making money

Last week I learned that a man I had been writing to for a little more than a

year, had sold seventeen of my letters to an autograph collector. The collector,

in turn, was offering them on eBay.

I've been through situations like this before, and it always hurts.

But there's nothing new under the sun. Because so many people are greedy and selfish ,these things will happen.

This individual, Paul, is about my age. He has three grown kids, one of whom has been struggling with a drug addiction problem.

I don't remember the circumstances in which Paul first wrote to me. As a Christian I had responded to him in kindness. I also tried to share the gospel with Paul, as well as encourage him whenever I could.

He seemed like a nice guy. Of course people know how to be nice when they want something. Just ask Eve, and I'm sure she'd tell you that the serpent whoultimately deceived her was just as nice.

Now I see that a man whom I thought was my friend, was a Judas. Obviously he had another agenda. Paul really wanted to get letters from me, and then sell them when he felt that the time was right.

I suppose, too, that every Christian has at least one Judas in his life. I've already known a dozen!

But for me this has been yet another "live and learn" experience.

I have already forgiven Paul in my heart. I will continue to pray for him and his family. They are lost without the Lord, even if none of them know it.

As Jesus said so well, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

(Matthew 16;26)

I pray that, wherever he is, Paul is thinking about this.

David Berkowitz

February 27, 2004