Greetings to you in the name of the One who gave us the authority of His Name to access the throne room of heaven, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! What a beautiful morning to say ‘good bye to summer!’ and ‘hello to fall!’ – and to experience the progressive nature of creation. I trust that you had a good weekend and Monday-Tuesday – with all kinds of adventures and happy moments. I will be praying for you today, asking Father to bring joy and peace and hope to you in overflowing quantities.
At this week’s Bible study we watched session 2 of our study with Andy Stanley. He spoke to us about a very relevant subject – ‘SIN’ and how we respond to it. Part of the teaching was addressing the fact that people don’t use that word anymore, we like the word – ‘mistake’ and as such we don’t have to take responsibility for any wrong doing since it was only a ‘mistake’ – so we say ‘sorry’ and move on. I have noticed as of late that there is a growing trend to not even admit a mistake, so the word ‘sorry’ doesn’t get uttered. No one, it seems, takes responsibility for the words, their actions, their behaviour. We see this in political leaders, sports players, Hollywood stars, and sometimes in ourselves.
In the teaching, Andy Stanley highlighted the difference between calling something a ‘sin’ or a ‘mistake’. A ‘mistake’ is attributed to insufficient knowledge and could be dealt with by making corrections according to the gaining of knowledge. A ‘sin’ was something done on purpose – it was planned – it was pre-meditated – it was done repeatedly – it was done with sufficient knowledge. As such, a ‘sin’ cannot be simply be corrected, there needs to be acknowledgement and forgiveness and restoration – a process that breathes new life into the sinner. It was a great session and I think all who were there learned a valuable insight.
So, the next day as I am listening to a few songs on a ‘cd’ I thought how strange it would be to change the lyrics of those songs we treasure. What would our favourites sound like if we took out ‘sin’ and ‘forgiveness’ — replacing them with ‘mistake’ and ‘correction’. Why, I wonder, is it easier to sing a song and acknowledge sin and even ask for forgiveness? A ‘sinner’ by simple definition is someone who knows better but does it any way…so why is it easier to sing a song and acknowledge that you are sinner? I even wondered what would happen if we were to create a new Bible where the word ‘sin’ was replaced with ‘mistake’ and the ideas of forgiveness and redemption and restoration were overshadowed by ‘correction’ – it was kind of scary for it would mean there was no hope of being set free.
Something for you to ponder – have a grand day!