When is the Last Time You Stole?

Hello! I hope that this finds each of you well and blessed!

I had to laugh when I realized the last time I published a blog post was almost two months ago, and that was celebrating three years of blogging. A bit ironic, to me at least. I haven't disappeared, but I have always felt that this blog was a place to share as God led me and I've never wanted to force anything or come up with anything just to "be out there" in the blogosphere, or to keep readership up, or anything like that.

These last couple months my free time has been taken up with completing a paper I started last September. At that time a lady in our homeschool group asked how I'd become a young earth Creationist (she had a man in her church who had never heard of it until she'd brought it up, and was being challenged by some things she'd given him). I sat down to shoot her a quick answer and realized I couldn't—the different parallel, and at times converging, paths God took me down in my journey from God-mocking atheist, to Christian theistic evolutionist, to staunch young earth Creationist were so many, and so varied, it took me even by surprise. So, I started to write about it, and then to write about why I believe that stand matters and is critical in this culture, and about why I don't think we need to be ashamed of it or apologize for it . . . and it has turned in to quite a paper!

I am almost done with that paper (Mary Ann is reading it over and then I'll format it after I put in final changes), and when I am I'll put a link on here for a PDF copy of it in case anyone is interested. With that said, I'll probably be blogging a lot in the next few months about some things God has shown me in it, and in my study of the universe and its wonders, but for now I had a couple of questions (not for you to answer to anyone other than yourself) to ask, and I'll follow up with another blog post soon explaining them. I know they sort of overlap one another, but they are just to get you thinking about a theme.

Questions:
1. When was the last time you stole something?
2. When was the last time you looked at something that wasn't yours and gave serious consideration to taking it for yourself?
3. When was the last time you took seriously the idea you might steal, or do what you want, with something that was someone else's, without their permission?
4. How would you feel inside if someone accused you of stealing and said you were a thief who had no qualms about taking what wasn't yours for your own selfish needs and reasons?

God willing I'll "talk" to you soon. Until then, God bless you and may you go through your day deeply aware of His love for you and His close presence.   —Erick