Sin

We are at the last weekend of January. I am wondering how many of us have started on our New Year’s resolutions. Some are off and running on promises that we made to ourselves. Others may feel that the year just got ahead — and a hold — of them. It is already running their lives with stress, busyness or both. What I find so amazing about our Lord is that it is never too late for new starts with Him. Fresh starts are just a prayer and a conviction away. They are about repentance — not just admitting we are doing wrong, or need forgiveness, but actually turning our back and walking away from the sin. In the case of New Year’s resolutions, the same concept applies.

I believe all of us have gone through a time when something untrue was said about us. While this is certainly hurtful, if we are Christians, it is also a sin of the person delivering the message. I looked up what the Webster's New World Dictionary says about "gossip." Under the second entry it reads: "a person who chatters or repeats idle talk and rumors, esp. about the private affairs of others." So this can be a private truth about another. But what if there is no validity to a story?

I often hear people recite the Scripture, "Do not judge, or you will be judged" (Matthew 7:1). But, as Christians, we are indeed called to judge and point out each other's sin. I was reflecting upon this concept of judgment the other day. A professor of mine said, "We are in fact called to judge." The Bible gives strict guidelines that we are supposed to recognize and point out sin in another believer's life: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him" (Luke 17:3)

I have been pondering the concept of redemption. Certainly we are all sinners. If not for the salvation that God offers us through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, none of us would experience salvation. How can we begin to understand God's design for the redemption that man is so desperately in need of? For us to be redeemed means that we are released from our sin. But for this to take place, there must be a payoff. Redemption is God's way of reuniting sinful man to Himself. It is the means by which we are forgiven and able to fellowship with God and receive salvation.

Much of the time, I challenge us all in our individual and family life. I know that this is good for us as Christians, to be reminded and encouraged. Lately, however, the pain in people's lives has come to my attention. More and more calls have been coming in to meet for counsel. The hurt individuals are experiencing grieves my heart. I have cried with, prayed for, and thought of these people often. Sometimes circumstances and pain bring with them the inability to think clearly, to do the right thing.

Fred Phelps, the founder the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. who was known for his fire-and-brimstone anti-gay public protests - as many as 53,000 of them since 1991, according to church officials - died March 19 at the age of 84. Q: What do you think will be his legacy, or impact on religion in 21st century America? Fred Phelps was a man who had zero positive impact to the history of Christendom. His unpalatable brand of Christianity was valid fodder for critics of any organized religion.

Why do we as Christians sometimes focus so intently on other?s sins and not see the speck in our own eye? I write ?sometimes? because we do not constantly behave in this way. But it always impresses me when someone is spiritually mature and refrains from such action. Being spiritually mature means not being judgmental and pointing out what others do and comparing your own life to theirs, and somehow touting it as better lived or more righteous. Spiritual maturity is sitting without chipping in while others gossip, listening with compassion when someone does sin or we hear they?