“And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds in thine hands?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends’” (Zechariah 13:6).
I was guest speaker at a men’s meeting held 70 miles away from the host church at a retreat center owned and run by the Baptists of that part of the state. My drive there required 115 miles–up the interstate, onto the U.S. highway, followed by a state road, county road, and finally something resembling a squirrel trail.
That night, as we left the large room where we had held our evening session, I asked a leader, “Will someone lock up?” Our materials still lay on the tables.
He said, “This place is so remote that thieves would never find it if they were trying.” We laughed.
He was right, except for one thing.
Sometimes, the thieves are among us. We bring them in with us.
Administrators of religious retreats say their biggest threat is not from thieves or burglars who come onto their property and break in. Their guests give them all the trouble they can handle.
Even church people can be thieves.
Judas was a disciple and a thief.
A young mother told me she had started teaching her four-year-old son to protect himself from molesters. She talked to him about inappropriate touching and prepped him on how to report such behavior to mommy and daddy.
The child said, “Mom, if a bad guy tries to do something bad to me, I will tell him about Jesus.”
I said to her, “It is true he has to watch out for bad guys. But in my experience, the biggest threat to your son will come from people he knows and trusts. Uncles, cousins, best friends, ministers, teachers. Even dads and grandpas.”
I know fathers who are in prison at this moment for molesting their own children.