Month: February 2025

If we were to ask what is wrong with the world today, I bet there would be a pretty common theme to answers people give. Obvious answers would include corruption, greed, war, natural disasters, etc. COVID would make the list. Some people would mention politics. And others would possibly say in the Middle East. Although I do agree these are all issues, I think that the main problem in the world today is sin. 

Now let’s ask a tough question. And let’s analyze our hearts. Be honest with yourself. Are there sins that you treat as if they are not anything to be too concerned about? Things that you justify because you want to do them? But you realize and know that they are wrong? If the answer is yes, maybe it’s time to work on pushing them aside. Maybe it’s time to get them out of your life. We may view them as simple and small. We may view them as not being anything to be concerned about. But that is a slippery slope. Very dangerous. Let me explain why.

Sin can break up our relationship with God. Sin keeps our hearts unclean. We can get stuck in thinking that it’s ok, and that can lead to thinking other sins are ok too. Then the next thing we know…we have blurred everything together. Possibly to the point that we can’t determine what’s right and wrong anymore. And that is where the danger lies. Wrong has become right. Right has become wrong. Evil has become good. Good has become evil. And we begin believing it. Here’s the good news though, with Jesus we can be right with God. We have the tool to fight sin. We have the tool to clean our hearts. We have the weapon to defeat Satan. Sin is not going away. We are all sinners. But that doesn’t make it right. More importantly though, Jesus is not going away either. He will always be here. Let’s remember that he died for us. He paved the way. Always willing to help us fight back our sinful natures. Because he loves us. Always has. Always will.

Forgiveness. We have talked about this topic before. It especially hits home with me because it’s a difficult one for me to do. Not so much when it concerns someone who has wronged me. But when it concerns someone who has wronged a member of my family. I actually have been struggling with this aspect for a while. Someone I have known since childhood, and deeply trusted and loved, wronged my youngest child. And it has been hard for me to forgive them.

But here is why I need to. Here is why we all need to forgive others. Forgiveness leads us to freedom. Freedom from those who have hurt us. If we choose to not forgive, then we are holding ourselves captive. We are basically keeping ourselves in “personal” prison. If we forgive, we can remove the bitterness from our hearts. We can remove the anger and hatred. We can get rid of the idea of getting revenge against whomever caused us harm. Actually, forgiving them is a form of revenge because it removes the incident from our hearts and sets us free! Not them. It frees us!

Now let’s go back in our minds around 2000 years when Jesus was on the cross. Let’s remember what had happened to him prior to the crucifixion. Arrested. Beaten. Whipped. Basically he endured a pain beyond anything we could ever comprehend. Then nailed to the cross, he died a torturous death. And what was it that he did right before he died? He used his last breath to forgive the Romans who had done this to him. He forgave those who were executing him. Wow! What a powerful example for us to follow. I know I need to. We all do. Because Jesus loves us. Always has. Always will.