of my life I lived next to the Clyde, a beautiful river with stunning scenery around it. Where I was, the river was very wide and was for most of the time calm. Occasionally the wind would get up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7242,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2022\/12\/14-plans\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":2},"title":"14 – Plans","author":"Robert Pender","date":"16\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=\"7243\" img_size=\"full\" alignment=\"center\"][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I have always been a great believer in making plans, especially when we are doing something special or going away somewhere. It is best to get it right and not miss anything out. Be in control! The trouble is that we are seldom, if ever in control.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7389,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2023\/05\/to-buy-or-not-to-buy\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":3},"title":"21 – To buy or not to buy","author":"Robert Pender","date":"07\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=\"7390\" img_size=\"large\" alignment=\"center\" style=\"vc_box_shadow_3d\" css_animation=\"slideInLeft\"][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=\"\"]To buy or not to buy, that is the question. But before we get to the answer, it would be a good idea to let you now how I actually got to the question. The last few weeks have had a few problems laced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7117,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2022\/10\/6-yesterdays-tomorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":4},"title":"6 – Yesterday’s Tomorrow","author":"Robert Pender","date":"18\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=\"7118\" img_size=\"full\" alignment=\"center\" style=\"vc_box_shadow_3d\" css_animation=\"zoomInLeft\"][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I spent a lot of time thinking about the title of today's episode - Tears for Fears, Yesterday, Perfect Day, Tomorrow Never Comes, All Our Yesterdays - and a couple of dozen others that I can't remember for the life of me. Maybe I can't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6120,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2021\/01\/lets-start-at-the-very-beginning\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":5},"title":"Let’s start at the very beginning","author":"Robert Pender","date":"29\/01\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]You might not agree with what I'm going to say, but that in itself will just prove my point. Let me begin by saying that I disagree. In fact, we all disagree. We disagree about politics, about religion, about football teams, about diets, fashion, music, money. We disagree about everything\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bible"","block_context":{"text":"Bible","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/bible\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}