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A few months ago a young boy moved into a house just over the wall from me. He was quiet and pretty shy, so I visited him a bit to help with reading and math, and then eventually he got involved with my Bible club.

Because he always obeyed me I thought he wasn’t a problem……

But I was wrong

Around me this boy would always be respectful to people. But when he wasn’t around me, he would be rude to people, and had a very bad habit of stealing their things. I learned this last week after we had done some painting at the church.

We took one of the paint brushes and put it in some gasoline on a sink in my backyard. When I went with a friend to wash my car he noticed it was missing, so we looked around the yard, but couldn’t find it. Later that afternoon my neighbor found it in his yard because the young man had stolen it, and carried it into their yard.

I waited for him to show up that afternoon so we could walk to Bible club, wondering if he would tell the truth. When I asked him about the paint brush he just looked at me with a confused face and claimed not to know anything about it. After telling him I had found it, he immediately confessed.

Since then I’ve learned of many times he has lied to people

I talked to him yesterday and calmly explained he was banned from coming to any of my activities for a while because of his selfish actions. Cutting ties with him is hard, but necessary if he is going to understand the seriousness of what his actions.

Of course discipline is just the first step……..

Then I must convict him about his sin.

It’s easy for a rebellious child to be convicted about their sin because it is obvious for everyone to see. But a “good child” is hard to be convicted because they don’t look sinful (of course I put the words “good child” in parenthesis because they aren’t good). Because they are usually obedient and quiet people are always talking about how GOOD THEY ARE, when in reality their hearts are incredibly dirty from sin.

Please pray for me as I begin sharing the Gospel with this young man named Deshawn soon. May I be able to explain clearly that obeying the rules will not let you into Heaven. God knows the sin of your heart, and its your heart that must be transformed by the Gospel of Christ