Sin

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

Few words are as loaded as the word “sin”. It’s taken to mean everything from isolated acts of behavior to a pervasive state of soul and comes packed with all sorts of emotional baggage. Some say smoking is sin. I know lots of people who’ve never smoked but who take sin to a whole new level.

Two critical things come to mind in my attempt to dust off this word, dial it back to it’s original meaning and restore it to usefulness. First comes the whole “feeling bad” part. Obviously, that’s unavoidable. But there are different kinds of “feeling bad”. 2 Corinthians 7:10 reads, “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” The test is the result. Feeling bad for it’s own sake is not going to move us in helpful directions.

The other one has to do with two critical “wires” easily crossed in our thinking. Ancient Christianity is about rooting out the sinner inside yourself and the saint in everyone else. Too often it becomes about the opposite. In Matthew 7:3, Jesus challenges us to memorize a simple fact of perspective: log-sized flaws in us look like specks while speck-sized flaws in others look like logs. It’s a truth we’ll never be able to escape.

So what are they? Sins are dead ends. Empty paths. Unfulfilled promises birthed in the blinding heat of some initial flush of feeling. But it all comes to nothing. And then you wake up old, and used and forgotten and useless. Not even good for sin, anymore, because you don’t even have the zest of the young. It’s a pleasant tickle in our throat as we swallow slow acting poison. Sin has to do with motive as much as deed, our intentions as much as our actions.

Something to think about.

This Sunday, we’re continuing in our remote control pulpit answering questions you’ve been submitting (see below). Visit our website for directions or tune into our podcast through the week.

I hope to see you there,

Chris

THE THOMAS LOBBY
I've got a brand new Sunday routine because my old way of doing things had me missing out on going to church myself. I've always had a passion to grow a church from the lobby out. So I'll be there from 9.30 on each Sunday, coffee in hand, ready to love life. Join me.

CONNECTING
I’m getting asked how we connect more often with those in our “digital congregation”. Well, it may be crazy to publish an address on the web, but I guess I’m like that. Please don’t think you’re wasting my time or that it’s “special” to connect with a pastor. It isn’t. A pastor is a person with a job at a church. That’s all. I’m not hidden behind two secretaries and three layers of privilege (and never will be). Use the “contact us” page on our website or connect with me through MSN Messenger (cswiersma@hotmail.com). Let’s do it.

THIS SUNDAY
The other side of miracles. Last week we talked about finding faith without them, this week we'll talk about the role they still play today. You can visit our website for directions or tune into our podcast through the week.