“But I chastise my body and keep it under subjection.” - 1 Cor. 9: 27

 

 

It was a sad day for parishioners at Houston's Lakewood Church on Sunday after learning of the theft of $600,000 in cash and checks from a church safe just a week earlier.

 

The Houston Police Department is investigating the theft of $200,000 in cash, $400,000 in checks and some handwritten credit card numbers from an office after an employee noticed the donations were missing.

 

With more than 40,000 members, the nondenominational megachurch led by pastor Joel Osteen boasts the largest congregation in the country.

 

It seems that even in a place consecrated for the Lord’s work, evil lurks about.

 

What about this is the human condition? Can a man be left to their own devices?

 

Star Parker, a newspaper columnist, made an ominous statement in one of her pieces--the way out of our economic doldrums is to allow big business to proceed unfettered by burdensome governmental regulations.

 

That was, is and will always be an extremely dangerous proposition.

 

“Leave me alone” should never be an option for any man.

 

Someone much wiser than you or I decided a long time ago, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

 

For the well being of himself and all mankind every person needs a rule, a conscience, a regulation, a principle, a cause, a belief or a god to keep him under control.

 

Left  to his own devices without a “governor” or  accountability, all men will lie cheat, steal or murder with reckless abandon.

 

Despite objections to the contrary, it must be acknowledged that the natural state or inclination of man is to do evil.

 

His wicked, corrupt heart cannot be trusted to naturally do the right thing. Unbridled intelligence is the bane of the human race.

 

Think about the slave trade, sex trafficking, six million dead Jews or the atomic bomb.

 

Doing good is a driven, learned and practiced behavior and discipline.

 

It takes no effort to do bad.

 

Chuck Swindoll challenged us in one of his books to “think of a name, any name, automatically your mind thinks of the bad unflattering side of that individual.”

 

Think how often and effortlessly our minds are flooded with negative thoughts.

 

Therefore, everyone needs a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a  pastor, a policeman, a judge, a reporter, or an organization that will stand up and remind us, “that is not right.”

 

A lady and her daughter, reportedly stalwarts in their church and pillars in their community, recently created an uproar in Winter Haven, Fl. They ate in a restaurant and attempted to evade paying the bill by telling the clerk that she would be blessed and go to heaven if she would allow them to “slide” without paying. The indignant manager refused, advised the police and the pair were arrested.

 

There were demonstrations outside the establishment denouncing this heartless manager who mistreated this fine outstanding citizen. It was later revealed that the lady in question had $80 in her purse and the restaurant bill amounted to a sum total of $18.
 

 

From the prophet to the president it does not matter you who you are or where you come from staying upright and above board will be a constant struggle. From the cradle to the grave, you will have to fight every day to remain true.

 

Prominent African-American builder Otis Pitts in Miami, Fl. made a wise statement, “whenever I go into my office and close the door, I try to remember somebody is still watching.”

 

I’ve always thought how shrewd evangelist Billy Graham was to never the close the door to his office while working with his secretary. He has also never ridden in a car alone with a woman other than his wife.

 

They understand that in our flesh dwells no good thing and we always need something or someone to keep us on the “strait and narrow.”

 

The basic fundamental definition of an honest man is one who says “I will not lie steal or cheat today.” He does it and tomorrow repeats himself.

 

To prove my point, here is a list of civil servants and people of note who have fallen prey to the flesh:

 

• The Director of Housing Urban Development in Tampa, Fl. is presently under investigation for misuse of public funds while the folks at General Motors are in the crosshairs of a controversy surrounding malfunctioning cars which they knew about for 10 years. The problem has resulted in about 12 deaths.

 

• All this, while the principals in a long established law firm in New York face imminent arrest for deceiving people about the financial state of the company. It seems they boasted about how they were able to get “over on” the stupid auditor. The company has since gone bankrupt with the loss of 1300 jobs.

 

• Many have excoriated President Obama and rightly so for declaring, ”if you like your doctor and insurance you can keep it” yet failing to follow through on that promise.

 

• Ironically, the man who brought this shortcoming to his attention was Bill Clinton. If you recall he was the one who emphatically uttered, “I did not have sex with that woman.”

 

• The president before him stated, ”Read my lips. No new taxes.”

 

• The one embroiled in the Watergate controversy assured us, ”I am not a crook.”

 

• One of the reasons Cuban Americans are staunch Republicans is due to a broken promise of a Democratic president. During the Bay of Pigs invasion, they were promised air support which never came and they were subsequently massacred by Castro’s troops.  So asking an older Cuban American to vote democratic is tantamount to breaking faith with the bullet-ridden corpse of his best friend or compatriot lying dead in the Cuban dirt.

 

• In 1999, Columba Bush, the wife of former Florida governor Jeb Bush was detained at the airport in Atlanta, Ga. She was held for lying on a custom declaration. She did not acknowledge on the form the $19,000 in purchases she had made in France.

 

• I was amused at the present Governor of Florida Rick Scott when he refused to endorse the expansion of Medicaid in Florida. Just before he became governor, he resigned his post as chief executive of Hospital Corporation of America. To date, that company has paid the largest fine -- 2 billion dollars --ever levied against a company for bilking Medicare. Governor Scott claims he knew nothing about the infractions.

 

• Pastor Eddie Long of Georgia has paid 25 million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by 4 boys. He was accused of improper sexual contact with the minors and has “privately” apologized for his actions.

 

• Ted Haggard, before he was exposed as a bisexual man prayed in his church, “Lord,I pray that everything that is hidden and covert be brought to light and exposed.”

 

 

• Magic Johnson is afflicted with the H. I. V virus. Do you know or recall how he acquired it?

 

 

• Why is Elliot Spitzer no longer governor of New York?

 

From the beginning of time until the world ceases to exist,  a man unrestrained, unchecked or unhindered is and will always be a menace to society.

 

Everyone needs some kind of moral compass, something or someone that will keep you on track, something or someone that will pull the brake when you are heading for a train wreck of a life.

 

The problem, you see, is after you have hatched your nefarious plot by your lonesome and drawn out your evil designs without restraint, your life is not the only one affected or destroyed.                                                                                                                                    

 

 

V. Knowles is a husband and father with an interest in penning issues that serve to uplift mankind. He melds his love for Classic literature, The Bible and pop culture - as sordid as it may be - into highly relatable columns of truth, faith and justice. Hence the name: Just Thinking. If he's not buried in a book or penning his next column, you may find him pinned to his sectional watching a good old Country and Western flick.