Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: November 30

“That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without…” ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:12a

“Here is a “pleasant stone” fragment which many do not think is so pleasant. “That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without” Christ.

No better place to apply this than the “time when all [go] to be taxed.” Our income tax reports seem somehow to be so private and so personal and so utterly “no one’s business but our own,” that we are tempted to exclude the Lord too!

It is a tragedy, but it is also a truth, that some Christians do exclude Him here. And yet, honestly is not only the “best policy,” it is the only one which does not cloud our fellowship with God.

One man who is a successful tax consultant and not a Christian, only smiled at me when I told him I had become a Christian. He had three Christian clients. At least only three made a point of giving him tracts and witnessing to their own “salvation.” He smiled at me, unimpressed, because for years he had been helping to juggle the accounts of two of his three “saved” clients.

When we juggle our tax report, or “shade the truth” in order to clear ourselves with someone socially, we are only telling “those without” that He is not quite sufficient. He can’t quite take care of His own. We need to check ourselves. At “the time when all go to be taxed” or at the time of hating to be misunderstood so much that we should lie to avoid it!

“He is able to succour them that are tempted … he is able to keep you from falling.”