Chapter 9 - Page 132 - New Passion

    Jim thought about the sermon and the stories Reverend Morris told. He thought it had been an excellent sermon. He thought about the songs he and Rhasha had sung. He knew the congregation didn’t understand what the songs meant, but the music was pretty to their ears. Jim remembered a scripture in the Bible that said something about “as a very lovely song,” but he couldn’t remember where he’d read it.

    He rose and retrieved his Strong’s Concordance and started a search for the scripture by looking up the word, song. Sure enough, he found the sentence: “art unto them as a very lovely song.” It was in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 33, verse 32. He opened his Bible and found what he was looking for near the end of chapter 33. He read it again, beginning from verse 30. He paid special attention when he got to verse 31: “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”

    Then Jim read verse 32, the verse he had been looking for: “And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.”

    Jim thought about that. He remembered all the people who had been in the church that morning. They were people whose only thoughts were of survival. They didn’t have much opportunity to sin against God. Jim knew people in the States who professed Jesus as savior, but committed sins on a continual basis. Supposedly, they would go to heaven. These people, he thought, have very little influence from
sin, but because they don’t know Jesus, they could die and go to hell. He found this ironic.

End of chapter nine