I had another phone scammer call today. He claimed he was from Microsoft and he wanted to fix my computer which unbeknownst to me was sending out dangerous signals. All I needed was to download some software he had for me. Very nicely and very calmly I said to him, “You should be ashamed of yourself. You know you are going to go to hell if you keep doing this to people.”
Wow, I don’t think I ever said anything like that to anyone prior to today. Later as I was raking leaves I wondered if I was wrong to say that. I didn’t wish him to go to hell. I didn’t tell him to go to hell. I merely made an observation that should he continue trying to scam people that is where he was going to end up. I was merely telling his fortune.
In Matthew 23 Jesus was very forthright about telling the future of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” That’s pretty frank language.
How very interesting chapter 23 closes with Him saying something so very poignant. “. . . how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” As upset as He was with them He still loved them. He still wanted them to change. So the question is did I love the scammer whose fortune I told? I have a long way to go.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 9, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org