No Shame

Can you name this character:  Shazam – Sur-prise! Sur-prise! Sur-prise! – G-O-L-L-Y ?  Yes, Gomer Pyle.  Whether in uniform as auto mechanic at Wally’s Filling Station or in a United States Marine uniform, this good-natured and simple-minded character made us laugh and spoke of kinder times!

 

What puts you to shame?  I remember when people used to “blush.”  Yeah, I know that was a long time ago, and I’m not even sure what is shameful these days.  I propose the loss of shame came about when we lost true reverence for Almighty God!  When face-to-face with The Holy, Isaiah cried “Woe is me!” (6:5), and Jeremiah pronounced “We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.” (3:25).  Nonetheless, Believers wink at the sin that surrounds and [even] encompasses them with little or no shame.  Where there is no shame, there is no confession nor repentance … nor forgiveness!  We sin then move on to the next phase of life, chained to the sin that weighs us down.  As Gomer Pyle would say, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”  Oh, let it not be so.  May we never treat frivolously the precious blood of Christ, “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified?” (Hebrews 10:29).  Christ died so we do not have to live in sin, nor in our shame!  The vacant cross reminds us Christ bore our shame, and the empty tomb encourages us to live free and eternally.  Hallelujah – Shazam and G-O-L-L-Y!