Tag Archive - Sins

The Joy of Forgiveness

May 18, 2010 in Daily Faith with 0 Comments

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

According to an often told story, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series, once decided to play a practical joke on twelve of his friends. To each he sent an anonymous telegram that simply read, “Flee at once . . . all is discovered.”
Within twenty-four hours, all twelve had fled the country.   Evidently, they all had something to hide.

Most of us do have something to hide.  We have some secret we don’t want discovered?  We have regrets, real and imagined.  We’ve made bad choices.  We live hoping that all will never be discovered.  Guilt tugs at our souls, nags our minds and saps our spirits.  In fact, I’m convinced that most of us live lives robbed of peace and joy because of this.  What can we do?
There are just two answers.  One,  we can go on just as we’ve been doing.  Hoping that we can keep up appearances.  Hoping that no one will find out.  Letting our past drain our present and future of joy.  Or two, we can confess to God and receive His forgiveness. The first answer fails miserably, the second is our only hope.
God doesn’t want you to live in guilt and shame.  He doesn’t want your life empty of peace and joy.  He wants you to live in the joy of forgiveness.  He wants to free you from the chains of the past so that you can experience the fullness of His life today.

“If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.”
1 John 1:8-9 (NLT)

By Our Hands

March 24, 2010 in General with 0 Comments

Hollywood star and director Mel Gibson felt called by God to make his film The Passion of the Christ, a portrayal of the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life on earth. Although the film has been criticized for being anti-Semitic, Gibson has never pointed a finger at the Jews. Instead, he says all of us are responsible for Christ’s death.
In the movie, Gibson portrays this in a remarkable way. While Gibson’s face never crosses the screen, we do see his hands once. They are the ones, with spike and hammer, nailing Jesus to the cross.*

Too often we think of the Cross of Christ as an ancient historical event. We think of those who nailed Jesus to the cross as calloused soldiers following orders. Yet, when we finally realize that it was our hands that held the hammer and the nails, we can begin to understand the power of the cross.
When we realize that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. It was for our crimes against God that He went through all that He suffered. When we see that there is not any difference between us and those soldiers, then we can experience the joy of the cross. That He did it for us, for me. That He did it because He loved us.

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ” (Isaiah 53:4–5, NIV)

Cutting Up the Cross

February 23, 2010 in General with 0 Comments

Some years ago, a 14-foot bronze crucifix was stolen from Calvary Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. It had stood at the entrance to that cemetery for more than 50 years. The cross was put there in 1930 by a Catholic bishop and had been valued at the time at $10,000. The thieves apparently cut it off at its base and hauled it off in a pick-up. Police speculate that they cut it into small pieces and sold it for scrap.
Cutting up the 900-pound cross probably brought the thieves about $450. They obviously didn’t realize the value of that cross.

We are much the same. We often underestimate the value of the cross. We like to cut the cross up in manageable and palatable pieces. We like to use it for a nice Easter decoration or a beautiful piece of jewelry. We enjoy hearing how much the cross proves God’s love for us. So, we cut out the parts about suffering and shame. We cut out any remote connection our sin might have with the cross of Christ. We chop away any responsibility our sin might have for Jesus’ death. When that happens we lose the full power of the gospel message.
Yet, when the gospel writers relate the story of the cross, the theme that runs through all the details is one of rejection. When Jesus took our sins upon himself, he was rejected by God. (Matthew 27:46)
We must be careful not to cut up the cross. We must not make scraps out of the cross’ message. If we do, we miss the true value of the cross. We fail to experience it’s power.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. ” (Isaiah 53:3–4, NIV)

No Greater Love

February 19, 2010 in General with 0 Comments

German composer Felix Mendelssohn’s grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was not a handsome man. In addition to his short stature, he also had a hunched back. When he met a young lady named Frumtje, Moses fell madly in love, but Frumtje was repulsed by his appearance.
Finally getting the courage to talk to her, Moses asked, “Do you believe marriages are made in heaven?”
When she said yes, Moses said, “In heaven at the birth of each boy, the Lord announces which girl he will marry. When I was born, my future bride was pointed out to me. Then the Lord said, ‘But your wife will be humpbacked.’ Right then and there I called out, ‘Oh Lord, a humpbacked woman would be a tragedy. Please, Lord, give me the hump and let her be beautiful.’”
Frumtje reached out and gave Mendelssohn her hand, and later became his devoted wife.

When Jesus carried the cross to Calvary, He carried the sins of all of us on His back. He did this because God knew that for us to carry our own sins would be a tragedy. God loves us so that he could not bear the thought of this so He sent His Son to take our sins away from us and put them on Himself. There can be no greater love than this. Let us devote our lives to the One who took our sin, our pain, and our suffering and put it on Himself.

“How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (The Message)

The List of the Cross

February 18, 2010 in General with 0 Comments

When Louis XII became king of France, he made a list of all those who had been his enemies and persecutors in the years before he obtained the throne. Before each of these names he placed a large black cross. When word of his act spread, those on the list quickly fled the country, fearing punishment or death.
When Louis XII heard of this, the king had them all sought out and brought back to the palace. He then told them that he had put a cross beside each name, not as a symbol of death, but of the cross of Christ. It would be a constant reminder and example for him to do as his Lord had done on the Cross, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

The enemies of Louis XII fled from him because they saw the cross beside their names as a sign of death. However, the king put it there as a sign of forgiveness and life. They ran in terror from the very act that brought them life.

The same is true for us today. Many of us see the cross as punishment and death. We run from it because we think it means death. We think it means the end of our lives. However, through Christ, the cross has become a sign of forgiveness and life. God places a cross by the name of all who have faith in Christ, not as a sign of despair, but of hope and life.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Colossians 2:13–15 (NIV)

DANGEROUS CROWD

February 17, 2010 in General with 0 Comments

Three year old Shawn accompanied his dad to church on Easter. The father wanted his son to understand the meaning of Easter so he tried to explain the significance of the cross which hung at the front of the church.

The father said, “Jesus died because people nailed him to the cross.”

The little boy’s eyes widened as he scanned the church. He then asked his dad, “You mean THESE people?”

It is too easy to think of the death of Jesus as a distant historic event. We tend to think of this horrible event as happening way back .then and done by those barbaric people. We overlook why Jesus died.

As we begin this time of Lent, let us remember that He died for OUR sins. It was for OUR salvation that He gave His life because it was OUR sins that nailed Him there. The cross in our sanctuary reminds us of two important truths. First, that we are a dangerous crowd, capable of sin and death. And second, that we are a forgiven people because Jesus paid for our sin on that cross.

So, when you’re sitting in Church Sunday, remember as you look around: you’re sitting in a dangerous crowd, but you’re worshiping a great Savior.

“But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own!.. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.”
Isaiah 53:5-6 (NLT)