A Warning To Us All

On September 29 a man by the name of Caleb Flynn was convicted of murder. He had murdered his wife of nearly sixteen years. They had what appeared to be a beautiful family together with two girls, ages 10 & 12. Initially Caleb reported that there was an intruder that broke into their house and shot his wife. Later the police uncovered the truth. He was having an affair for over a year with a woman almost half his age. The police discovered over 100,000 text messages showing the affair and his hatred toward his wife. So what led him to murder? Caleb wanted to avoid a costly divorce, have custody of his kids and keep his lucrative position at his wife’s family owned business. His solution to all of this was to kill his wife and try to cover it up. Unsuccessful in his plans, Caleb was found guilty and now awaits sentencing where he can serve  life in prison.

But there is more to the story. The case has gained a lot of attention because Caleb was a contestant on American Idol back in 2013. And if that was not enough, Caleb is a worship pastor for a local church. That is right, Caleb was supposedly a christian man who was a paid worship pastor at Christian Life Center in Dayton, Ohio. And the woman he was having the affair with was a young lady that was a worship intern at the same church. The congregation was shocked. There was a range of emotions with some of them calling Caleb a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I know what you are thinking. This disgusts you. You are looking your nose down at Caleb right now reading this. How could a man calling himself a christian do such a thing? And a pastor no less?!?! But before we get too comfortable on our self righteous throne looking down on Caleb, let us use this story as a warning to all of us. No one just wakes up one day and decides to kill their spouse. There are various circumstances that slowly add up  & that lead to something like this. For Caleb, this all started with a lustful thought. Which is something we all have had at one point or another. These lustful thoughts then lead to action. He gave in and started having an affair. The lust led to betrayal. Betrayal led to lies and deceit. Over time this led to anger and resentment. And then the anger and resentment lead to murder. All because of one initial lustful thought.

The lesson here is that all of us can be misguided by our sinful desires. We have all had lustful thoughts. We have all harbored anger and resentment at some point in our lives. It's through these sinful desires that the devil gets a foothold in our hearts. When we toy with these emotions and entertain them, this leads to sinful actions. And that is the point. We are all capable of any sinful action. We all, even as christians, have a flesh that still deeply desires to act on sinful desires. If you would have asked Caleb back in 2013 when he was on American Idol if he could ever imagine murdering his wife, he would have thought you were crazy. Yet it happened. He texted his girlfriend he had the affair with, "I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail. If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat. This is how dark and hateful I feel." What changed? Him giving into the flesh. Allowing himself to be carried away by sinful desires.

Now, because of his sins, his wife is dead and he is facing life in prison. On top of that, his two girls now have lost both of their parents. All because of Caleb engaging in his sinful desires. My friends, take note and do not play with sin. What starts off as just a thought or emotion will lead to much worse. Do not give the devil a foothold. Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies. Always be killing sin in your life by walking in the Spirit.  Do not let it fester in your heart. As Richard Baxter wisely said, “And the longer you delay, the more your sin gets strength and rooting. If you cannot bend a twig, how will you be able to bend it when it is a tree?”