Some Men's Sins Go Before Them

This is part two of a three part series about James and his wife, Wanda. In case you missed part one, I’ll update you. James was seventy-two years old when admitted to SOMC Hospice because of end stage chronic airway obstruction and colon cancer. James’ long drinking career ended abruptly on February 26, 1972, when he thought the moose head mounted above the bar where he was drinking spoke to him, ‘This is your night. You better change your ways. It’s your last chance.’ Well, James has been a sober believer ever since. James exclaimed, “That actually happened! I just wasn’t smart enough back then to know that it wasn’t the moose talking to me, but the Holy Spirit.”

James was born and raised in the small Southern Ohio town of Otway. James reflected on the day of his birth, the day after Christmas, December 26th, 1930: “It was thirty degrees below zero the day I was born. Dr. Gordon rode a horse to our house to deliver me. My dad said that it had snowed and the sun came out and melted the top of the snow. It refroze during the night and my dad said that the top of the snow froze so hard that the doctor could ride his horse on top of it.” I asked, “But didn’t they have cars back then?” James explained, “There’s no way you could get a car up Thompson Hill any more than you could fly a plane up there. So the doctor had to ride a horse.”

James continued, “I only weighed three and a half pounds when I was born. They didn’t have incubators back then so they put me in my father’s ten-pound tomato basket to make a bassinette for me. They put some blankets around me and sat me on the mantle above the fire place to keep me warm. It was the warmest spot in the house.”

The circumstances of James’ birth, the day after Christmas, remind me of that first Christmas. When Jesus was born, his mother Mary “wrapped him in swaddling clothes (rags) and laid him in a manager (feeding trough).”

Well, I guess I should get to the point of this story. James had been admitted to the hospital and I stopped by to visit. We ended up talking about the stress of living with chronic illness; how families can turn on each other; take their frustrations out on each other and even forget they’re on the same side. James admitted, “When I’m irritable and sick I can answer her (Wanda) kind of rough. As a matter of fact, I just had prayer before you came in. If something is bothering me I pray about it. Some men’s sins go before them and some men’s sins follow them, those are the ones that show up later. The ones that go before you are the ones that are forgiven. I want my sins to go before me.” Jim assured me, “That’s in the Bible, First Timothy 5:24!”

After our visit I looked up the Bible passage James referred to; and sure enough, just like he said, there it was: “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment and some men they follow after”.

Since the Garden of Eden, men and women have been blaming each other. Remember the story recorded in Genesis chapter three? God commanded Adam and Eve that they could eat of any tree of the Garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then along came the serpent. Of course you know the rest of the story; Eve ate first and then Adam took a bite. When God confronted them Adam said, “The woman you gave me tricked me…” Then Eve said, “The serpent tricked me”. Or, in the words of the old time comedian, Flip Wilson’s, character, Geraldine, “The Devil made me do it”.

The nut hasn’t fallen far from the family tree hast it? We as husbands and wives, as fellow human beings, are still blaming each other. How many times have you contended, “If it weren’t for….then I wouldn’t have….” or “She makes me so…..”?

Several years ago, my wife and I were having serious marital problems, on the verge of divorce. I vividly remember sitting alone at the kitchen table praying, “God if only Susie….” Then suddenly, unexpectedly, God, in his “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12), spoke to me like a father correcting his son, “What are you doing to show her that she is the most important person in your life? There’s no excuse for unholy behavior. You are responsible to me regardless of what anybody else does. You just put me first and I will take care of the rest.” I thank, praise and credit God, that it’s been over thirty years and three daughters ago.

When we try to escape responsibility we end up escaping freedom and forgiveness. For you see, God is willing and able to forgive sins sincerely confessed, but he can’t and won’t forgive excuses. Like my mother always said, “There are no ands, ifs or buts about it.” So, I think we would be wise to follow in James’ footsteps. I sure don’t want any of my sins “following after” me.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (I John 1:8-10)