The True Problem (Part One of Three)

“The world has gone nuts,” you say. “Yes and no,” I would reply, it has always been nuts. I want to discuss sin with you. I am not trying to be a “downer,” in fact, I want to be the champion of good news. The news is good because it answers the bad. Consider this, and the saints are all agreed, sin is our condition, not just our behavior. It is our home, not simply our actions. Our world is telling us that people are good, but institutions are evil. In contrast, the Bible teaches us that both are corrupt. This is why checks and balances of power are important in government. The condition of sin is fundamentally true of us all and provides a critical understanding of ourselves before God as we live in this world. We are depraved. The essence of that depravity is the lost moral image of God. We lost His image because our covenant relationship with Him is broken (see garden of Eden). We are disposed to rebellion against Him and His ways which leads to bondage. We, like the Hebrew children, end up in Egypt as slaves. Our taskmasters are described with words or phrases like: pride, indulgences (addictions), greed, wrath, envy, self-righteousness, unforgiveness, unrestrained sexual impulses, or just simple ole power, just to name a few. And honestly, we willingly embrace them. Or at best, we subconsciously obey them. They drive us and control us; even our good deeds are tainted by them. This creates a world for each of us that I would compare to living in deep mud; at times fun, but largely a picture of drudgery and mess. How shall we ever be free? The answer is not within us, it is with God in the person of Christ. It is called resurrection. 

In my next blog, I will explain the insufficient human answer.

Barry

See Romans 1-7

A Follower's Thought...

John 19:30 says, "When Jesus had received the wine, he said, 'It is finished.' Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." I got to thinking about this verse and especially his last three words, "It is finished." As I was reflecting on these three words, I said to myself, "What powerful words these are!" With these three words, Jesus fulfilled his mission on Earth. Jesus was born to die, to save us from our sins. Do we deserve it? No! None of us do.

We as humans, as I see it, have two problems that we have a hard time overcoming, and frankly can do nothing about. Those two problems are sin and death. No matter what we do or how hard we try, we can’t fix these problems by ourselves or with anyone’s help, except one, Jesus Christ! We are all born sinners. Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned." Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

What I am saying is this, we will never get out of this world alive with sin and death looming over us. Only one can save us. Jesus! He conquered our sin by dying on a cross, and he conquered our death by rising on the third day. You want to conquer sin and death? Say yes to Jesus. I’m just saying, in my opinion, there is no other way out of this world alive. With those last three words, "It is finished", Jesus bowed to the world and ushered in the chance of eternal life. I pray we all bow our heads to Jesus and welcome his free gift of eternal life.

God bless,

Correll Pritchard

A Thought for Today

    “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.

A couple of weeks ago, my lovely wife and I went to a spiritual retreat given by our church. That Saturday, I walked into the prayer room and saw a basket full of nails. I picked one of the nails up, and as I was staring at it, I was reminded of a story I heard on a podcast a couple of months earlier. 

    Tim Tebow was telling a story of when he was a teenager. He went on a mission trip to the Philippines with his sister and brother-in-law. He went with his brother-in-law to a prison to do some ministering. As you could expect, Tim said that he was scared to death. Here he is in a one-room cell with his brother-in-law and a small room crammed with prisoners. Tim said that he sat down in a chair and prayed to God that he would get out alive.  His brother-in-law got right in the middle of the prisoners and said, I nailed Jesus to the cross! Tim said that it got so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. It got the attention of those prisoners, and his brother-in-law went on to bring the gospel to those prisoners.

     Just as that one sentence got the attention of those prisoners, it also got my attention. I was reminded of that story again as I stared at that nail. Romans 3:23 came flooding back into my mind as I heard these words. I nailed Jesus to the cross! Every time I sin, I hear the ringing of the hammer as it hits the nails going into the hands and feet of my savior Jesus Christ! I call myself a Christian, yet at times, I feel no better than the Roman soldiers that beat and crucified Jesus. I don’t deserve his love and mercy, but he says, I do.

     God has given me the ability to build things with my hands. I know a thing or two about hammering nails into wood, but I realize that when sin and temptations come my way, I pull that nail out of my pocket and it reminds me I can hammer nails into wood all I want to but isn’t it time that I stop hammering nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, and isn’t it time that followers of Jesus put those hammers down. God Bless.

Correll