How safe and secure are you? Yes, that’s perhaps too general a question … maybe I ought to phrase it like this: how safe and secure are you as a person, and how safe and secure is your home?
As I returned home from Benoni this afternoon, I drove past my one neighbour’s home only to see his garage gate was wide open. This never happens, as they have about five dogs and when one of them gets out it travels the streets. I called the wife, and her line was busy. I then called the husband and asked him about the gate. He said he locked the gate on this way to work this morning and that his wife is in Bloemfontein and his children are across the road with the uncle. He asked me to close the gate and get the uncle to lock it.
At that moment, another neighbor came alone. He was talking to the wife. She asked him to count the dogs. They were all accounted for. Then he saw the front security gate on the side of the house, and the doors were open. He collected his revolver and four of us entered the house to find the large plasma TV ripped off the wall and gone. The rest of the house was fine, except the wife’s jewelry draw was open and some of the content on the bed.
Jenny was in bed today as she did not feel well. I left home just after 8am and only returned in the late afternoon. Their father/father-in-law who lives where the uncle lives started work on Monday after return to COVID level 1 lock down. The street is short and very quiet. Until last week, there were builders opposite this house. They themselves had renovations down recently including a fibre instalation.
When I dump all this information together, it spells like an inside job to me. I could be wrong, but how did anyone know how easy it was to break open the large garage gate? How did they know the dogs would not interfere with them? How did they know that the front security gate and door on the side of the house was never used as a new entrance was created and that this door was on my side with a garage and high wall preventing vision? How did they know where the large plasma TV was? How did they know where the jewelry drawer was? Why did they ignore the rest of the house?
Whoever did this knew not only the layout of the house and where things were, they also knew the wife was out of town as she normally works from home, that the father-in-law who has been at home for so many months because of lock down and has just started work on Monday, that I as the neighbor went out and do every Wednesday morning! This is why I say this was an inside job.
I have a good friend who says that 90-odd percent of burglaries are inside jobs. This does not necessarily mean some those who work for you or a contractor that has done work for you did the burglary … they might have given the info to someone else. That is still an inside job. Oops … just heard there was another burglary further up the road this afternoon as well.
How safe are you, your family, your possessions and your property? Many of us have high walls or palisade fencing, electrical fencing, dogs, alarm systems and armed security response companies … yet, how safe and secure are you?
There is another security we can’t overlook, and that is the security of the soul! How secure is your soul? Many don’t worry about their soul. As long as life is okay on planet Earth, they don’t give a hoot about life after death. Many don’t believe there is a life after death … and many just ignore that as a possibility. Nothing … absolutely nothing must interfere with how they do life in the here and now.
That’s a personal choice. People have the right to ignore life after death and they have the right to live as they please … but that does not mean we Christians must not make every effort to get the Gospel to them, for they are blind and dead spiritually and don’t realise their eternal fate.
But, right now I am more concerned about those who know about Jesus and sideline Him and those who have a type of relationship with Him yet live on the wayward side. How safe is your soul?
The good citizens of our country have responded favourably and handed in their weapons that were not licensed during the Gun Amnesty periods … yet the criminals and burglars have theirs … and theirs are not Mickey Mouse weapons. They are so brazen that when they break in and you resist they shoot to kill … and then where are you? How safe and secure is your soul? Consider the Words of the Lord Jesus Himself:
Mk 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Look at verse 36 … many want the world at the expense of their soul! It pains my heart terribly when people who were churched … and have heard the Gospel … and served the Lord … withdraw from the church community for any amount of reasons (mostly someone else’s fault, they say) and drift from Jesus. They become like the prodigal son … but don’t want to return to Father. How safe and secure is your soul?
So many think they can do their style of Christianity in their homes. They say they don’t need the church … they believe they can do their relationship with Jesus all by themselves. I really wonder about that, because Jesus’ Kingdom is community and His Church is community. There might be an exception or two, but in general I cannot see a Christian conducting Christianity in isolation. It’s not Biblical. How safe and secure is your soul?
Where verse 34 speaks of total commitment, verse 38 speaks of obedience to God’s Word. How can anyone be intentional if they refuse to exist within the community of the people of God … and if there are issues to address, let’s do so lovingly to restore the bond of peace and fellowship within the integrity of the Gospel, for the glory of God. How safe and secure is your soul? Are you letting the spiritual enemy steal your most valuable possession … your soul?
Dear God, our Glorious, Loving, Caring Heavenly Father, today I pray for each and every person who has drifted away from the security of Your grace. Draw them back into the fold and graciously cause them to see the value of community and the value of the security of their soul’s eternal wellbeing, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.