Tag Archives: sin

Nov 26 2011

whoever

My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander from the truth and someone turns back the wanderer, recognize that whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save them from death and will bring about the forgiveness of many sins. (James 5:19-20 CEB)

One of my favorite and most common expressions is “a lot of creeks feed the river.” What I mean by that is that rarely is something the result of any one thing, but comes about from the influence of many.

This is surely most true in cases where Christians who have wandered away from God come back to him. Oh, one person or one happening might prove to be “the tipping point” to such a person’s return, but it’s almost always the case that that’s all they were, “the tipping point.” A million factors, many of them exceedingly subtle and indirect, are almost always at play.

  1. A sincere prayer you offered for God to use you to influence the hearts of others to a closer walk with Christ may be answered as you seek to live like a child of God each day.
  2. A simple courtesy or act of everyday kindness done to one, but witnessed by another, just might help open a door to a heart that has long been dead-bolted shut.
  3. Your good service and ministry in Christ’s name that helps give a portion of God’s people a good name and reputation in a community might contribute powerfully to someone thinking afresh about their relationship with the Lord and his people.
  4. Simply being a deliberate contributor to a positive, loving atmosphere in a congregation might make far more of a difference to someone than you’ll ever know.

And the list could go on and on and on. The bottom line of it all is this, though: we’re all in this thing together and we all have an influence on each others’ lives, so how careful and deliberate we ought to live so as to help people come closer to God and not be turned further away from him.

My dear brothers and sisters, realize that if anyone strays from God’s path and someone helps turn them around again, nothing less than certain death has been averted and the forgiveness of many sins is what has taken place. (James 5:19-20 DSV)

Father in heaven, if you will lead me to some soul today to influence for you, I will do my best to do just that, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Nov 23 2011

if any of you are sick

 

If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15 CEB)

My experience through the decades has been that elders are often called for all sorts of things. Quite often they’re called when someone wants to:

  • request a favor
  • place membership
  • propose an idea or work
  • get some special attention
  • enlist their support or backing on a project
  • change up something about the church building
  • enlist some warm bodies to do some physical labor
  • leverage their position against someone else
  • spend some money in the church treasury
  • fish for confidential information
  • vent, complain, or grumble
  • make demands
  • be baptized

My experience through the years has also been that the number of requests by sick members to elders for them to come and pray over them and to anoint them with oil while all are full of faith, boldly requesting complete healing are so exceedingly rare that you can hear:

  • (sound of crickets)

I want my experience to be that all church members see their elders as people to whom:

  • they would turn to as quickly as they would call 911,
  • they can rely on to offer bold, faith-filled prayers for complete healing of dreadful, physical ills,
  • they are totally accountable for matters of personal sin so that such can be confessed, repented of, and forgiven.

If any of you are dreadfully ill, you should call for the church’s elders so they can pray over you. They should pray over you in the Lord’s name, full of faith that the Lord restores sick people to health and forgives you of your sins. Let them anoint you so, and with oil. (James 5:14-15 DSV)

So be it, in the name of Jesus.

Oct 7 2011

the one who said

“Anyone who tries to keep all of the Law but fails at one point is guilty of failing to keep all of it. The one who said, Don’t commit adultery, also said, Don’t commit murder. So if you don’t commit adultery but do commit murder, you are a lawbreaker.” (James 2:10-11 CEB)

The most dangerous game we can ever play with sin is to separate sin from God. Let me explain what I mean by that. We’re often tempted to see sin as an “it,” a missed checkbox on an obedience score sheet, or just a black mark beside our name. But sin is infinitely more. Sin is our personal, willful offense against our Maker and Lover. Sin, if anything, is very, very personal.

God has conveyed his will to me as to how to live my life. When I defy his will and do what I will instead, I sin. And when I sin, I disregard the sacred relationship I have with the only One who loves me perfectly and knows precisely what is best for me. When I sin, I offer not myself to him, but a sham of a substitute instead.

If I have a healthy relationship with someone, there’s no room for these games. When I do something that runs roughshod over another person, I can’t heal the hurt by saying, “Well, it’s true I did this, but look at all of these things over here I could have done but didn’t. I did this, but I sure didn’t do that.” Saying “Sure I did wrong, but look at all the good I do” doesn’t patch the relationship up either.

No, we all know that healthy relationships aren’t built on somehow accumulating enough points on the good side to outweigh the bad. Rather, they’re built on remembering that embedded deep in the heart of all of our actions there’s a statement about what we really think about the other person.

Sin. It’s not just pollution, it’s personal. And all of that is plain for all to see in just these few words: “The one who said …“

My holy, loving Father, remind me that a real relationship with you is what it’s all about. Deliver me from the way that makes religion into simply keeping rules and not breaking your commands. Keep ever fresh in my mind the fact this life of mine is not mine, but yours. I want to love you with all that I am and want nothing to stain or strain our relationship. I pray in the name of him I serve. Amen.

“Can’t you see that anyone who breaks any point in God’s rule, breaks everything down? If you don’t sleep around with those who belong to another, but you do kill others, don’t you realize you’re busting up the structure of your relationship with the one who has told you how to live?” (James 2:10-11 DSV)