Stealing in the Name of God

I’ve got this great message design with Jesus hanging on the Cross and the words, He’s dying to meet you, printed to his right and the citation John 3:16 to His left. The cross is blood-stained and the whole thing is really touching. I just wish it were mine. But it’s not.

I came across the design on a card more than 30 years ago and liked it; so I saved the card. Over the years I’ve been on the lookout for a cap or T-shirt or mug with the design, but have not been able to locate one.

About five years ago I wrote to the address on the back of the card asking for permission to use the design on ScriptureStuff products. I received no reply although the letter was never returned indicating the recipient could not be found. I even scoured the internet trying to find the design, but still nothing. So about a year ago I created a message design using the art work. But I never felt easy about it. Fortunately, I’ve never sold a product with the John 3:16 message design but I’d still really like to.

What I don’t want to do is sell products with the design and have the owner come out of the woodwork and call me a theft. Then I’d have to make restitution in accordance with 2 Samuel 12 and Exodus 22:1-4. Now I know this rule is not followed in the world of publications, particularly internet publications. It is also not followed in the world of T-shirt designs. And not all who market Christian T-shirts follow Biblical principles. But as I want the business and my life to be profitable I’ve got to satisfy myself that I’ve made every effort to contact the rightful owner.

Hence: ScriptureStuff is seeking permission to use the John 3:16 (Jesus on the Cross) design and desires to discuss terms of agreement for such use.

The owner of this design should contact ScriptureStuff via email at admin@ScriptureStuff.com within six (6) months from today, December 1, 2010.

Until contacted within the six (6) month period and satisfactory arrangements are made for ScriptureStuff use of the design, ScriptureStuff will maintain a separate and proper accounting of all sales for turnover of proceeds to the rightful owner of the design if arrangements for ScriptureStuf use cannot be made.

If not contacted within six (6) months by the rightful owner of the design, ScriptureStuff will assume the design is now in the public domain and continue production without regard to future claims.

　Really hope to hear from someone!

Liberation?

Upwards of 1 million dead,
a nation destroyed,
then abandoned.


Daily blackouts,
worms in the drinking water,
garbage piled up for days.


Disease rampant,
infant mortality high,
and mutated births routine.


A very wise member of my congregation told me,
“ . . . you don’t have to be the one to fix all the problems you see.”

It is amazing how sound advice to individuals
is often applicable to a nation.

God's Problem

I won’t keep you in suspense. It’s tomorrow.
That’s it! God’s problem is tomorrow.

It’s always there.
No matter the offense, tomorrow remains. And tomorrow God is still
good1 and loving and will accept our repentance, and forgive us and
strengthen us for the chore ahead.

That person you would become with God’s help . . . that person can
always be, tomorrow --
always there delaying your decision, then your action.
Ever present, but just out of reach,
equivalent to “later” but with a positive spin,
as if an appointment is being set for action
forward looking . .
so much better than never, yet too often the same
plaguing today, daring it to be great.

-----------------------

1That is quite a statement –> “God is still good . . .” Do say? That’s like saying God is God. God defines good. Good is derived from God.

Our Mistake

They looked for him as a mighty warrior, a king who would lead them to greatness, a ruler with whom they would rule over the Romans. They were not prepared to find Him within.

Our mistake is similar. Even with the New Testament as our guide we have sought an external ruler, one who would make things right for us by subduing our oppressors; one who would see the wrongs of the world and fix them. We did not see our role or the empowerment of the Spirit to carry it out by our words.

Reading but not recognizing that God created all by the power of His word and that we were created to be like Him, we continued to look to the future for the likeness to occur. And we waited, and waited and waited.

Many still wait vowing to be ready at His appearance.
___________________

Genesis 1:26 (KJV) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 5:1 (KJV) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;