Tag Archives: sin

A Grieving Father

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My mom died in 1996, but I can still remember how hard it was to watch my father’s grief. He was lost without her. I remember making the 60 mile trip every weekend to be with him, just to sit with him, take a ride in the car with him, watch an old movie with him, just to do what I could to help ease the burden of his grief. It’s not that I wasn’t grieving. I was. But somehow his grief looked different than mine.

When my sister lost her son in an automobile accident, watching her grief was, and is hard. There is a sadness in her smile, a tear in her laughter. And as someone who loves her, her grief breaks my heart. Watching someone you love go through tremendous grief has to effect you, too, doesn’t it?

So when I was reading in Genesis 37 this morning about Jacob’s grief over his son Joseph’s supposed death, I thought of Dad and Peggy. I could almost picture the look on Jacob’s face in the days and weeks following the horrible news because I could picture their look.

Then I found myself getting a little angry at Joseph’s brothers. How could those ten men watch their father’s grief over losing Joseph, when any one of them could have stepped up and told the truth? They had it within their power to relieve Jacob’s grief. And they did nothing. Jacob would have paid any price to buy Joseph’s freedom from slavery. Couldn’t just one of the ten of them care enough for their father to do what could be done to bring their brother back?

Maybe the brothers really did hate Joseph. But didn’t they love their dad?

Then it hit me. My Heavenly Father is grieving over his own lost children. His heart is broken when any of his children deny him, or ignore him. He agonizes over those who have yet to hear of Jesus. Every sin committed against my Heavenly Father is like a knife in the heart.

Couldn’t just one of us who are a part of his household, his family, care enough about our Father to do what can be done to relieve our Father’s grief? God will pay anything… he’s paid with his life… to buy his children out of slavery to sin.

Witnessing to a lost friend isn’t just about that friend. It’s also about our grieving Heavenly Father’s agony over our lost friend. I have to ask myself if I’m ok, knowing my Father grieves, and doing nothing about it. Can I love my Father and still be ok if he is grieving?

We Christians are in the same place Joseph’s brothers were in. We know the truth. Maybe it’s time we stepped up and did something about it.

Dear Heavenly Father, picturing you grieving over unsaved people breaks my heart. I love you. I want to picture you with a smile on your face, not tears streaming down your cheeks. What can I do to bring that smile back? Do you want me to talk to my neighbor today? Do you want me to call that person you’ve laid on my heart? Do you want me to introduce you to the waitress at the restaurant, my hair dresser, my child’s teacher? May I never be ok with the fact that you are grieving. May you find me a faithful daughter, sharing your Truth, and bringing a smile to your face. May I never be satisfied with just saying, I love you. Help me to show you how much I love you today by bringing one of your lost children home.

Piece of Cake

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I was reading in Matthew 9 this morning where Jesus said that forgiving the sins of a paralytic man was easier than healing the man’s paralysis. He said this before he went to the cross, so as far as everyone there knew, forgiveness from sin required an animal sacrifice. Yet here was this guy, granting forgiveness and there’s no blood being shed.

I can understand why the people were shocked, why they questioned Jesus about it. This went against everything they had been taught up to now. Jesus, to prove he had the power, healed the sick man. But he said that act was harder than the forgiving of the sick man’s sin.

Yesterday at church, the pastor spoke about God’s ability and desire to forgive our sins. He reminded us that there is no such thing as a sin too great for God’s forgiveness if we just go to him and ask. Being washed clean by God is not all that complicated. Ask. Receive.

That forgiveness was bought at a very high price – the painful death of Jesus on the cross. He could forgive the paralytic because, for one he is God, and he knew he was willing and able to pay the price required of that man’s sin.

Today, forgiving us is a matter already done. My sins, your sins, are forgiven. Period. Jesus doesn’t have to go to the cross again and again each time we disobey him, each time someone goes to him with a repentant heart. He’s been there, done that.

God doesn’t require any of us to do something, pray a number of prayers, beat ourselves, or carry a wooden cross to make up for some deficit his own death couldn’t cover. Forgiveness is already ours (John 3:16, I John 1:9) Receiving it requires confession of sin, a repentant heart, and a request.

Us: Jesus, will you forgive me?

Jesus: Sure.

Piece of cake.

Jesus, I don’t want to minimize what it cost you to purchase my forgiveness. I read about what you went through at the hands of your murderers and I shutter to think you did that for me. I don’t want to minimize your holiness, your fierce hatred of sin, your demand that I be holy before you, a holy God. But I want to thank you for your grace, for the simple act of asking you to forgive me, knowing you already have and are just waiting to shower me with your love and forgiveness. Thank you for making it so easy to come to you. Forgive me when I try to make it so difficult. 

It’s just a tiny sin

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I find it interesting that Christians can assign degrees of seriousness to sin. Some, they say, are small sins. Some sins send you straight to hell. But I don’t see the Bible teaching that.

What degree of sin did Ham commit? In Genesis 9 we see that Ham saw his father, Noah, drunk and naked, then ran to tell his brothers what he had seen. Sounds serious to me. But he didn’t murder anyone.

How can you tell where any sin falls on the mortal scale of degrees of sin? Jesus pretty much answers that. He said, in Matthew 5: You think murder is a big sin? I’m saying if you hate someone you are a murderer. You think adultery’s bad? You better be careful how you look at someone you’re not married to because you commit adultery if you even think about having sex with them.

Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law. He came to fulfill all the requirements of the law. But that doesn’t mean we have it easier than those Old Testament saints.

In fact, Jesus takes us one step further. He makes it plain that we can and do sin in our minds. The point is that sin is sin, there is no such thing as a big or a little sin. Committing a sin makes me a sinner, whether I act it out in my mind or in my body. And being a sinner, I need a Savior.

The good news is that all sin is forgivable. (I John 1:9) I need to go to Jesus with every sin I commit. When I ask him to forgive me, he does! Jesus reminds us his standard of behavior is perfection, holiness. (Matthew 5:48).

I, for one, need Jesus’ holiness because that train has already left the station in my life.

Dear Jesus, may your people recognize the seriousness of any sin in our lives. May we be quick to come to you for forgiveness when our thoughts, our feelings, our actions become sin. May we allow you to place your holiness on our shoulders, because frankly, we have none of our own. We want to stand before you wearing your perfection, and we thank you for the privilege you’ve given us through your own precious blood. Defeat Satan in our lives today. And may we show an unbelieving world what your holiness looks in us.

Why Evil?

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Last Sunday, the pastor posed a question in Sunday School: Why is there evil and has it always existed?

I guess to truly understand all the details of the answer to that question, you would have to have the mind of God. Our understanding is limited to what he inspired men to write in Scripture.

Like I Corinthians 15:56. Paul tells us the law gives sin its power. We wouldn’t know what sin was if God hadn’t spelled it out in the law.

We wouldn’t know what light was if it wasn’t for the darkness.

And we wouldn’t know what good was except for evil.

If there was no law, sin would have no power because sin, by definition, is the breaking of the law. But if there was no law, no sin, we wouldn’t know forgiveness, would we? There would be no choice. We would be puppets, robots.

It was important to God that his creation choose him.

Why?

I don’t know, except to say the love someone chooses to demonstrate toward me is precious, personal, more meaningful than if that someone feels obligated or forced. Being made in God’s image, I can only imagine he feels the same.

Dearest Heavenly Father, you are good. You are holy. And I thank you that you have made it possible to choose you. It’s hard to thank you for sin. It’s hard to thank you for sickness, wars, evil. But if it weren’t for those things, I wouldn’t understand what it is that you offer through your Son, Jesus. I wouldn’t appreciate grace. So, Father, I want you to know that I choose you today. I love you because I can. I resist temptation because I can. I deny Satan because I can. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Thank you!

My Ichthus Phobia

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Reading Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, I am reminded to live my life aware that people are watching.

Years ago, my dad bought me an ichthus, a magnetic fish for my car. I told him I was afraid to put one on my car because I didn’t want people to judge Christians if I pulled out in front of someone, drove too fast, or didn’t use my blinker. Dad said, “Maybe you should change how you drive.”

The truth of the matter is people are watching me and judging me whether or not I have a fish on my car, a cross around my neck, or a Bible in my purse. And they are often not only judging me, but they’re judging you, too, by the way I live.

It’s not just, “Connie is a bad driver.” It’s “Christians are bad drivers.” You’ve heard them. “Christians are haters.” “Christians are judgmental.” “Christians are hypocrites.”

How do they come up with this stuff?

By watching you and me. By hearing the language we use at the ballgame, by seeing inconsistencies at work, by how we treat our neighbors.

Satan loves to stop us from actively sharing Jesus by convincing us we are unworthy, too sinful, too much of a hypocrite to speak up for Christ. If that’s what you are thinking, I guess I’d like to throw a little of my dad’s advice your way:

Maybe you should change how you live.

Pilate and Me

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We celebrated the Lord’s Supper yesterday at church. In my devotional time during the past several days I have been reading about Jesus’ last moments in a human body, and it made me appreciate the bread and wine even more. Jesus is not just some character in a book, or some guy who lived a good life thousands of years ago. He’s as real as he was the day Judas betrayed him. And our response to him is as important as Pilate’s response to him was.

Read Mark 15, Matthew 27, Luke 23, and John 19. See how Pilate, a powerful ruler of the people, washed his hands of the whole thing when he chose not to defy popular opinion. He knew Jesus wasn’t guilty of anything. But the crowd shouting for Jesus’ death was loud and strong. Pilate figured there was nothing he could do, so he just sat back and allowed Jesus to be mocked, beaten, and eventually killed.

Hold on before you get too critical of old Pilate. Is Jesus any less mocked, beaten up, obliterated from our society than he was in Pilate’s day? Isn’t popular opinion today just as loud and strong against God’s Truth as the people shouting, “Crucify Him” were back then?

Is Jesus the Way, the Truth, the Life, and the only way to the Father or not? Does sin, as spelled out clearly in Scripture, anger and disgust him? Are the wages of sin death? What is our response when popular opinion says we should be tolerant of all beliefs, that there are multiple ways to God, that evolution is a science, that homosexuality is not a choice and should be honored, that drunkenness is a party, that abortion is not murder, that Christians who speak against sin are haters?

I could go on. And so could you. God is asking me what my response will be. Will I, like Pilate, wash my hands and say, “Oh well, there’s nothing I can do”?

If I do – if we do – I believe Jesus will be obliterated from our society and we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves. I was reminded at church yesterday, and again this morning as I spent time in God’s Word, that Jesus endured a lonely and painful death because he loves me. What is my response to so great a love, so great a salvation?

Pilate let popular opinion prevent him from taking a stand. Will I?

Father, I pray for your people. May we each spend time in your Word and in prayer, asking you what you would have us do in response to popular opinion that dishonors you. May Christians stand in love and in Truth against Satan’s lies. And may those who are holding this popular opinion be drawn to the Savior because your people didn’t wash our hands of the whole thing. God, you are powerful. May your power be seen in your obedient servants.

Jesus’ Counsel For A Healthy Life

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Our society has gotten so far away from what Jesus said when he was here on earth. Where in Scripture does it say, “You’ve got to take care of yourself,” or “If you want to be healthy you have to come first”? These are lies straight from Satan’s lips. That’s the lie that got him thrown out of heaven.

Mental illness is a rampant plague, and I believe one reason is that even some Christians, have fallen for the infectious disease of “self”. People try so hard to feel good about themselves, to pull themselves up, to convince themselves they are worthy, when Scripture tells us we need to let go of “self”, admit we are filthy, helpless, needy people. Dear ones, admitting that is so freeing! The reality is we can’t be good in and of ourselves. And trying to be is making people crazy.

Jesus tells us not to exalt ourselves, not to think more highly of ourselves than we should, to come to him like a child, give up everything to follow him.

The Pharisee loudly prayed, “Boy, God. I’m glad I’m not like that guy over there. I tithe, I pray, I go to church, I don’t cheat on my wife, and people think I’m pretty awesome.”

Jesus said, “One day you’ll wish you were like that guy over there. He recognizes his sin. He’s bowed before me and repented. He’s wearing my righteousness, and what you are wearing is nothing but filthy rags.”

Don’t try to find those quotes in the Bible. Those words are mine. But if you read Luke 18, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Here’s the truth. I am a sinner, and so are you. I am incapable of being anything other than a sinner, and so are you. I fail. I make mistakes. And when I measure myself up against a holy God, I can’t come close.

But Jesus tells me I don’t have to. He wants to be that for me. And all I need to do is admit my helpless position, recognize my sin, and ask him to forgive me. He’s already got that robe of righteousness waiting for me because he bought it with his blood. I don’t have to try to be good. He puts his own goodness on me. I don’t have to convince myself I am worthy, he makes me worthy because he is worthy.

I pray Christians will recognize Satan’s lies in counseling sessions, on TV, in the books they read, the sermons they hear, and the conversations they have with friends. I would challenge you to do a study on the word, “humble” in the Bible. Use a concordance and look up the verses that speak about humility, about humbling ourselves, and find out what God promises when we do.

“… and HE will lift you up.” (I Peter 5:6)

The Bible Hurts My Feelings

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God is speaking through Jeremiah concerning those prophets who claim to speak for God  – but don’t. (Jeremiah 23) These liars are preaching a health and wealth gospel at the same time Jeremiah is telling them how angry God is, and how God is going to punish them for their disobedience. 

The false prophets tell them they are ok: “Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!… No harm will come your way.” (23:17)

The thing is, God’s Word is not a “feel good” book. In fact, in verse 29 of the same chapter, God asks, “Does not my word burn like fire?… Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?”

I think that’s why there are so many different religions out there. I mean, who wants to worship a God who makes you feel bad about yourself? So let’s make up a theology that tells us how great we are, how worthy, how powerful we are in and of ourselves to become better and better. We want to believe we are ok just the way we are. If you listen, you’ll recognize those lies in some of the most popular churches spewed by some of the most famous preachers of our time. Maybe even in your home town, in tiny churches, that go unnoticed expect for the faithful few who attend.

But have you ever experienced that heavy blow that comes from the realization that you are wrong? Have you felt the convicting fire of the Holy Spirit over unconfessed sin? It’s not comfortable, is it? It might even hurt your feelings, big time.

When you are at that point, you have a choice. You can tell yourself you’re ok, you can repeat a mantra to make yourself feel better, you can self-medicate, or even learn to live with the discomfort. Or you can accept what Jesus died to give you.

Forgiveness.

Then you can know the spiritual health that comes from having a pure heart. You can enjoy the wealth of having the God of Creation living in you, the sure hope of eternity with him. No false theology can come close to it!

So I challenge you read the Bible for yourself. But get ready to have your feelings hurt. If you ask God to speak to you through his Word, he will. He will tell you you are lost without him. He will tell you you are a sinner. He will tell you you are wicked, self centered, unclean. But he will also tell you about his love and his grace. He will tell you about how he went to the cross to pay for your sins. And he will ask you to come to him, to say you’re sorry and mean it, to allow him to turn your life around…

And bless you beyond what you could ever ask or even think.

God, thank you for tearing down all my defenses, for making me look at myself the way you see me. I am a sinner. There is nothing good in me. And I have to tell you, that hurts my feelings a little. But, God, I also want to thank you for lifting me up, for forgiving me when I asked you to, for blessing me with yourself. Thank you for your Word that cuts… and heals. Thank you for you!

A Good Heart

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How many times have you heard or said: He (she) has a good heart? How do you know? An adulterer who takes in stray animals, a thief who volunteers to mow a neighbor’s lawn, a liar who takes meals to shut-ins. Does kindness or thoughtfulness indicate a good heart?

In Jeremiah 17:9&10, we read that the human heart is “the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.” Who can know what is truly in a heart, what really motivates a person to do anything?

Only God.

God is not fooled by acts of charity when the charitable person is harboring hatred or evil, and is rejecting him. I might be fooled into thinking a person has a good heart, even into thinking he or she walks with God. But unless that heart has been broken over sin, unless that person has repented and accepted God’s forgiveness, that person is actually carrying around a desperately wicked heart, and Jeremiah reminds us God judges the heart.

You can put pearls on a pig, but it’s still a pig. You can put frosting on manure, but that doesn’t make it a birthday cake any more than a kind act gives an unsaved person a good heart.

Can non-believers be nice people, kind, and considerate? Of course they can. Satan is the master at making sin look good. But let’s not be fooled into thinking they are ok the way they are. Because “good” isn’t good enough! And an unrepentant heart is not a good heart.

God, I pray that each of us will take a good look at our own heart because that’s the only heart we can know. Your word tells us that without you, our hearts are desperately wicked. It also tells us you don’t judge our actions without judging our hearts. May our hearts be broken in light of our sin, may we bow before you in repentance, and may you turn our wicked hearts into good hearts. May we determine to obey your word today, and may others recognize that any goodness in us comes from you.

A Deadly Price-Tag

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God expresses his anger toward a disobedient people in the book of Nahum. He says things like: I am your enemy; and, I will not allow the guilty to go unpunished. He reminds them their riches, which are many, and gained dishonestly, will not save them from God’s wrath, from the consequences of their sin.

Nahum reminds us God is very serious about sin. He never excuses sin, or rationalizes it, or overlooks it. Every sin comes with a deadly consequence, whether it’s an angry two-year-old who pushes her brother off a chair, or a man addicted to porn who kidnaps, tortures, and rapes young women, like the man captured in Cleveland last year.

God says often in his Word that he will not let the guilty go unpunished. Then he turns around and says ALL have sinned. We are all guilty. We all face the consequences for every sin we’ve committed.

I am a Christian. But that doesn’t mean my sins, although forgiven, don’t come with a deadly price tag. My sins require death just like the sins of Ariel Castro (that monster from Cleveland). Every one of my sins come with a death sentence.

But when I accepted Jesus as my Savior, he took my sins and placed them on his own shoulders. He paid the painful consequences for me, he did not sweep them under a rug.

Hear me when I say, those who have not experienced Jesus’ grace will pay for their own sins. Every one of their own sins. The wages of sin is death, either Jesus’ death on the cross, or yours… for eternity.

God, may we all view sin from your perspective. Drive us to our knees, Lord, when we are faced with our own sin, our guilt and shame. Thank you for Jesus, for the cross, for your grace that is offered to anyone who comes to you with repentant hearts. I pray that everyone who reads this blog today will humble themselves and accept what you offer, and that is to pay for our sins yourself. The thought of anyone paying the ultimate price for their own sins frightens me. I pray that it will frighten all of us.