When some attorneys pointed out to Seattle residences that a fee on their water bill for servicing hydrants should be taken from the general tax fund and not placed on their water bill, the residents banned together to sue the city. The Washington Supreme Court agreed and ordered customer refunds averaging $45. However, Seattle then discovered it had insufficient general funds to pay for hydrant service and thus imposed a water surcharge of $59 per customer. The most likely reason the surcharge was higher is that the city had to pay $4.2 million to the attorneys who filed the account-shuffling lawsuit. In the end it all comes back to you anyway. I feel bad for Seattleites but I understand why this happens. We are all tempted to take the easy road and find a shortcut but often this path ends up putting us in more peril. This is very true in spiritual things. We can not sow without reaping. Wide paths and cheap grace may sound good but lead to destruction. Godly people need patience to stay on the strait and narrow and avoid pitfalls that the easy road contains.
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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