Last week, two very tragic realities hit home here in the United States: the Boston marathon bombings and the Texas fertilizer plant explosion. Both events left many people dead, hundreds injured, and families and friends of those involved grief stricken and speechless in the wake of such tragedies. Many people immediately asked themselves, “How did this happen?” Most importantly, many asked, “Why did this happen?”

These are appropriate questions to such horrific events, and I believe that as Christians we should be prepared to seriously grapple with the implications such events will have on the minds and hearts of those involved. Such implications may extend to the rest of us who may live far away from either location, yet still feel a deep sadness and loss inside.

For the Christian, two things need to be looked at in light of these recent happenings.

First, as Christians we are hopeful that God is working through such tragedies to heal, comfort and save lives. No matter how bad things get here on earth, we have faith that our Savior empathizes with all of our sufferings, and that He stands ready to make every situation a peaceful one, for those who walk with Him.

Second, for non-believers, the typical response to such events towards God is often, “If God were real and supposedly ‘loving,’ how could he have let this stuff happen?” This is not as juvenile a question as it may often appear to be, especially in the wake the events that happened last week.

God in the Unthinkable

Even as a Christian, I still ask myself from time to time, “God, why are you allowing this?” It is one thing to distrust and blame God for things we don’t understand, and another entirely, to humbly cry out to him in our frustration and ignorance in hard situations.

Events like the two this past week are some of the hardest for Christians to struggle with and this should not surprise us. The Church has a history of grappling with the question of, “If there is a good God, then why is there evil?” And, the events we have witnessed and understood recently are very much evil; in the case of the bombings, they are the direct result of wicked hearts willing to kill innocent people; in the case of the Texas plant explosion, it was an accident that caused much destruction.

So where was God? As Christians, by faith, hope and experience, we can confidently say that He was there, directly watching over, and in control of the two situations. This may lead some to question why then, if He was there, did He not stop it? Some may respond, “You mean to say that God was directly controlling the bombings and the plant explosion? Doesn’t that then make God ultimately responsible for these injustices?”

No, it doesn’t. Though, such questions are not completely illogical or irrelevant, they should never lead us to blame God for tragedies or to disbelieve in God altogether.

An even greater question is this: if there isn’t a God who is all powerful and capable of creating us, loving us, and giving us the hope of eternity with Him, then isn’t the alternative that humans are simply random, genetically modified, evolutionary beings who sometimes go on killing sprees? And, when power plants blow up, isn’t that just the happenstance result of faulty programming or negligent maintenance? Accidents just happen with no apparent reasons sometimes.

But, if these things “just happen,” then where is the ultimate hope that such tragedies will ever be made right? Where is cosmic justice?

Making Sense of the Senseless

Christianity boldly asserts that when disasters like the Boston marathon bombings and the Texas plant explosion happen, there is a sense in which all the grief, loss of loved ones, shattered families, suicidal onsets, depression, and so forth, will not have the last say in people’s lives. God has promised us hope in the future, and it is towards this future restoration of all things that Christians boldly look forward to.

The alternative isn’t better, it is far worse. To have no hope in God making all things right one day, leads logically and emotionally to the hopeless view that events as tragic as what we have witnessed last week are random, unfortunate, and that’s that.

No. I am not willing to live in a world like that. Are you?

The post When the Unthinkable Happens, Where is God? appeared first on WordJourney.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Thus wrote King David in the nineteenth Psalm, verse one.

Springtime has a way of reminding me to take a closer look at nature. This should not be surprising. Spring brings with it the budding of flowers from their long winter slumber, the vibrant blossoming of once bare trees, clear blue skies, white puffy clouds that look like cotton candy, warmer weather with refreshing cool breezes: in short, spring brings new life.

It has long been understood in every culture that springtime is the birth of new life. This is one of the greatest reasons, I think, why we look forward to spring after a long, cold winter. I live in North Carolina, and this past winter was surprisingly cold. It goes without saying that the mild weather that is dawning here, and no doubt in many other places around the world, is a great refresher to the weariness winter can often bring.

Nature, By Season

To be sure, it is possible to admire the beauty of God’s creation even during the winter months, and some people actually prefer winter over spring. Indeed, no matter what the season, God’s handiwork can be seen. His design is especially hard to miss during spring though.

Seeing new life blossom forth during springtime is actually an apt metaphor for resurrection. Just as all plants temporarily “die” during the cold months of the year and come to life again when it gets warmer, so too do humans die, and if Christians, look forward to the final resurrection of the body: from death to life. We just celebrated the resurrection of Jesus just last week, as nature began resurrecting too. What a beautiful image!

I took a walk with my fiancée a few days ago in a park that is close by to where she lives. As we walked the sequestered cement trail taking in the beauty around us, I was reminded of how much easier it is to see the hand of God in nature when the weather is nice. I was reminded about how David, while possibly standing on his parapet in Jerusalem, looked up at the vast expanse of sky over his city and proclaimed, “Wow! Lord, you made all of this, you are mighty indeed!” (my paraphrase)

Nature Reflects God

Scripture is full of exclamatory praises about God’s creation. Indeed, the Psalms contain a large amount of hymns to God’s glorious works and this world he has made. But we Christians must be careful. Nature is not God; it is only a reflection of His design and awesome power.

Many world religions, most notably those of Eastern varieties exalt nature as the highest divine substance in the universe. Buddhism is pantheistic; “God,” in other words, “divineness,” is everywhere and in everything, from the smallest rock to the highest mountain. Hinduism has some strains of this thinking too. Taoism and Confucianism are also pantheistic. Indeed, the often overlooked “religion of Darwinism” is right there with these others, though not as explicitly pronounced. In all of these philosophical systems, nature is the supreme deity.

Christianity sees nature and the world around us as an outpouring of God’s wisdom, power and love. As Christians we should not ever worship the created over the creator.

So as the weather continues to get nice this year, let us remember that God made the natural world around us for his glory, and no doubt to inspire awe in his human creations. Let us, as David did all those years ago exclaim with heartfelt wonder and thankfulness, “How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all! (Psalm 104:24).

See Also — Worship Not the Creature

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Sexual Exploitation

On the sexual exploitation side, women and children are routinely recruited, transferred and sold abroad, coerced into submitting to individuals that may drug, assault or rape them. In the US, the Salvation Army claims that Asian women are sold to North American brothels for $16,000 each. In Nepal, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 girls and young women are moved across the border into India where they are sold to brothels and forced to work as prostitutes.

The numbers are alarming and the victimization is almost beyond human comprehension. Many of the exploited are infected with sexually transmitted diseases and if determined to have contracted HIV, they are kicked out of the brothels and forced to fend for themselves. HIV usually gives way to AIDS with their deaths just a matter of time. Medical care is limited or simply insufficient to handle these cases.

Tiny Hands International

Not all governments are doing what must be done to combat human trafficking as some officials aid and abet, usually by looking the other way and accepting bribes. Where government action is most weak, such as in Nepal, there is also a community response that is growing. Indeed, that response involves the Body of Jesus Christ, individuals that are working as border monitors to keep an eye on suspicious activities.

Helping to advance that effort is Tiny Hands International, a Nebraska-based nonprofit organization that was launched in 2004 to work with street children in Kathmandu, Nepal. The work expanded to Bangladesh in 2006; the following year Tiny Hands began to actively intercede on behalf of girls and women that were being sold into sex slavery. In 2009, Tiny Hands began to work with Nepalese church partners, an arrangement that has saved thousands of women and children from certain enslavement.

Four Objectives

Tiny Hands employs four objectives that go beyond its border monitoring efforts.

First, the organization seeks to educate and raise awareness as those that are trafficked are usually ignorant of the devices used to enslave them. Indeed, impoverished families are often approached by strangers with the promise of jobs abroad for their daughters. Believing that their girls will be engaged in legitimate work and sending money back home, uniformed families give their consent. Tiny Hands reaches out to the community by raising awareness and educating the unenlightened.

Second, Tiny Hands provides aftercare to women that have been stopped at the border. The group renders emotional and spiritual support at safe houses where women are informed of what crimes were to be committed against them. They are also questioned by authorities. Days and weeks waiting for matters to settle can be emotionally trying — staff members are there to offer their support, education and prayers. Most women are able to return to their homes, while others may go on to the organization’s Women’s Empowerment Center where they are taught, trained for work and even lent money to start a business.

Third, prosecution is essential to stopping human trafficking. In Nepal, a conviction carries a 30-year prison sentence, but only if prosecution is successful. Police corruption, a weak legal system and the strength of the sex trafficking industry means that successful prosecutions rarely occur. Since 2010, Tiny Hands started working with its legal partners to train border monitors to gather legal evidence to use against alleged traffickers. That process is beginning to pay off in the increased number of arrests.

Fourth, investigating how the sex trade industry works is important to combatting this scourge. Much like the drug or arms trade, the human trafficking industry is highly organized and backed by a lot of money. Complicit police departments are big part of the problem with law enforcement personnel “on the take” in some areas. When governments are cooperative, limited resources can stand in the way.

What You Can Do

Often when we read these accounts, the question of “what can I do?” comes up. WordJourney reached out to Randy Wiersma, a Tiny Hands International board member, to learn more. Given that the work of reaching women is handled by Nepali nationals, those options are as follows:

1. Pray for the ministry. The One Girl Prayer Initiative as well as staff committing a day each week to pray and fast over a two-year period had a dramatic impact on the number of girls intercepted. Prayer is critical to the success of the ministry and too often people do not think they are “doing” something if they are praying.

2. Build awareness. Although trafficking awareness has grown through an increase of news coverage, most people are still unaware of how extensive and fast growing the trafficking industry has become.

3. Give financially. The work also depends on funds to operate the border stations and safe houses as well as the investigation work being done to shut down the trafficking networks.

Said Wiersma, “I know people want to do more, but in this line of work, these are the possible places people can impact the ministry and fight the injustice of trafficking.”

That’s a good start too, one that God will honor for those desiring to make a difference.

Did you know that Tiny Hands International is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)?

Photo Credit: Clarence Risher

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Risen Savior

It is not hard to imagine how confused and sad Jesus’s followers must have been when their risen savior announced that He would be leaving them yet again. If I had been in that post-resurrection gathering, I would probably have been thinking something like, “You’ve got to be kidding, Jesus! The Romans and Jews just put you to death and now you have risen back to life. You have won! Now you can bring the Kingdom of God to earth and show those earthly authorities how wrong they were! We already lost you once; we can’t bear to lose you again.”

Jesus knew what He was doing. He knew that His departure meant the coming of the Holy Spirit. This same Holy Spirit would empower the disciples to spread the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world.

God’s Holy Spirit

Jesus said that the disciples would benefit far more from having the coming of the Holy Spirit than to continue having Him around bodily on earth. You see, God’s plan for restoring humans to Himself included a final episode where He would come to dwell personally in each of His followers. This is how the work of God is done today on earth: through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God. As we discussed in our second article, the Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is hard for us to imagine a spirit who has an actual personality. Usually when we think of a spirit we think of an impersonal force. Indeed, Christianity stands unique among every other religion in that God the Spirit speaks to humans personally. The Holy Spirit takes an active role in carrying out God’s will in the lives of those who chose to follow Christ.

Throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit is also commonly called the “Spirit of God” and the “Spirit of Christ.” When a person says they have Jesus living “inside” of them, what they mean is that the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, is living His will out through their lives.

Godly Power

When a person decides to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their life, they do so by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible promises that the Holy Spirit will come to dwell in each of those who believe in the saving work of Jesus.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus promises His followers that the Holy Spirit will be with them after He leaves. “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (14:26). Later in the same book, Jesus explains why He must leave in order for the Holy Spirit to arrive, “Now I am going to him who sent me….because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor [Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (16:5-7).

There are many more passages like these throughout the Bible which explain the importance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in Christ.

But what does the Holy Spirit actually do? In fact, He has many roles.

Conviction, Restoration and Comfort

He convicts people of their sin, so that they turn to belief in Christ. He gives strength to those who are weak. He comforts those who mourn. He searches human hearts. He personally guides all of those through this life who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord. The Holy Spirit offers assurance of salvation to anyone who has placed their trust in Christ. These are only a few of the tasks the Holy Spirit carries out. Indeed, the list can never be exhausted.

In this final article to our Easter series we have looked at the importance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians.

Your Hope

It is my prayer that this series has in some small way explained the importance of our need for a savior in light of our sins. I hope that you have been able to see something of the boundless grace given in Jesus Christ who willingly gave His life for us and rose again in victory over sin and death. Also, I pray that if you still haven’t made your mind up about where Jesus stands in your own life that you would invite Him in. After all, you may be pleasantly surprised at what happens.

The post The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Believer’s Life appeared first on WordJourney.

In this article we will look at the way in which Jesus has saved us from our sins, on a cross of Roman wood. We will also see how our sins could not have the final say, and how three days after Jesus died for us, He rose from the dead.

By giving His life for us on the cross, Jesus accomplished our salvation, and by rising from the grave, He accomplished our future resurrection.

The Calvary Cross

The cross of Jesus Christ is the center of the Christian faith. It is where the entire story of God revealing Himself to us climaxes. On a hill called Mount Calvary, just outside the city of Jerusalem, the Roman authorities, and the Jewish religious leaders publicly put Jesus of Nazareth to death on a cross. The importance of this event would change the course of human history.

But, why is the death of one person in the first century so important to you or me? Because, as we have seen in our previous articles the problem of sin does not have a cure unless God intervenes on our behalf. It is in the death of his Son, Jesus, that He chose to take our sin on Himself, thereby doing away with it once and for all.

His Death Foretold

The New Testament is full of passages that highlight the importance of Jesus giving His life for us on the cross. The gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — all tell us that Jesus was well aware of why he came to the earth: the main reason was to die.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus foretells His death to his disciples three times before he dies! Not only did Jesus know why He came, but He also knew what his death was going to accomplish for the world.

Concerning our sin and the cross, Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome, writes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Rom 3:23-24).

The Final Solution

Jesus is the final solution to the problem of our sin. On the cross, Jesus absorbed God’s entire wrath towards sin. This is why Paul can say in his letter to the Colossian Christians that Christ has, “canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col 2:13-14). Christ absorbed God’s penalty towards sin in His own death. This means life for us.

Since God has done the saving work in the cross, He now opens the invitation to all of us who choose to believe. It’s as simple as believing that Christ has saved you! He requires nothing from us, because there is nothing we can bring. He has solved the problem of sin — once and for all.

Resurrection and Life

But, the good news gets even better. Jesus rose again from the dead! In the words of the Bible, “death could not hold him down” (Acts 2:24). The importance of Jesus rising from the dead is essential to the hope we can have in Jesus’s victory over sin and death. In a literal way, death was triumphed over because Jesus rose. In a spiritual way, death no longer has to bind us because we can have hope beyond the grave that we too can rise to eternal life just like Jesus did.

If you remember from our first article, the result of sin entering into the world, through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, brought physical and spiritual death into the world. Jesus has reversed this cycle of sin and death by defeating it through His cross and resurrection. Indeed, the hope of the Christian is nurtured through these two facts. So we see that the cross and the resurrection accomplished the two greatest moments in human history: the defeat of sin and the defeat of death.

God’s Holy Spirit

After Jesus’s resurrection, He returned to heaven to be with the Father. Before He left, however, He promised not to leave his disciples abandoned. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to “guide the disciples” until he returned again one day to gather his church. In our final article in this series, we will take a closer look at who the Holy Spirit is and how he works to constantly change, comfort and keep us until the Lord Jesus returns.

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Surprise Election

Cardinal Bergoglio’s election on March 13 surprised some including not a few of the church leaders (cardinals) that voted for him. Bergoglio was chosen on just the second day of balloting and immediately picked the name Francis to identify his papacy.

Pope Francis meets with media
(Photo credit: Catholic Church)

The pope’s name is a tribute to Saint Francis of Assisi, an Italian friar lauded for his service to the poor. Indeed that Francis, born Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone, gave up his earthly riches to minister to the poor and out of that service the Franciscan order rose up to proclaim the gospel.

Pope Francis said that he chose his name to honor the 13th century friar and to make known his desire for the Catholic Church to be an institution “of the poor, for the poor.”

Divine Mission

At his first Vatican press conference Pope Francis proclaimed that Jesus, not the pope, is at the center of the church. The pope also called for the church “to stick to the faith’s Gospel roots and shun modern temptations.” He added, “The Church must not become just another charitable group without its divine mission.”

Pope Francis is the son of Italian immigrants and was born in Buenos Aires in 1933. He became a priest in 1969 and moved up in the church hierarchy before being elevated to cardinal in 2001. Despite his very advanced position, the head of the Argentine church maintained a simple apartment and took public transportation to work, eschewing the royalty-like trappings typically enjoyed by church leaders.

Good Wine

The pope told his cardinals to keep their eyes on the mission even as the church continues to work through its many problems including leadership infighting, sexual scandal and moral erosion. Reported Reuters, “Let us never give in to the pessimism, to that bitterness, that the devil places before us every day. Let us not give into pessimism and discouragement.” The pope also reminded his cardinals of the influence that they have among young people, “We are in old age. Old age is the seat of wisdom. Like good wine that becomes better with age, let us pass on to young people the wisdom of life.”

Will the new pope’s direction win over critics? That may not happen for two groups of people: liberals and some evangelical Christians. Although both groups are diametrically opposed to each other, they have one thing in common: both oppose nearly everything that the Roman Catholic Church represents. The first group does so for the church’s adherence to traditional values and biblical authority, the latter for Rome’s spiritual primacy and deep doctrinal differences. Neither group will likely influence the new pope as he seeks to advance the authority that he believes has been vested to him by Jesus Christ, the church’s bridegroom.

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Record Television Audience

Hollywood pundits are reportedly stunned by the series’ popularity and some Christians are too, although the latter camp has been doing so with a much more critical eye, one that may be missing the impact of an all-too-rare occurrence these days. That event has the gospel message presented on prime time with millions of people watching.

Viewers could have watched AMC’s The Walking Dead, but chose not to. Instead, they tuned in to learn what The Bible series was all about, perhaps desiring to be spiritually satisfied too.

The Bible is not a perfect series and that is why some of the chatter among Christians has been about dissecting its flaws instead of lauding a rare television opportunity.

White Space Narrative

One comment I found on Facebook seemed particularly aghast by a certain “ninja-style” fighting scene involving God’s angels. Others have criticized the various “white spaces” dialogue that the producers frequently interjected into each story account.

Those “white spaces” represent areas in the Bible where we might imagine what some people were thinking when they witnessed a miracle, saw overwhelming force repelled or simply went about their daily lives.

The Bible typically does not expand the narrative to include every word uttered, unless to make an important point such as when Thomas beheld the resurrected Jesus and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

Grace Under Fire

Perhaps in response to the usual Christian backlash, Franklin Graham issued a press release this week to defend the series. Said Graham, “While there are some story lines interpreted differently, the truth is that in all things the Lord Jesus Christ is seen lifted up before the world and glorified as the King of kings.”

Graham is certainly a gracious follower of Jesus Christ, one who has learned well from his mother and father about how best to handle conflict. Especially under fire. Graham said that the series “will likely cause a viewer to want to open the pages of Scripture to see the realities of Almighty God’s plan for the human race.”

Bingo. Or, should I say, “Hallelujah?!”

The Human Jesus

Who knows, maybe the series will bungle the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, perhaps inserting a bit of the Apocrypha along the way. Maybe Mary Magdalene will reveal a little too much cleavage.

Just the same, maybe we will see a very human Jesus, one who upset the conventional wisdom of His day by healing the blind man, reaching out to a Samaritan woman and supping with sinners. The very people that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, are supposed to reach in His name.

Then again, perhaps we are too involved building our earthly spiritual kingdoms by rolling out yet another church program, raising millions for a building — money that could be better used to minister to the lost, instead of taking up some other activity that keeps us busy, busy, busy!

God help us if we miss out on an opportunity to make a difference or forget to choose our words carefully. We know that the world hates us, but sometimes we do our own part by adding fuel to the fire.

Photo courtesy of the History Channel.

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Through Jesus, God reaches out to sinful man.

In our last article we looked at the negative effects that sin has on our lives. We saw how sin ultimately causes disruption in our relationships with other people and most importantly in our fellowship with God.

That first look included a review of how natural disasters can, in some part, be attributed to sin entering the world through the first sin committed by Adam and Eve. The way that the world is today is not how God intended things to be — nor are we. We also saw that there is nothing we can do to fix the problem of sin.

So, if we can’t fix the problem ourselves, who can?

God Became Man

Christianity provides an answer unlike any other: God became a man so that we might become sons and daughters of God — He became a man in the person of Jesus Christ! The importance of this event cannot be overstated.

The good news is that Jesus Christ — who is 100 percent God and 100 percent man –came down from heaven to live among humans. He shared in our suffering, healed the sick, taught us how to follow God and died on a cross for the sins of the world. Three days later He rose from the dead, claiming victory over death. And now we will look at why Jesus qualifies as the only perfect solution to save us from our sins and restore us to God.

Prophecy Fulfilled

The Bible has much to say about Jesus Christ and His unique role in human history. The Old Testament is full of prophesies about Him and in the New Testament we see many of these prophesies fulfilled. The earthly life of Jesus is recorded particularly in the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These books are the first books found in the New Testament.

It is in the gospels we discover a man unlike any other that has ever walked the earth. This man, Jesus, has been credited with bringing healing to people’s lives in their most humiliating and broken situations. Indeed, it is in the gospels that we learn about a man who is able to do the things that only God can do. For Jesus healed people’s lame legs and withered hands, freed them from bondage, eradicated deadly skin diseases and opened blind eyes. He cast out demons and even raised His best friend Lazarus from the dead!

Only God can do such works.

Forgiveness For Sins

One of the most compelling traits of Jesus’s uniqueness is His ability to forgive people’s sins. Indeed, no mere human being has the authority to forgive someone’s sins on behalf of God unless that human being is God Himself. Jesus was accused many times throughout the gospels of assuming the place of God because He claimed things about Himself that Jewish scripture (Old Testament) stated could only be credited to God.

Not only is Jesus God, but he is also a man, one that lived a life just like you and me. Unlike us, Jesus never sinned.

You may be thinking, “No one’s perfect. He never sinned even one time?” No, not even once.

Several books in the New Testament explicitly state that Jesus never sinned. Why would this fact be so important to Jesus’s followers and for those who recorded his life? Why should it be so important to us?

Quite simply it is this: only a sinless person is able to pay for our sins. Jesus’s unique role as both God and man is what qualifies Him to stand in our place in the face of God’s just wrath against our sinful state.

You see, God is perfect, sinless and infinitely holy. God created us in His likeliness, to demonstrate His love for us and to make it possible for us to show love to Him in return.

Sin Has Consequences

God cannot, however, tolerate sin and let it go unpunished — sin is against His very nature and being. Rather than let us die in our sins, God put on human flesh 2,000 years ago, becoming Jesus the babe in the manger. That is why we celebrate Christmas.

Jesus came to save us from our sins and restore our relationship with God. The perfect God-Man and only sinless human being to ever walk the face of our planet would do the unthinkable to solve the problem of sin: He would give His life freely on a cross and absorb all sins, taking the punishment we deserved upon Himself. He died for us because He knew the cost was well worth the victory.

In next week’s article titled “The Final Solution to Sin and Death,” we will spend explore the significance of the cross and what His death means to us personally.

The post Jesus Christ: God, Man and the Only Sinless Human appeared first on WordJourney.

It is no wonder why the word is used less often today as it causes discomfort — and understandably so. Sin is a word that reminds us of all those times we fail other people as well as our failures before God.

Sin shows us that we are far less of a “good person” than what we want to be, reminding us that we are flawed and simply fall short of that goodness.

We sense God’s displeasure and we do not know what to do about it.

God’s original plan for us did not include a graveyard.

Understanding Sin

There are at least two important ways of understanding sin. The first is to deny that humans are sinful creatures, to dismiss that notion completely while pretending that the bad things people do are just the unfortunate result of imperfect humans: “nobody is perfect, right?”

The second is to acknowledge that there is something inherently wrong with the evil that humans cause on a daily basis, and to recognize our need for help and salvation.

Let’s face it: most of us would agree that our lives are full of things we would call “mistakes.” Sometimes these mistakes are considered little things by human standards, like, cheating on a test, getting angry with someone, telling a “white lie,” failing to come through on a promise, and so on.

Sometimes they are big things, like cheating on a spouse, murder, stealing or rape.

How tragic it is that these lists can go on and on with no clear ending point. Let’s be honest with ourselves: don’t examples like these stir our hearts to think that perhaps there is something grossly wrong with the human condition? That deep down inside each one of us there is a desire to be perfect, free of our constant failures…without sin?

Though it is true that humans will never be sinless on this earth, the shared and very human desire to “be perfect” is a telling indicator of how things used to be, before humans brought sin into a good and perfect world.

In His Likeness

Most likely you have heard something about the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and the first humans God made — Adam and Eve. Indeed, this is where the story of where the human race begins: in a special garden, made by a wholly good and gracious God, who desired a personal relationship with us.

However, because God gave our first parents the freedom to choose, they disobeyed God’s one and only command: to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

Once Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they were exposed to sin, and ultimately death came into the world. Because of their sin, those consequences have stayed with us down through the generations. People are not able to fix sin and that is why war, disease, suffering and death are consequences we still feel today.

Separated From God

The Bible warns us that, “all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), that sin is “lawlessness” against God’s perfect nature (1 John 3:4), that it is a “curse” (Galatians 3:13), and that sin ultimately brings forth death in human beings (Romans 6:23).

In short, sin is a major problem for the human race! The Bible also teaches us that sin is such a great matter, that it is not only linked with our relationship to God and man, but also to the entire created order.

In Romans 8:21-23, Paul talks about how all of creation is under the bondage of sin. This speaks volumes about why we feel a sense of injustice and sorrow when we see natural disasters like tornadoes, tsunamis and fires take unsuspecting lives. There is a sense that such disasters are just not right — that in a perfect world such tragedies would not happen.

That thinking is correct and underscores what is going on here: sin is rampant everywhere and is an obstacle in our relationship with God and with other people.

This is why we all need salvation or freedom from sin. Every sin we do separates us from the loving God who made us in His likeness. Sin can and does often disrupt and destroy human relationships.

Each one of us needs to be restored to a right relationship with God our creator, and to other people, but the question is this: how can that happen?

The Perfect Solution

Thank God that the story of the human race did not end when sin entered the world. Instead, God made redemption possible by providing us with the perfect solution to save us from sin’s curse.

Next week, we will take a closer look at God’s solution to the problem of sin and how salvation is offered to all of us through Jesus Christ, the sinless one.

The post The Problem of Sin and Why We Need Salvation appeared first on WordJourney.

The History Channel presents
“The Bible” beginning on March 3.

From Genesis to Revelation, the History Channel’s five-night, 10-hour “The Bible” series may prove to be one of the more significant witnessing tools of our lifetime. Produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the series begins on Sunday, March 3 and concludes four weeks later on Easter.

Christian Endorsement

“The Bible” has received a lot of attention including positive feedback from many Christians. Indeed, Geoff Tunnicliffe, CEO/Secretary General for the World Evangelical Alliance, praised the series in his write up on the Christian Post, noting that it “actually rises to the top of the “wow” scale.” Tunnicliffe previewed the series in full and his organization has endorsed The Bible by partnering with it.

Filmed mostly in Morocco and making use of stunning visual imagery and computer special effects, the series is split evenly between Old and New Testament, bringing to the screen many of the top Bible stories that we know and love.

Ten Commandments

The series opener, Beginnings, starts off with Noah’s story and then brings in Abraham, Moses and the Israelite’s escape from Egypt. From crossing the Red Sea to the presentation of the Ten Commandments, the first part sets the stage for what is to come. When it concludes on March 31, it may end up being one of the most watched shows on television.

Burnett and Downey developed the series over three and one-half years, and consulted with more than 40 scholars to ensure both Biblical and historical accuracy. Roma Downey was cast as Jesus’ mother, Mary, while Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado played Jesus. The producers also cast Nonso Anozie, a British actor of African descent, to play Samson. The rest of the cast includes many actors of international prominence.

Video Availability

Although airing on consecutive Sundays, the series will air repeat episodes during the week. And, if you want to view the entire series sooner or have it as part of your video library, you can buy it right now from the History Channel for $60. My family plans to watch the entire series and we will wait to make our purchase decision until after the last show airs.

Judging by the interviews we have seen, the stories that we have read and the clips that we watched, we think that The Bible will be uplifting and actually portray each story as God intended. That, alone, will be a blessing indeed!

Photo courtesy of the History Channel.

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