BBD 04.08.16 Stealing the Sign (New)

#1 · April 8, 2016, 12:17 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on April 8, 2016, 12:17 pm
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1713^th

Burning Bush Devotional

8 April 2016

Stealing the Sign

This being
so, I myself always strive to have a conscience
without offense toward God and men. – Acts 24:16 NKJV.

This charge I commit to you, son
Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by
them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a
good conscience…. – 1 Timothy 1:18-19a NKJV.

For if the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying
of the flesh, how much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to
God, CLEANSE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is
the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the
transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. – Hebrews 9:13-15 NKJV.

Signs are
often the target of thieves, the more unusual the sign the more likely it is to
be stolen. Reportedly, the most stolen sign (Actually two signs) is the US 1 Highway sign with the 0 Mile Marker sign in Key West, Florida.
Although there is a road sign in Embden, Maine that may be stolen just as
frequently. The “Katie’s C_____ Road”
sign has cost the city so much money to replace that they want to rename the
road. Some road signs are more important than others, and the removal of them,
or poor maintenance of them can be dangerous. Remove a “Dead End” sign and someone could end up dead. When I ran off a
dead end when I was a teenager, it would have been nice if there had been a
sign. When I was leaving a doctor’s office Wednesday, the street is one way,
and I was puzzled for a moment as to why the sign pointed in the wrong
direction. Apparently, the top screw holding the “One Way” sign in place had come out causing the sign to point the
wrong way.

New
Smyrna Beach Police Department in Florida had a nice surprise
this week and they posted this on their website: “The
City of New Smyrna Beach recently received a strange package in the mail
containing a large metal sign that said, NEW SMYRNA BEACH SAYS NO TO DRUGS. Taped
to the sign was a hand written note which said: ‘Please accept this sign and
funds to reinstall it, as well as my apologies. Sometime in the late 80’s, I
stole this sign in a fit of youthful exuberance. Forgive Me!’ Also inside the
package was a money order for $50.” (New Smyrna Beach Police Department 04.06.16) The person
who stole and returned this sign obviously had a guilty conscience, and it had
been eating on him for 30 years. Of course, some people are not bothered by a
guilty conscience like the man who failed to return a VHS tape to the rental
store 18 years earlier. When he was stopped by a police officer for a traffic
violation it was discovered that there was a warrant for his arrest. The video
rental store was no longer in business, but he still had to pay a $200 fine, and suffer the indignity of being arrested.

Dictionary dot com gives these definitions
for the conscience: “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action; the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual; and, an inhibiting
sense of what is prudent.” I don’t know if you
have ever experienced a guilty conscience, but I have. It is not a pleasant
experience. It took 30 years before the man who had stolen the sign in Smyrna
Beach returned it. This reveals the convicting unrelenting power of the
conscience, and why we should avoid doing or saying anything that we will
regret. Let us say with the apostle Paul: “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God
and men.”

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first
devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison
facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

www.theburningbush.net

www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for Michelle A., Shane Hall, Reta
(my sister), and Beverly (Jeanie’s sister). Please also pray for Max Boothe,
Nathan Reed, Brent Baker, and Tommy Merrell.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. I am in
need of prayer as I have resigned as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in
Cordell, Oklahoma and am now seeking God’s direction for how I am to serve Him.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at edwrather@yahoo.com or
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1713^th

Burning Bush Devotional

8 April 2016

Stealing the Sign

This being
so, I myself always strive to have a conscience
without offense toward God and men. – Acts 24:16 NKJV.

This charge I commit to you, son
Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by
them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a
good conscience…. – 1 Timothy 1:18-19a NKJV.

For if the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying
of the flesh, how much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to
God, CLEANSE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is
the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the
transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. – Hebrews 9:13-15 NKJV.

Signs are
often the target of thieves, the more unusual the sign the more likely it is to
be stolen. Reportedly, the most stolen sign (Actually two signs) is the US 1 Highway sign with the 0 Mile Marker sign in Key West, Florida.
Although there is a road sign in Embden, Maine that may be stolen just as
frequently. The “Katie’s C_____ Road”
sign has cost the city so much money to replace that they want to rename the
road. Some road signs are more important than others, and the removal of them,
or poor maintenance of them can be dangerous. Remove a “Dead End” sign and someone could end up dead. When I ran off a
dead end when I was a teenager, it would have been nice if there had been a
sign. When I was leaving a doctor’s office Wednesday, the street is one way,
and I was puzzled for a moment as to why the sign pointed in the wrong
direction. Apparently, the top screw holding the “One Way” sign in place had come out causing the sign to point the
wrong way.

New
Smyrna Beach Police Department in Florida had a nice surprise
this week and they posted this on their website: “The
City of New Smyrna Beach recently received a strange package in the mail
containing a large metal sign that said, NEW SMYRNA BEACH SAYS NO TO DRUGS. Taped
to the sign was a hand written note which said: ‘Please accept this sign and
funds to reinstall it, as well as my apologies. Sometime in the late 80’s, I
stole this sign in a fit of youthful exuberance. Forgive Me!’ Also inside the
package was a money order for $50.” (New Smyrna Beach Police Department 04.06.16) The person
who stole and returned this sign obviously had a guilty conscience, and it had
been eating on him for 30 years. Of course, some people are not bothered by a
guilty conscience like the man who failed to return a VHS tape to the rental
store 18 years earlier. When he was stopped by a police officer for a traffic
violation it was discovered that there was a warrant for his arrest. The video
rental store was no longer in business, but he still had to pay a $200 fine, and suffer the indignity of being arrested.

Dictionary dot com gives these definitions
for the conscience: “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action; the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual; and, an inhibiting
sense of what is prudent.” I don’t know if you
have ever experienced a guilty conscience, but I have. It is not a pleasant
experience. It took 30 years before the man who had stolen the sign in Smyrna
Beach returned it. This reveals the convicting unrelenting power of the
conscience, and why we should avoid doing or saying anything that we will
regret. Let us say with the apostle Paul: “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God
and men.”

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first
devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison
facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

http://www.theburningbush.net

http://www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for Michelle A., Shane Hall, Reta
(my sister), and Beverly (Jeanie’s sister). Please also pray for Max Boothe,
Nathan Reed, Brent Baker, and Tommy Merrell.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. I am in
need of prayer as I have resigned as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in
Cordell, Oklahoma and am now seeking God’s direction for how I am to serve Him.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at edwrather@yahoo.com or
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org