Tony was a Thief

Thursday Devotional 12-4-14 (Montevideo, Uruguay)    Eph 1-4

S.  Eph 4:28  If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need.  NLT

O.  The Apostle Paul knows that very likely some of these new converts to Christ had been thieves.  It was in their blood.  It was what they were and it was what they did.  But now they were to recognize their new life in Christ.  They were to stop doing what they had been doing.  Some were born in a thief’s home and trained up as a thief.  Now after coming to Christ they are told go out and get a real job and start giving to the poor.  They will cease to be takers and become givers.

A.  Tony was a taker.  He was known as El Gitano (the Gypsy).  He and his gang were into thievery and armed robbery.  He was deathly afraid of the police.  He had served time in several prisons.  He had shot a policeman in a gunfight and seriously wounded him in the foot.  It was in his blood.  Tony was a thief.  Then one Saturday night he and his gang came walking into our all-night coffee and singing and preaching marathon in La Boca.  He showed great interest and actually began attending faithfully.  One night his gang came to the door of La Boca church and yelled insults at Julio, one of our workers that had treated Tony for a stabbing wound on one occasion.  Tony bolted out the door and chased them down… only to find that they had planted a policeman around the corner to arrest him.  In ten minutes he was back in church… but really disgusted at himself for falling into their trap.  He told me… “That cost me 30 pesos.”  He had bribed the policeman to let him go free.  But Tony seemed to be making positive strides in his new life in Christ.  One night we were all praying.  He was down on his knees with the rest of us, but he was deeply troubled.  He confessed to me that he was suffering temptation. “Is it women?” I asked him.  “No.  I am tempted to steal.” He replied.  We prayed together. 

He was now sleeping upstairs in the church along with several young men Bible school students, since he had formerly been living in a brothel.  The next morning he tried to awaken Willie, one of our Bible student workers.  “Willie, wake up!  I need you to go for a walk with me!”  But Willie couldn’t make himself wake up.  So Tony took the church keys from Willie’s pants pocket, went downstairs and entered the locked storage room and stole our 16 mm projector, transformer and portable screen… and disappeared.  I never saw Tony again.  I wept and went to the brothel where he had formerly lived.  I roamed those dark streets at night hoping to see him.  He was not there.  I sought him with tears.  I was not concerned for the loss of the projector.  I was concerned for his soul.  He was a lost sheep and I was his pastor.  

Years later I was told that Tony showed up at the church in La Boca and asked to see Rafael.  I had long since moved on.  He told someone there that he knew where the projector was and wanted to return it… but he wanted to see me.  And that was the last I ever heard of him.  Tony was a thief.  That’s what he thought he was.  That’s what he did. 

Many think they are homosexuals.  They say that is what they are.  That is what they do.  Almost every one of them that has spoken to me in private has told me how they were sexually abused by some homosexual man when a child or adolescent.  And somehow they were made to think, “Now, this is what I am.  It is what I do.”  Thief, homosexual, liar, expert at deception… and the list goes on and on.  Somewhere in that list we all find ourselves.  It is what we were.  It was what we did.  We saw ourselves as trapped in that lifestyle.  It was our identity. 

But then we met Christ. Things changed, we found new friends. We started to attend church.  We prayed and read the Bible.  But Satan came around to drag us back into his trap.  He said, “Who do you think you are!?  You know you are a thief.  You know you are a helpless homosexual. You know that it is your identity.  What makes you think that you can change that?” 

It is then that we need someone to walk with us down the path. We need someone’s help. We need a Christian friend. Our past is trying to close the door to a new and free future.  May I stir myself awake and walk with that trembling soul until he or she breaks into full freedom in Jesus Christ!

P.  Oh Jesus!  Oh Jesus!  I still pray for Tony!  I still weep for Tony!  Maybe he is still alive.  Maybe he is still hiding somewhere from the police.  Maybe he is back in prison again.  You know where he is.  Please, Jesus, go find Tony!  Take a Christian friend to him.  If there is life, there is still hope.  Don’t let him fall into the terrors of hell.  Oh Lord, so many are trapped into thinking they are something that they are not.  They see their sinful lifestyle as their identity.  They see no hope of change.  But Jesus, You are Our Miracle working Jesus. Help us to find them. Then please break the chains of Satan that have bound them for years.  Bring them into holy freedom…  freedom to serve You and live with You forever.  Amen.

Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers — none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you. 1 Cor 6:9-11 NLT