Deathbed Confession of a Hypocrite

Just before Thomas Randele died of cancer, his wife asked his friends to come by their home to say goodbye to a man they called one of the nicest and most honorable people they had ever known. No one had any idea that Randele called them together to make a shocking deathbed confession.

Randale confessed that 52 years earlier, when he worked as a bank teller, he stole $215,000 from the vault, which amounts to $1.6 million today. For over five decades he had been a fugitive, and wanted for one of the largest bank robberies in Cleveland’s history. The bank heist in 1969 didn’t capture the nation’s attention because everyone was focused on Apollo 11’s historic landing on the moon.

His wife and daughter were even more stunned when he admitted that Thomas Randele wasn’t his real name. His true name was Ted Conrad, and he had created that new identity to keep from being discovered.

Unlike the repentant thief on the cross who admitted he was guilty and accepted the punishment for his crime (Luke 23:41), Conrad admitted to his crime, but he wasn’t willing to do his time in prison. People who confess sins on their deathbed want to get rid of the guilt for what they did, but they don’t want to pay for what they did.

Something happens to us internally when we hide our sins in darkness. After David committed adultery and murdered Uriah, he covered up his crimes for about a year. During that time, he suffered physical and psychological sickness which he described in Psalm 32:3-4 and 38:2-3. After Nathan the prophet confronted him about his sin, David confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord,” and God forgave him (2 Sam. 12:1-13).

Confession is the beginning of the healing your soul. “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). It’s like opening a closet door, which allows the shining light to kill the dark secret that thrives inside. Darkness cannot live when it’s exposed to the light (Eph. 5:12-13).

If you’ve done wrong, get honest before God and own up to it. It may be embarrassing to admit, but the relief you’ll experience will heal your soul.  www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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From a Human Perspective, God's Timing Seems Wrong

The builders and decorators of a large cathedral made the mistake of admitting visitors while remodeling work was in progress. The workers heard nothing but complaining about the renovation being done. All the negative comments forced the construction team to close the doors and not admit anyone except the workmen. After the remodeling and decorating was finally completed, everyone had nothing but praise for the beautiful work the construction crew had done.

When God is at work, many people complain because they only see how the present situation looks. They don’t realize that God isn’t finished yet. In His perfect timing, everything will come together and the doors will open. “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccl. 3:11).

After Joseph was unjustly thrown into prison in Egypt, he asked Pharoah’s cupbearer, who was also a prisoner, to remember him after he was released. After the cupbearer got out of prison, he forgot to tell Pharoah about Joseph. It wasn’t because he has a bad memory, but because the timing wasn’t right for Joseph to be promoted.

Two years later, Pharoah had two dreams that needed interpreting, and that’s when the cupbearer remembered Joseph. After Joseph interpreted Pharoah’s dreams, the time was right for him to be promoted to prime minister (Gen. 40-41).

God could have given Pharaoh the dreams two years earlier. Instead, He allowed Joseph to spend two more years locked up because it wasn’t his time. Psalm 105:17-19 says Joseph served as a slave and was imprisoned “until the time his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.” “Until the time” means it wasn’t time to get out. “The Lord tested him” means waiting for two more years was a test of his faith.

The funny thing about God’s timing is, from a human perspective, it always seems to be wrong. We usually think God should come through for us sooner—and that’s why people complain. But when everything is ready and all the pieces of God’s plan comes together, then we see His timing wasn’t wrong after all.  www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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Big Bears and Little Bears

A couple of men went camping deep in the woods. One of the men was a big, powerful guy, while his buddy was small. The little man said to the big guy, “You know, if I were as big as you, I’d go out into the woods and find a big bear to fight. Yep, that’s what I’d do if I were as big as you.” The big guy looked at his friend and said, “You know, there are a lot of little bears out there too.”

Many people tell us what we need to do, but they aren’t willing to do it themselves. The truth is, there are enough big and little bears out there for all of us. We need to learn how to defeat the little bears before we can defeat the big ones. God will show us how to overcome small trials so we will have confidence when we face bigger challenges.

David was a shepherd boy and had never fought in a battle before. One day when he was tending his sheep, a lion attacked the flock and David killed it. Another time, a bear attacked the flock, (perhaps a little bear), and he killed it too. 

One day the Philistines gathered to fight Israel and challenged them to fight their giant named Goliath. Everyone in Israel was frightened, including King Saul. No one was willing to fight Goliath except the shepherd boy, David. He told Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:37). In other words, “Killing a little bear was training to prepare me to fight this big bear.”

Saul told David, “Go and may the Lord be with you.” Saul could have said, “May the Lord be with me as I fight Goliath,” but he didn’t. Saul was willing for David to fight the big bear, but he wasn’t willing to do it himself.

God’s “training camp” is to help you overcome small trials so you’ll be ready and confident when you have to face a giant challenge. And remember, the same Lord who helped David will also help you.  www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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Have You Ever Felt the Holy Spirit Tug at Your Heart?

A little boy was flying his kite. It flew so high that it rose into the clouds where he couldn’t see it. A man standing nearby tried to have some fun with him. He asked, “How do you know the kite is up there? I can’t see it. Can you?”

“No, I can’t see it,” the boy replied. “But I know it’s up there because I can feel a little tug now and then.”

The Holy Spirit will lead you by tugging on your heart in the direction you need to go. Left to itself, the heart will selfishly mislead you every time and pull you in the wrong direction (Jer. 17:9). But when your heart is controlled by the Holy Spirit, He can direct your steps on the right path. “Following your heart” doesn’t mean fulfilling your selfish impulses, but following the Holy Spirit’s leading.

When you are being led by the Holy Spirit, one way He will guide you is by placing His desires into your heart so that you will want what He wants. “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). When you find your joy in pleasing the Lord, the Holy Spirit tugs inside your heart to pull you in the direction where He wants you to go.

It’s not a normal desire to want to leave the comfort of America to serve as a missionary in Africa or India. Yet, I have known people whose passion was to live in poverty-stricken countries to reach people for Christ. That desire comes from the Holy Spirit.

God has a unique plan for each person, so He guides everyone on different paths. When you yield yourself to His control, He will put His desires in your heart so He can guide you down the path He wants you to travel. His guidance will never contradict what He has already told us in the Scriptures.

The key to receiving God’s guidance is surrendering yourself to Him and His plan for your life. It’s never selfish to want what God wants for you. (see Gal. 5:16-17)    www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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Don't Let Rejection Defeat You

Perhaps there’s no more heartbreaking story of rejection than that of John Kennedy Toole, the author of A Confederacy of Dunces. In 1969, three years after Simon & Schuster rejected the novel, Toole became so despondent that he committed suicide. 

Toole’s grief-stricken, yet incredibly determined mother asked everyone she could think of to read the book. Seven years of rejections later, she got it into the hands of novelist and professor Walker Percy. How could he say no to this poor woman with her deceased son’s unpublished manuscript? With great dread, Percy began reading the book, hoping it would be so horrible that he could discard it after reading a few pages.

It didn’t take him long to realize the book was so good he was going to have to read the entire manuscript. Halfway through the book he knew he was holding a novel of immense value. Although the content in the manuscript wouldn’t win any Christian awards, A Confederacy of Dunces went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, selling more than 1.5 million copies in 18 languages. Imagine the books Toole might have written if he had the same determination as his mother.

Rejection is a part of life. Everyone is going to be rejected in one way or another, so we need to learn how to deal with it. Every successful author had their manuscript rejected many times by publishers before someone finally recognized the person’s gift. Every successful athlete had to overcome losing in order to get better.

Rejection can be devastating, so that’s why we need to see it from God’s point of view. Man’s rejection can be God’s PROTECTION. Sometimes the Lord is saying, “I’m closing this door because this isn’t My will for you.” He’s protecting you from harm that you can’t see at the present time.

Rejection can also be God’s DIRECTION. God’s hand is diverting you to a new and better place that you wouldn’t have thought about on your own. Other rejections are designed to increase your determination through faith and persistence, like the Canaanite woman who wouldn’t quit (Matt. 21:22-28). Under no circumstances are you to let rejection defeat you or keep you from reaching your full potential, like it did with John Kennedy Toole.   www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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Lessons From Pavlov's Dogs

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? Ivan Pavlov proved that two stimuli repeatedly linked together can produce a conditioned response. He observed that dogs would salivate when they were about to be fed. Pavlov rang a bell each time prior to feeding the dogs so they would associate the bell-ringing with dinner time. This conditioned them to salivate in the anticipation of being fed because bell ringing and eating were connected together. FOOD + BELL RINGING = SALIVATE

This explains why you crave popcorn when you go to the movies. You’ve eaten popcorn so many times as you’ve watched movies that popcorn munching and movie watching are connected together. Now you cannot watch a movie without eating popcorn—and you’ll even pay outrageous prices at the theatre to get it! MOVIE + SALIVATE = EXPENSIVE POPCORN  Here are a couple of examples about conditioned responses:

Example #1: Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” When a person commits a crime, punishment must be executed quickly so that the criminal learns that his evil deed results in a painful penalty.  CRIME + PAIN = DETERRENCE for repeating the evil deed.  Failure to punish quickly will encourage others to commit crimes because they think “nothing will happen to me.” (There’s a lesson here about parenting a rebellious child)

Example #2: I once counseled a married couple who were always fighting. The husband said, “She hits my hot button and then I respond by hitting her hot button.” Their continual arguing had conditioned them to explode and know exactly how to retaliate.

The only way to “reverse the curse” of negative conditioning is to respond in the opposite way with kindness. First Peter 3:9 says, “Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult (negative conditioning with hateful words), but giving a blessing instead” (positive conditioning by speaking kind words). It takes time to recondition a marriage, but a happy home will be worth it.  www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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The End of the World

Newspaper columnist Mike Royko wrote a story about a practical joke that was played on a man in Madison, Wisconsin. The man and his three friends went on a fishing trip to a secluded lake. Each night they went to bed at 10 o’clock and got up before dawn every morning to fish.

One night Joe went to bed first and quickly fell asleep. And that’s when one of his friends got an idea. He got Joe’s wristwatch and changed the time to 4:45. They all changed the times on their watches and clocks, and set the alarm to go off at 5 o’clock. Then they got into their beds and waited. 

Fifteen minutes later, the alarm went off. They all got up, rubbed their eyes, and shuffled around like they had been sleeping for seven hours. They made breakfast, just like every morning. Joe complained that he felt like he hadn’t gotten any sleep that night.

After they started fishing, every few minutes Joe would look at the eastern horizon and say, “What time do have?” One guy said, “6:00.” Joe said, “Shouldn’t it be getting light soon?”

At 6:40, Joe stopped fishing and stared into the darkness, “Guys, I’m tell you, something is wrong! The sun isn’t coming up. It should be up by now!” He started freaking out, “Guys, this must be the END OF THE WORLD!” His friends burst out laughing and let him in on the joke.

One day the end of the world will come, and that’s no joke. Jesus described the signs of the end by saying, “Men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26). Clearly, those terrified people Jesus is talking about aren’t ready to meet God.

You might not see the end of the world, but when you die, it’s the end of your world. The end of your time in this world is the beginning of your time in the next world in one of two places.  Will you make peace with God before that time comes? CLICK HERE to find out how to do this.   www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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