H1N1 and Sin

Things get dirty. You leave the house for any amount of time and once clean shoes become coated in filth; clothes become contaminated with grit, grease, and grime. Even in our homes, dirt is everywhere. Don't believe me? Move a lamp that has set on a table a day or two without being dusted or run your finger across the top of a door facing. Our world is filled with dirt that requires that we clean constantly. I know that this is not news to anyone; it is the world in which we live. This dirt is not just a cosmetic issue either it is a health issue. Bacteria and viruses lurk everywhere threatening to make us sick. We have been reminded of this fact over the past several months with all the news of the H1N1 virus. So we wash, we clean, we use hand sanitizer, we do whatever is necessary to stay clean and healthy.

The same can be said about our spiritual life. We get dirty. We live in a world contaminated with sin and this sin is even in our homes. Don't believe me? Turn your television on, listen to the songs on your radio, surf the internet, sin is everywhere. No matter how hard we try to stay clean, inevitably something sticks. Fortunately, God has provided us something much better than soap and water, something far more effective than hand sanitizer to clean off the sin that contaminates our lives.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:7-9

Let's all be as diligent washing our souls as we are at washing our hands.

Mitchell

CSI: Easter

Easter is huge! Next to Christmas, Easter is the most celebrated holiday in the world. There is a good reason why so many people celebrate Easter. Historians and theologians have never come to a satisfactory conclusion for the reason the early church began celebrating Easter. Some evidence seems to suggest that Christians held the first Easter celebrations to differentiate their celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Jewish celebration of Passover. Other evidence suggests that Emperor Constantine, desiring to promote Christianity and marginalize pagan activity, Christianized a pagan festival celebrating the earth's transition into spring.

As I said at the beginning, there is a good reason why so many people celebrate Easter the answer is Jesus Christ. While the origin of Easter may be in doubt, the reason for Easter is apparent, Christians desired to proclaim from highest height and in the loudest possible way the good news that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead! Scripture does not command us to celebrate Easter as a religious obligation however; scripture does allow us to celebrate such holidays. Paul writes to the Roman Christians,

"Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone." (Romans 14:4-7)

From now until Easter Sunday, we have a unique evangelistic opportunity that will not be available again until Christmas. Your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, anyone with a background in Christianity will be thinking about Christ and most likely desire to go to church somewhere. I encourage you to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to help bring someone you love closer to and possibly into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series at Waynesboro that will culminate on Easter, April 12^th. This series, CSI: Easter will take us on a Crime Scene Investigation of the cross. Did Jesus really die on the cross? Did he really rise from the dead or was his body simply stolen to create the illusion? We will look at these question plus many more with a critical eye. We will weigh the evidence from history, from critics, and from the bible; we will place them side by side and see which ones stand and which ones fall. If you invite your friends and family, they will be engaged by this honest look into Jesus Christ and they will be moved by the conclusion. Pick up the phone right now and invite someone this Sunday!

Mitchell

Spiritual Mourning - Beatitudes #2

"Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4

The thought that happiness could be connected with mourning is diametrically opposed to the conventional wisdom of today's culture. If there is one thing that the world tries to avoid it is mourning. Everything that the world has to offer is designed to promote happiness. Yet the Lord said that happiness, even blessing, can come through mourning. How is this possible?   To understand we first need to understand what Jesus meant by mourning.

The bible speaks of three types of mourning; the type of mourning that results from sin, natural mourning (i.e. resulting from loss), and biblical mourning (like Jesus speaks of here). 

First, there is mourning that results from sin.  A good example of this is the account of Cain mourning over the consequences of the murder of his brother, Abel.  "Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."  (Genesis 4:13-14)  Cain is mourning over the situation he finds himself in as the result of his sin.

Next, we see mourning resulting from loss.  Mourning, as spoken of by the Lord in the Beatitudes, has nothing to do with the sorrow or sadness that we experience naturally at the loss of a loved one or some other tragedy.  It is quite natural to mourn over events that bring us sorrow and while the Lord's comfort does extend to these situations, there is a more specific application of this verse.

Finally, there is spiritual mourning.  As we learned in Poor in Spirit, the first step in the salvation process is acknowledging that we are totally poverty stricken spiritually.  The second Beatitude turns our attention to the result of seeing our own spiritual bankruptcy.  Isaiah exemplifies the idea of spiritual mourning in Isaiah 6:5, "Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 

The bible shows two aspects of spiritual mourning.  The first aspect is that initial moment of mourning when we realize our sin.  The bible calls this "godly sorrow" as seen in 2 Corinthians 7:10, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death."  Initial Mourning refers to "godly sorrow" that always precedes genuine conversion.  This "godly sorrow" is exemplified in Acts 2:37, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

The second aspect of spiritual mourning is continual mourning.  Spiritual mourning is not confined to that initial experience that leads us to repent of our sins. It is something that persists even after our initial salvation.  The truth of the matter is, the closer we get to God, the more mournful we become over our sin, knowing that it dishonors Him. "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge." (Psalm 51:3—4)

With this understanding of what Jesus was talking about when he said "blessed are those who mourn" is becomes more apparent how comfort comes to those who are motivated to do something about their sin.  There is comfort in salvation.  The sorrow and heaviness of heart that is found in the repentant sinner is soon replaced with comfort as this lost soul comes to Christ in faith and repentance.  This comfort comes as we experience the free and full pardon of sin.  Comfort is not only received at the time of salvation, but it is something the child of God continues to experience.  As the child of God finds himself guilty of sin, he mourns over that sin, which in turn leads him to confess and forsake his sin. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Poor in Spirit

Jesus began his monumental and earth changing "Sermon on the Mount" with what we now call "the Beatitudes." This group of sayings or teachings has brought hope, inspiration, comfort, and even a little bit of confusion to people from that day up until the present day. Over the next few days, I want to examine Jesus' Beatitudes and prayerfully, bring a little hope, inspiration, comfort, and clarity into your life.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3

Once during a children's sermon the preacher asked his little listeners, "What must you do to receive God's forgiveness of your sins?" A child quickly declared, "First of all, you have to sin." How profound! If you have children, you already know that it does not take long for them to get right to the point. This young child has the right idea to understanding what Jesus meant when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Until a person realizes they are in sin, they will never turn to God for forgiveness. I know that may sound simple, so simple that it does not deserve to be examined but really, do we all realize that truth? As we look at our society today, we see many lines being blurred. What is the difference between Christians and the rest of the world? If I am a good person is that not good enough? I submit that the question we need to ask people is this, "How has Jesus changed your life?"

Some translations of the bible and a few paraphrases have suggested that instead of the word "blessed" we use the word "happy." In the case of Matthew 5:3 the bible would read, "Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I will not deny that happiness is a true result of the transformation that comes through Jesus but I'm not sure that the word happy goes far enough in explaining what we receive when we give our lives to Christ. When Jesus said that the poor in spirit would be blessed he capped it off by telling us the blessing, which was the kingdom of heaven! To be blessed means supremely blessed and the promise to the poor in spirit is that they will be blessed by God with the Kingdom of Heaven. Happiness does not even begin to describe what Jesus is saying here and I'm not sure that this side of heaven any of us can explain it satisfactorily.

So what does Jesus mean when he says this blessing comes to those who are poor in spirit? Poorness in our vernacular acknowledges a lack of something, usually in our day and time, a lack of money. Poorness could also refer to lacking in aptitude or certain skills, weakness, being timid or passive, but rare is the occasion that we would equate being poor in something as the key to attaining anything. Yet there it is straight from Jesus himself, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Being poor in spirit is that moment when we acknowledge our total spiritual poverty before God. It is a personal acknowledgment of our own spiritual bankruptcy. It is that instant when one realizes, "I am nothing; I have nothing; I can do nothing; and I stand in need of all things." An example of this can be found in the life of Peter, while still a Galilean fisherman he experiences a life changing, paradigm shifting event, we call it the miracle of the great catch of fish. After fishing all night and catching nothing, Jesus encourages Peter and his fellow anglers to give it one more try. When they do, the results were astonishing! They caught so many fish their nets started breaking and their boats were filled to the point of sinking. The bible tells us that when Peter recognized what Jesus had done he exclaimed, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8) Peter recognized that he was poor in spirit.

Recognizing our poorness of spirit is fundamental to salvation. When we acknowledge that we have nothing to offer God, it is then and only then that we are open enough to allow God to fill our lives. Poorness of spirit is closely related to repentance. Repentance is what follows when we recognize that we are poor in spirit. Another good bible example is found in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee stood to pray and talked on and on about all the good things he has done while the tax collector could not even bear to raise his head. The tax collector was broken and in need of God. He "beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." (Luke 18:13) We cannot be filled until we are empty, we cannot be made worthy until we recognize our unworthiness; we cannot live until we admit we are dead.

So, how has Jesus changed your life?