Thursday, April 9, 2009

Dear Copper Thief


Dear Copper Thief,

I drove into work yesterday morning and as soon as I pulled up behind our church building I instantly realized we had been vandalized – that you stole from us. All our A/C units have been stripped of their copper. This really puts us in a bind. But we will not be defeated. We will improvise, adapt, and overcome. We have faced bigger challenges than this, and we will deal with this one too.

Now that the initial shock has worn off, I’ve been thinking how to respond to you. Here goes.

First let me say, God loves you. He wants to give you hope, meaning to your life, and a future in heaven. But He is also angry with you because the Bible says He is angry with the wicked every day (Psalms 7:11). It’s pretty safe to say that you didn’t do yourself any favors by stealing from us.

Second, I hope you believe in God because you really need Him. But it appears like you have no conscience at all. It takes a special breed of person who will steal from a church; a church made up of kind generous people whose sole purpose is to serve God by serving the people in our community – families, children, the elderly, and widows. I understand you probably needed some crack to smoke or some dope to snort up your nose – but stealing from a church? Come on. This should frighten you because you stole from GOD – and He keeps a record book of things like this. You also stole from the hard working people of our church who have real jobs, who earn honest money (unlike you), and then contribute their finances to this church so that we can have comfortable facilities to worship in. What you have done to us you’ll never know. Hundreds of people could be affected by your thievery. This Sunday is Easter and hundreds of people will be in service with us to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of those people will be desperate, looking for the answers and hope that only God can provide. But if those people are sitting in a building that is stifling hot and become distracted, then they may miss the message. You see, not only have you cost us a lot of money and caused an enormous inconvenience, but eternal destinies will be affected by what you did. You were only thinking of yourself when you stole from us and no one else. You really messed up dude.

Third, if you will confess your sins to God, He will forgive you. He loves you enough to do so. And if you will come to our church and stand before our congregation and confess your sins committed against us, we’ll forgive you too. The Bible says you have to do it that way. You not only sinned against God, but you sinned against every one of us. Shame!

Finally, you should know that there are hundreds of people who DO NOT attend our church, but they love our church. They are not dedicated believers yet, but we have earned their respect by doing good deeds for them and reaching out to them. Of these people, not all of them are as nice as we are and they are not sanctified either. What that means is… it would probably be better that the police find you before they do. But since I am such a nice guy and have a certain measure of influence with them, I’ll do my best to call them off so they won’t do the Clint Eastwood - Dirty Harry - Grand Torino thing on you.

Just so you know, we are praying for you.

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