Hiding From God.

Reuters - "Dead" man hid in family home for three years

Sunday, 9 December 2007

A man who had been declared dead after a canoeing accident but in fact survived hid in his home for three years before his arrest this week, his wife told British newspapers

"In 2002, Anne Darwin reported her husband missing, saying she feared he had suffered an accident while kayaking in the North Sea near their home in Hartlepool, in Cleveland. A few weeks later the shattered remains of his red kayak were discovered.

- In 2003, following a police inquiry, a coroner declared him dead.

- He turned up at their house a year later.

She didn’t even recognize him at first,"

He was all disheveled but was relieved he was alive,

- They had a lot of debt, in the tens of thousands.

- Only one way out of the situation and that was to fake his death.

- Anne Darwin described how her husband, John, had avoided discovery by using a small passage to an apartment in an adjoining house owned by the couple.

If visitors called, he had to flee through the passage hidden by a wardrobe with a false back. It led to one of several apartments the other house was divided into.

John Darwin was arrested on suspicion of fraud after he sensationally reappeared and walked into a police station claiming amnesia."For three years, while virtually everyone close to us believed John was missing presumed dead, he was actually at home with me," Anne Darwin, who recently left Britain for central America, told the Daily Mirror."We were living as man and wife, although it was far from a conventional life," she added."There were a few hairy moments and I lived in fear of being found out

- She said Darwin had talked to her before his disappearance about faking his death as a way to solve financial problems.

She had been "living a lie" and fears her children would never forgive her.

- He had enough of being dead he wanted contact with his sons

- John desperately wanted contact with the boys.

HIDING FROM GOD

"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." Gen. 3:8.

❶. MEN TRY TO HIDE FROM GOD:

—By trying to forget Him.

—-By thinking Him afar-off.

—By professing agnosticism, infidelity.

❷. HIDING Is IN VAIN.

—Psalm 139:1-12.

—God finds men through— their consciences; the operation of the laws of nature; the Church; the Holy Spirit; the final judgment.

Application:

"Be sure your sin will find you out."

"The eyes of the Lord are in every place."

❸. ALTERNATIVE: WALK WITH GOD

"And Enoch walked with God."

Gen. 5:22.

- We read of walking before, after, and with God.

- Walking before God we have the thought of perfection. Gen. 17: 11.

- Walking after God implies obedience. Deut. 13:4.

-Waling with Gods is friendship and fellowship. Gen. 6:25.

Entailing:

• Service for God.

• Progress in Holy Living.

• Gives Privilege

• Brings Assurance of Safety.

• Gets You Somewhere.

~ God wants us to walk with him. 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Jno. 1:3; Matt. 11:28. The yoke suggests two united.

~ Conditions.

— Acquaintance. Job 22:21.

— Agreement. Amos 3:3.

~ How are we to walk?

1. By faith. 2 Cor. 5:7.

2. In the light. 1 Jno. 1:7.

3. In the newness of life. Rom. 6:4.

4. In the spirit. Gal. 5:16.

5. In love. Eph. 5:1, 2.

6. Circumspectly. Eph. 5:15, 16.

7. Worthily. Eph. 4:1.8