BBD 02.20.09 Sin is a Monster
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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02.20.09
Sin is a Monster
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:23.
The recent chimpanzee attack on a Connecticut woman, Charla Nash, was
somewhat surprising to me. Charla was trying to help her friend and ended up
with severe life threatening injuries when she was attacked by the chimp.
Hopefully, Charla will be able to recover from this horrific event. I knew
that chimpanzees could sometimes be dangerous, but I had no idea of the
monstrous strength of these creatures. The relative strength of a chimp to a
human is five to seven times greater. The fact that Charla is even still
living after being attacked by the angry, out of control chimp is
miraculous!
The idea for this devotional came from Pastor James Perkins. After he
commented on my devotional, "Do Not Feed the Monkeys," which was sent the
day after the chimp attack, I responded that I had no idea how strong
chimpanzees were. Pastor Perkins then wrote this, "that's the same attitude
that many of us have about sin, we don't realize how dangerous it really is.
" How true! Sin is monstrous! Sin is horrific! Sin is a killer! But what do
we do with sin? We play with it! We flirt with it! Is it really all that
surprising that so many are hurt, devastated by sin?
Jesus indicates how seriously we should consider sin to be when He says in
Mark 9:43-47, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for
you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell,
into the fire that shall never be quenched - where their worm does not die
and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it
off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet,
to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched - where
their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God
with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire where
their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." Now, I do not believe
that Jesus intended for us to literally pluck out our eyes, and literally
cut off our hands and feet. If the early church had believed that, we would
still be having eye plucking services today. But Jesus did intend for us to
see a picture of how dangerous sin is to us and how we should take sincere
steps, even radical steps, to protect ourselves from sin, and the
consequences of sin.
Sin is serious business. Sin is so serious, so horrific, so catastrophic, so
monstrous that Jesus Christ had to come down from the glories of Heaven and
suffer and die on the cross for our sins.
Please do not play around with sin because, sin is a monster!
Copyright © 2009. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
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