Let Him Save Himself (8 of 9)
Series: Whose Line Is It?
Jeff Strite
Matthew 27:39-43
OPEN: April 15th was just this past week, and I ran across this bit of information about the IRS that I wanted to share with you this morning. According to the "Newhouse News Service:"
Over the past 193 years, the federal government has received approximately $4 million in unsolicited funds from guilt stricken Americans who feel they have cheated the government and want to clear their consciences.
Such money is usually received anonymously and is added to the Treasury Department’s obscure “Conscience Fund” almost every day. In recent years, the fund has received a check for 16 cents to cover the cost of two 8 cent stamps the donor said he had illegally reused. Another check was for $50 to cover the cost of a theft the donor said he had committed at an unnamed railway station 58 years earlier. Occasionally, the amounts are substantial. A few years back the government received, out of the blue, a $139,000 payment to settle old income tax debts.
The 1st deposit of conscience money is believed to have been made in 1811 during James Madison’s presidency and amounted to $5. Officials at the Treasury Dept. say that money has arrived in a steady trickle ever since, usually accompanied by brief letters explaining why the donors are sending the funds and offering their apologies, like this excerpt from a recent donor:
“While I was in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years, I took a few things that did not belong to me. I am now a Christian and would like to make it right. I don’t know the exact value but this $100 should cover it.”
APPLY: People react in unpredictable ways to the things of life that bother them.
Some have their consciences stirred and they attempt to make right what they once did wrong.
But then there are other people, who not only don’t let their conscience bother them… they go out of their way to destroy and humiliate anything or anyone who makes them feel infe ...
Series: Whose Line Is It?
Jeff Strite
Matthew 27:39-43
OPEN: April 15th was just this past week, and I ran across this bit of information about the IRS that I wanted to share with you this morning. According to the "Newhouse News Service:"
Over the past 193 years, the federal government has received approximately $4 million in unsolicited funds from guilt stricken Americans who feel they have cheated the government and want to clear their consciences.
Such money is usually received anonymously and is added to the Treasury Department’s obscure “Conscience Fund” almost every day. In recent years, the fund has received a check for 16 cents to cover the cost of two 8 cent stamps the donor said he had illegally reused. Another check was for $50 to cover the cost of a theft the donor said he had committed at an unnamed railway station 58 years earlier. Occasionally, the amounts are substantial. A few years back the government received, out of the blue, a $139,000 payment to settle old income tax debts.
The 1st deposit of conscience money is believed to have been made in 1811 during James Madison’s presidency and amounted to $5. Officials at the Treasury Dept. say that money has arrived in a steady trickle ever since, usually accompanied by brief letters explaining why the donors are sending the funds and offering their apologies, like this excerpt from a recent donor:
“While I was in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years, I took a few things that did not belong to me. I am now a Christian and would like to make it right. I don’t know the exact value but this $100 should cover it.”
APPLY: People react in unpredictable ways to the things of life that bother them.
Some have their consciences stirred and they attempt to make right what they once did wrong.
But then there are other people, who not only don’t let their conscience bother them… they go out of their way to destroy and humiliate anything or anyone who makes them feel infe ...
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