The Sin Problem

 

Today we are seeing the rise of secular humanism. What is that? It is a belief that asserts humanity’s greatness depends on man’s capacity for self-realization. It, however, rejects God and sets itself up as god. Although tried many times and in many places, humanism never works because it denies the creator and looks to the created being for all its answers. We human beings were born with a sinful nature. Without God’s help, any humanistic solution to solve the world’s problems leads to oppression and brutality, as history can well attest.

God created man in his image. He made him self-conscious with a capacity to do what no other creature could—hear God’s word. Adam and Eve could live with devotion and morality to God and each other. They could even speak to God and listen to him.  Then came the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden. This is no fable but a rational explanation for the unexplainable evil in the world today. How else do you explain it? Adam and Eve willfully allowed themselves to be deceived?

C. S. Lewis, in his novel Perelandra helps us grasp the wonder and the tragedy of the Genesis story. Adam and Eve, though seduced by Satan, lost so much and gained so little. They were supposed to feel so different and think so distinctly, and they did, but not like they thought they would. Adam and Eve never knew pain, sadness, loneliness, anguish, melancholy, despair, and misery until after the Fall. They had lived in a world so much better than the one they got in the trade. Their new world was a world that sought to exalt self—and forget God, and we have been doing that ever since.

Genesis teaches us that man left to himself fails miserably, the way Adam and Eve did. A prime example is the family. Today, I know of no part of life where there is more failure and struggle than in marriage. I believe Satan has made marriage one of his biggest targets. If he can make havoc out of marriage, he can inflict so much pain on the family. If he can keep the man from loving and cherishing his wife and the wife from respecting her husband—then he succeeds in destroying society. What follows are confused and traumatized children—who don’t know what to think.

Genesis teaches that humanity left to itself is thoroughly sinful and helplessly and hopelessly lost. What Genesis shows us is repeated throughout the Old Testament. The New

Testament’s view of man is the same.  Paul writes, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Rom 3:10-12).

No explanation makes more sense as to the source and extent of our evil on this planet than the Bible’s account. There is also no plan of redemption that comes close to the one the Bible presents to us in the form of Jesus Christ, who came to save us from our sin. When we believe with our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we experience salvation (Rom 10:9-10).

(Parenting with a Long View) https://bovdbrooks.com/

We Need Someone to Sort it Out

Chaos can come out of nowhere and blindside us before we even know what hit us. Like the time Marilyn and I were supposed to board a plane for Antofagasta, Chile, out of Miami, but we found the airline was on strike. To make things worse, no other airline would accept our tickets because Braniff Airlines would not endorse them for payment. Hundreds of people were in our same dilemma. Their faces revealed that they were bewildered, frustrated, and even angry. I still remember the feeling of helplessness when I realized that we were stuck. Helplessness hardly describes the feeling when you have no answer.

My list of chaotic experiences could go on and on as yours could because life at times is beyond our control. When those undesirable things happen to us, and we cannot stop them, we experience a range of negative emotions. Only when we turned this problem over to God did he help us find a solution. He led us out of our confusion when we trusted him, as he has done scores of times for us.

We experience powerful negative emotions during and after a traumatic event that can cause us intrusive and painful thoughts for a long time. The pain of the event can play in our brain like a looped video. We need someone to help us sort it all out. We long for clarity in life—the ability to make sense out of seemingly meaningless occurrences. Some of our worst memories may have to do with broken relationships because of death, divorce, conflict, or other problems. Sometimes we do not know how to fix broken people, but God does. We need help to sort it all out. One can redeem our broken lives and make sense of the chaos.  He is Jesus the Redeemer.  Jesus Christ can turn chaos into meaning and purpose.  Chaos frequently comes from our sin or the mistakes of others.  God, however, specializes in turning chaos into meaning when we ask for his help.

(Parenting with a Long View) https://bovdbrooks.com/

Remember What He Said

 

Last Sunday, as I was walking out of the church, my granddaughter, Madelyn, lost her balloon. I took off after it in an attempt to retrieve it for her, but the wind blew it away. Every time I reached out for it, the wind blew it off again. Time and time again, I was inches from having it in my hand, but it was whisked off. Then finally, it was within my grasp, and as soon as I touched it, it popped. Such is the quest for happiness in this life. We run with all our energy to catch that allusive happiness, and just when we think we have it, something whisks it off from us. Then when we finally catch it, it disappears. Pursuing happiness without knowing your purpose in life is futile.

What really changes our life is meeting Jesus. Jesus is the only person who has ever lived who has met death and conquered it. He was crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday. He promises us that if we put our faith in him, we too will experience resurrection one day. Each of the four Gospels presents Jesus differently because they wrote to different audiences from different perspectives. However, they all wanted everyone to get to know the Jesus they had known.

Matthew presents Jesus as Messiah, connecting the dots with Old Testament prophesies. He describes Jesus as the fulfillment of those prophecies. He wrote to Jews to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. Mark presents Jesus as a man of action. He wrote to a non-Jewish audience. Matthew emphasized the words of the Lord, while Mark underscores Christ’s deeds. John presents Jesus to everyone offering evidence of certain signs which prove that Jesus is the Son of God. John confines his scope of Christ’s ministry to mostly about 30 days, and seven chapters are dedicated to only a twenty-four-hour period.

Luke was a physician, and his attention to de
tail shows. He joined Paul on his second missionary journey. He writes to Gentiles and presents Christ as the perfect example of humanity. In chapter 24, he tells three stories, first the women who went to prepare Jesus’ body, then the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and finally, the disciples together in Jerusalem. In each of the stories, Luke structures the stories with these elements: confusion, rebuke, direction, and transformation. In each instance, all are told to remember God’s Word. They did remember and how it changed them.

 For example, the women are first to arrive at the tomb, and though confused, they have come to honor Jesus’ body for burial. Angels confronted them with a rebuke of “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). The angel rebuked them, asking, is this really where you expected to find Jesus? Then follows some direction, “He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” (Luke 24:6-7). Then “They remember his words.” What follows is their transformation as they become witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection.

 It is evident in Luke 24 that Luke, like the other gospel writers, tells what happened. They never saw the resurrection, so none of them describe it. They tell what they saw, or others saw. Placing the women in the story as witnesses is proof they were not fabricating the story because women were not considered reliable witnesses. The story of the resurrection happened, and it changed them as it does every person who believes in Jesus.

(Parenting with a Long View) https://bovdbrooks.com/