I’ve sold some of Adam’s books from college on Ebay. Because of the weight of the books and the high cost of shipping, I list everything as going “USPS Media Mail.” With media mail, you get a cheaper rate, but it’s a lower priority to the post office. I always list and ship the books with media mail shipping and I have bought and sold several dozen books. There is one book we sold that was going to California. The girl purchased it on Sunday, August 14th. I shipped it Monday, August 15th. She has emailed me twice in the last 4 days because she has not received it yet. Media mail says it can take 8-10 days to receive it. Today is 10 days. The USPS doesn’t allow you to add tracking to media mail, so it’s in “limbo” until it’s received. I told the girl in my reply today, “I wish it would have arrived faster, but I’m afraid we have no choice but to give it a little more time.” She will not be happy when she receives that response. She wants it tracked, but that’s not possible. I’m not telling her what she wants to hear, but I am telling her the truth. The fact is she has to wait for it. If it doesn’t arrive by the middle of next week I’ll have to consider refunding her money, but we’re not at that point yet.
Too often we want to hear what we want to hear. Sometimes when we tell people the truth it gets us in trouble. It got Jesus in trouble. In John 10:31-39 the Jews once again want to kill Jesus. Jesus asked what good works they wanted to kill Him for, and they said they didn’t want to kill Him because of His good works, but rather wanted to kill Him because He was a man, yet was making Himself God.
The problem is the truth can sometimes be twisted, stretched, and misunderstood. There are times it’s absolutely clear to one person and the other person doesn’t get it. I think of one time when I heard a preacher preach that even Judas wasn’t condemned. I can’t reconcile that with Mark 14:21 which says, “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” When I asked the person about this Scripture he said, “How do we know that wasn’t added later?” How do you argue with that? I guess you don’t.
One argument I could make is that Jesus is talking about us all. We all betray Him in different ways. The truth is there will be woe for us all unless we confess, repent, and put our faith in Christ. I would rather see the pastor err in the direction of all being condemned than none. That is closer to the truth. That being said, there is another truth. God has made a way of escape,that being Jesus Christ. That’s the truth and it’s good to hear.
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