Do You Have the Right Guy?

Scripture References: 2 Kings 23:36, 24:8; Acts 21:37-38

The Navy twice arrested William Finch and hauled him in as a deserter, though he is not in the Navy. Someone used his name and social security number when enlisting, then went AWOL. At Great Lakes Training Center, contradictions between the real culprit and Finch became obvious: Finch is five feet seven inches, the culprit is five feet four inches. Finch weighs 220 pounds; the culprit weighs 140.

Marine veteran Richard Cronin was baffled when the FBI arrested him on a drug charge. A day later the FBI decided they had the wrong Cronin. Had they checked the vital statistics of both men, they wouldn’t have made the mistake. The Marine veteran Cronin was forty-nine; the drug dealer Cronin was in his twenties. The Marine veteran, while from Massachusetts, didn’t have the same accent as the Massachusetts Cronin on the FBI tape. Their wives also had different names.

Our spiritual separation from God hasn’t destroyed our inventive genius, but it has robbed us of infallibility. That is why we can compile complete dossiers on all known criminals, but we cannot keep law enforcement officials from misidentifying suspects. When we bring back to God the mind he created in his image, we will immediately experience a sharpening of our senses and discover ways to unerringly express ourselves. That repentance will not occur in this world, but our reborn soul gives a hint of what the next world offers, when all our senses will be perfected and glorified, and totally at God’s behest!

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.