My Friend Is Sinning

My friend is sinning and I know he knows I know.  It is not a secret anymore.  It hasn’t been for some time.  Somewhere along the line, he and other sinners thought that if the world didn’t call his sin a sin anymore, that the terrible bondage that sin brought on his spirit would be lifted.  He forgot that the world calling it sin isn’t what makes it sin.  It is sin because the God who made us says it is sin and what He says is sin is only the stuff that destroys us and our relationship with Him.  It destroys us whether we think it does or not.

Redefining sin is not new.  Everyone has tried it.

“I didn’t hit him, Mom, I just tapped him!”

“I wasn’t angry, it was righteous indignation!” 

“I wasn’t lusting, I was just admiring God’s creation!”

“It wasn’t sin, it was only a mistake ‘cause I didn’t intend to do it.”

My friend says that I am afraid of sin.  He says I am sin-o-phobic.  Oh, I used to fear sin.  It was that “thing” that I just couldn’t seem to control.  I didn’t want it but I couldn’t shake it.  Then I thought that maybe it was me.  You know.  It was just the way God made me.  But then I thought, wait a minute.  God made me!  Sin did not!  Why should I let sin define who I am.  What does this sin know?  I think I will let God define me and my potential!

I do not claim that I am free of sin, but I am happy to tell you I am free from sin.  It no longer has its impossible hold on me.  It doesn’t scare me into silence.  It doesn’t hold me in its terrible trap of lies about me.  Its claim that because I have sinned that I am defined by that sin, no longer keeps me bound to that sin.  Christ has set me FREE!  Can you hear it in my best Mel Gibson voice… FEEEEDOOOOM!  No sin can separate me from the love of God!  Take that, sin!

Sin had its moment.  Oh, yeah!  It had God right where it wanted Him.  The crowd was with sin.  Yelling.  Calling for God’s death.  They had Him.  No one wanted Him.  He wasn’t popular.  Lies were told about Him.  They killed Him.  Buried Him.  It seemed like sin’s claim of ultimate power was finally proven true.  Then God rose from the grave!  Setting the captives of sin free once and for all!  Proving that sin’s claim of control over you and me was once and forever a lie.  God is our way of victory over the lies of sin’s power in our lives.

God convicts me of my sin and I am thrilled.  I don’t want that sneaky stuff in my life.  When I agree with God about my sin and repent, turn from it, renounce its claim to rule my life, God sets me free.  I invite God to cleanse me of its residue in my life and keep exposing any remnants in my life.  Conviction.  Repentance.  You guys are my friends.  You lead me to God’s truth about his power over sin.

My friend is sinning.  You see, he is afraid of his sin.  His braggadocios defense of sin or redefining sin is really his own sin-o-phobia.  I have been there friend.  It will not lead you to the freedom you seek.  It is only in Christ that I no longer fear sin and its power to dominate my life.  I am not afraid of you or your sin.  I am afraid for you.  But I will never give up hope for your freedom.  I love you, sinning friend.  If I can find the way out in Christ, so can you. 

Is It Just Too Late?

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.  (James 4: 13-17, NIV)

I got connected recently to a stray website while checking about time.  It was a Calendar and Time Zone calculator.  I was about to leave the site when I notice an interesting calendar feature.  If I put in two dates, it would tell me how many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes or seconds there were between any two dates.  Now since I was near a birthday for me, I was curious what it would tell me.  I knew the years.  But it promised to tell me how many seconds I have lived!  Are you ready?  I have lived:  3026 weeks or 21,185 days or 508,440 hours or 30,506,400 minutes or . . . 1,830,384,000 seconds!  In a little over 5 more years, I can hit 2 billion seconds of life!

That seems like a lot of time to have gone by.  Have I wasted it?  Is it too late for me to accomplish more in my life for God?

Now my granddaughter, Eva, will reach her first birthday soon.  The calculator says that she has lived just over 31.5 million seconds!  What has she done with all those seconds (other than learn to melt her grandparents heart with a smile over Skype!)?  Have they been wasted?  Is it too late for her?

Well, Eva, I guess someone might ask you what you have accomplished with your 31.5 million seconds.  Have you invented a new machine?  Have you started a world changing charity?  Have you made your mark on your chosen career?  Of course not.  You have been growing and learning.  You have been falling and picking yourself up.  You have been crying and laughing.  You have been watching and loving your parents.

There have been times when I have thought it was too late for me to do what God wanted me to do.  (Have you ever been there?)  I have let too many seconds tick by, too many lost opportunities.  I have seen others who have already done it sooner and better.  I tried it and it didn't work or wasn't received well.  I have been pretty harsh in my judgement of accomplishments with my time on this earth.

As excuses go for not doing what God wants you to do, time is a good one.  I can blame the past.  I can procrastinate to some unknown future.  Or, I can say now is the time to obey.  Now is the time.  "If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. (unless they plan to do it tomorrow or now know its too late to try)

It is not too late…
…to go meet that new neighbor
…to make those cookies
…to read that Bible verse
…to call that friend
…to pray with my kids
…to witness at work
…to ask forgiveness long overdue

Not if I am willing to…
…repent to God of my sin of disobedience
…humble myself to my neighbor and co-worker that I should have done this sooner
…take a small step each day toward a big obedience
…let God redeem my time of disobedience
…let God draw on the lessons He has taught me during this "wasted" time
…risk stumbling one more time as I learn and grow

So, its OK Eva, we know a lot has been going on during this past 31.5 million seconds.  It hasn't been wasted.  I know your future is unknown and full of possibilities.  But when you are tempted to give up, to be overwhelmed to the point of stopping, just focus on today.  I am praying for your "today."

God, what good do I know you want me to do today?  Now on to the next seconds of my life.