The Wallet<\/b><\/p>\n
John was driving home late one night when he picked up a hitchhiker. As they rode along, he began to be suspicious of his passenger. John checked to see if his wallet was safe in the pocket of his coat that was on the seat between them, but it wasn\u2019t there! So he slammed on the brakes, ordered the hitchhiker out, and said, \u201cHand over the wallet immediately!\u201d <\/p>\n
The frightened hitchhiker handed over a billfold, and John drove off. When he arrived home, he started to tell his wife about the experience, but she interrupted him, saying, \u201cBefore I forget, John, do you know that you left your wallet at home this morning?\u201d<\/p>\n
Our Daily Bread, October 2, 1992<\/p>\n
The Counselee<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the saddest and scariest stories I\u2019ve ever heard was about a young evangelist. He was just barely 21, on fire for God, effective in his preaching and soul-winning, and in great demand from local churches. He had preached several large crusades and was soon invited to an area-wide effort at which he would be the main speaker. Though he was not yet even out of college, he was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of international evangelist, Sammy Tippit, and was admired and considered wise. Though he didn\u2019t have a steady girlfriend, he dated regularly at Bible college. Spiritually he was alert and mature. He was, however, naive. <\/p>\n
The first night of the crusade he headed up the counseling ministry in a large room near the pastor\u2019s study. A beautiful teen-ager asked if she could speak with him personally. He tried to assign her to someone else, but when she persisted, he agreed for her to wait until he was finished with the others. More than an hour after the meeting had ended, the rest of the counselors and counselees had left, and he was alone with the young girl. A few minutes later she burst from the room, screaming, \u201cHe made a pass at me! He wanted to make love to me!\u201d <\/p>\n
That very night the pastor of the host church and a small group of the crusade planners confronted the young preacher and demanded an explanation. He denied the girl\u2019s charge but had no witnesses. The girl had seemed an upstanding young woman in the church, and there was no reason to disbelieve her story. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did happen in that room?\u201d the pastor demanded. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo tell you that would to be to make an accusation behind someone\u2019s back,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich is what happened to me. I ask only that I be allowed to face my accuser.\u201d <\/p>\n
The pastor and the others canceled the rest of the crusade and agreed that the young woman should be asked to face the preacher in their presence. Two nights later she showed up with her parents at a private board meeting. The pastor asked if she would care to speak about her charges against the preacher. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe has already said all she has to say, \u201cher father said sternly, her mother nodding and glaring at the accused. <\/p>\n
\u201cWould you, son, care to share your version of what happened in that room the other night?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, sir,\u201d the evangelist said. \u201cI see no future in that. Only she and I know the truth, and I cannot defend myself. I\u2019d just like to say this to her. Cindy, you know what happened and what didn\u2019t happen in that room. If you don\u2019t tell the truth, I will be branded and may never preach again. This will damage my reputation and that of this church, and even that of God. If I did what you say I did, I deserve no better, but we both know that is not the truth. I\u2019m begging you in the name of Christ to set the record straight.\u201d The silence hung heavy as the board and her parents watched her face contort into a grimace before the tears began to flow. <\/p>\n
\u201cI lied,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cI\u2019m sorry. I lied. He didn\u2019t make a pass at me; I made a pass at him. When he turned me down I was so embarrassed and ashamed and angry that I made up that story. I\u2019m so sorry!\u201d <\/p>\n
Hedges, Jerry Jenkins, 1989, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, pp. 76-78<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Wallet John was driving home late one night when he picked up a hitchhiker. As they rode along, he began to be suspicious of his passenger. John checked to see if his wallet was safe in the pocket of his coat that was on the seat between them, but it wasn\u2019t there! So he … Continue reading “Accusation (false)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}