Who Stole the Cookie?

Do you remember that little clapping/singsong game we used to play as a child?  It goes like this:

"Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?  Number 8 stole the cookie from the cookie jar!  Who ME?  Yes, YOU!  Not ME...couldn't be! Then WHO stole the cookie from the cookie jar?  Number 3 stole the cookie from the cookie jar!"  and the game goes on and on until we get tired of it.

I was reminded of that little game this morning as I thought about a sermon that Rex preached recently from 2 Timothy 3:1-5.  Let me preface this by reminding you that the "rapture" of believers was predicted to occur on May 21.  What does God's Word say about that?  Jesus told his followers that no one would know the day or the hour.  Timothy, a follower of Christ, said this:

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power..."

Rex cautioned us against pointing the finger at others and being judgmental.  As I looked at this list, it hit me...but for the grace of God, there go I!!  I could look at this list and see myself in every single one of those words and phrases that describe what men will be like in the last days...and it all boils down to this...I am a sinner, and I am selfish!  I love myself more than I love others... I want to blame others when things go wrong!!  Which brings me back to that little game...who stole the cookie...and I want to say, "Not ME!!  Number 3 did it!!" 

Honestly, I am tired of that little game!  Not that I won't pick it up and start playing it again, but I long to get to the place in my life when I no longer see the specks in other people's eyes, because the log in mine is so big!  I long to get to the place in my life when I think that the little, insignificant, wrong things I do are no big deal, when I know they are huge to God.  I know that I will never be perfect this side of heaven...there was only one perfect man who walked this earth...but Rex continually reminds us that, "It's not perfection, it's direction!"

Are you headed in the right direction?  For in the last days, men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...holding to a form of godliness, but denying its power...