Convicted and Marked

I heard the most amazing story in church yesterday morning; I do not know where the story originated and do not claim ownership of this story.

A man was sitting in a church service one morning. At the end of the pastor's message, an altar call was given. At this point, the man got up and walked out of the church.

The pastor saw the man a few days later and asked the man why he had left. The man's reply was that he had heard a dog barking. The pastor responded by saying that no one else heard a dog, but the man replied that he'd heard a dog barking, and the dog was real.

The man then went on to tell his story. When the man was a young boy, a neighbor owned a vary valuable dog. The boy stole the dog one night and sold it to get money. During the pastor's sermon, the man was so convicted of what he had done that he had to leave the church and go immediately to the home of the man who had owned the dog. The dog's owner was no longer living, but the man went to family of the of the owner who still lived in the home and confessed that he had stolen the dog and wanted to pay back the money he received for selling the dog plus interest. The family did not want the money, but the man insisted on paying what he owed.

The man then went to the home of the person to whom he had sold the dog. He confessed to the persons in that home what he had done and asked their forgiveness.

This man was marked by his experience during the service that morning. Not only was he convicted of what he had done, but it affected him so deeply that he had to immediately get up and do whatever it took to make the matter right. He confessed his sin and made restitution.

I have to ask myself if I have ever been convicted to the point that I HAD to do something to acknowledge my wrong. Have you every been convicted of some wrong doing? Were you so marked by the experience that you had to do whatever it took to make the situation right or to make up for what you had done as much as you possibly could regardless of the cost to you?

If we are truly convicted of sin in our life, it should result in a change. We should not be able to continue on with our lives without doing everything we can to make the matter right. God has to be able to reach us in a deep and meaningful way. Anything less is probably a sham and allows us to continue living superficial lives that do not allow us to truly glorify God. We see an example of this in Luke 19:8 when Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus telling him to come down from the tree. Zacchaeus was so convicted of the wrong doing in his life that he immediately said that he would give half of his possessions to the poor, and that if he had cheated anyone out of anything, he would pay back four times the amount. Jesus responded that salvation had come to Zacchaeus' house that day.

How different this world would be if we were all so convicted by God of our wrong doings.