Posts Tagged: sin

“God and Social Distancing”

On March 23, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“God doesn’t do social distancing.” (My wife)

“There is tomorrow’s blog post! (Me, to my wife)

When this brief exchange occurred between my wife and me, we were doing the virtual worshiping thing.  Our praise band was singing  the song, “Reckless Love.” Here are the words to this wonderful song:

“Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me

You have been so, so good to me

Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me

You have been so, so kind to me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me

You have been so, so good to me

When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me

You have been so, so kind to me

And oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

And I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

And I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah”

(Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Caleb Culver / Cory Asbury / Ran Jackson

Reckless Love lyrics © Bethel Music Publishing, Essential Music Publishing, Watershed Music Group”)

There is, of course, some debate among believers as to whether or not the word “reckless” should ever be used in connection with God.  On the other hand, what word, or words, or phrases have not been the subject of debate among believers.

But all controversy to one side, God’s love is reckless, or at least seems to be so.  The Christian story is this: We all had a fatal disease called sin.  Some people were largely asymptomatic, but we were all carriers.  Some people died excruciating and swift deaths.  Many seemed to have mild cases, and to get “better” relatively quickly.  The word “seemed” in the preceding sentence is the reason for the air quotes around the word “better.”  The truth is that sin was always fatal.  There were no survivors.  The mortality rate was 100%.

God, in what appeared to be a very reckless love, came to earth to live among us, to teach us, but also to die for us.  He did not catch our disease.  No.  He took our disease upon himself—the disease of the whole world.  Every man, woman, and child of all time—past, present, and future.  And he died.  The disease killed him in a few hours, due to the sheer magnitude of the disease that God took upon himself.

And then, a few days later, this Reckless Lover was raised from the dead.  This was not just to vindicate Him.  Oh no!  It was also to show that this deadly disease called sin had been dealt a deadly blow by Reckless-Love-In-The-Flesh, at the cross.

The One who could have certainly practiced social distancing from us contaminated, contagious sinners, instead came very near and took all our contamination and contagion on himself.

Reckless?  Yes!  Loving?  Most definitely!

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“Bait or Poison?”

On May 3, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer


A good friend of mine is struggling with an invasion of ants.  This is not unusual this time of years.  She and her husband have put out lots of ant bait, but it is taking a while for all the ants to get the message that they are not welcome.

She wasn’t sure if the “bait” was working or not.  I commented that it takes some time.  And then I added, “They call it bait, but it’s really poison!”

Immediately, my mind went to James 1:12-15.

“12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (English Standard Version)

Apparently, people in James’ day (about two thousand years ago) were prone to blaming God for their evil.  Imagine that!  I’m sure glad that we don’t do that these days!

James is very mathematical at this point;

Desire                                     Sin                                             Death    

And it’s something we do to ourselves.

Of course, we wouldn’t (hopefully) do this on purpose.  We don’t necessarily start out desiring our own death.

And, of course, not all desires are wrong.  But when we indulge wrong desires, or even right desires excessively, we set the chain in motion.  Like the ants in my friend’s house, if we take the bait, we have taken the poison.  We can call it bait, but it’s still poison.

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“SIN CROUCHING AT THE DOOR”

On January 2, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

 “1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the LORD’s help, I have produced a man!”

2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.

3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD.

4 Abel also brought a gift– the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift,

5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

6 “Why are you so angry?” the LORD asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected?

7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.”  (Genesis 4:1-8 New Living Translation)

 

Genesis 4:7 brought me up short this morning.  I was especially struck by the part of the verse that says, “But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you.”

Wait a minute!  Isn’t sin precisely refusing to do what is right?  Yet this verse seems to make a distinction between the two. Why?

And then the obvious answer hit me like a mighty tidal wave: I have no idea!

Not much of an answer, is it?

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that there is something here that I need to take very seriously: Even if “not doing the right thing” and “sin” are somewhat separate, they are nevertheless very closely related.  Unless we—unless I—am doing the right thing, sin lies at the door, ready to pounce.

We are not told explicitly what Cain was doing wrong.  There is a hint that perhaps he wasn’t giving his best to God by way of sacrifice.  Abel brought the fat of his firstborn animals (vs.4).  Cain just brought “some of the produce of the ground” (vs. 3).  But, the Bible doesn’t really tell us that this is the reason why God accepted Abel and his sacrifice, and why God did not accept Cain and his sacrifice.  An implication is just that: an implication.  It is not a slam dunk.

Personally, I think that it is brilliant that the Scripture doesn’t tell us precisely what Cain’s problem was.  If the Scripture were that specific, we could probably say, “Oh, well, that’s not my problem!”  The ambiguity of the story draws us into it, and invites us to ask uncomfortable, important questions about our own selves.

In any case, we know this much: Sin did indeed pounce on Cain.  Cain went out the door and into the field, and there, he murdered his brother.

My sponsor often reminds me to JKDTNRT.              That stands for “Just Keep Doing The Next Right Thing!”  If I am not keeping on doing the next right thing, doing the wrong thing lies right next to whatever door I go out of or come into.  If I’m not doing the right thing, I am for sure preparing to do the wrong thing.

 

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