ARE YOU SENSITIVE OR CYNICAL TOWARD SIN? By V. Neil Wyrick The closing words in the Lord’s Prayer are a cry for the best in us to prosper for we Christians do abhor sin. We see it for what it is, a disease, and a cancer of the soul. Pure and simple, when, like the prodigal son we say, “I have sinned,” it hurts. The question has often been asked, “Why did Adam put himself in such a position he was forced to leave the Garden of Eden?” A question of equal pertinence is also worthy of being asked, “Why do we put ourselves in such a position that we cannot make life more of an Eden?” The best way to know God is to not just study Him but to worship Him; to make him number one in your life. The best way to be a Christ-tian is not to sit on our high-horse, but to fall humbly to our knees. You see, repentance is not just to save us from wrong doing; it is to lead us by redemption to more right doing. Thus, the question is, “Are you sensitive or cynical toward sin?” Which basically means praying for a Christian mind that makes you unique or a compromising mind that makes you oblivious. A Godly mind leans less toward sin, and more toward God’s forgiveness and the power of His Holy Spirit. “Too many people in our (present) society are willing to admit that God exists, but they don’t feel the slightest impulse to bow before him.” (Anonymous) Indeed, if the world has any one great problem today it is that it is in revolt against authority. Too many folks do not want to be told what to do, either by the government or God. Proverbs 23:7 puts it well when it says “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (KJV) For yes, the mind is a garden, tended and beautiful or gone to weeds and ugly. Sometimes the mind is like a jewelry box, filled with beauty and joy, but sometimes it is a garbage can and it stinks with what we have put in it. It just plain stinks. Like the man who recently, having lost a Bible quoting contest, went out and shot the winner. Always, the mind is an outgrowth of God or the devil, of the Savior or Satan, of good or evil. Yes, sin thy name is enemy. Forgiveness, thy name is God. A long time ago, in England , a little boy was desperately ill with diphtheria, his throat heavily choked and only a narrow chance to live. A tube was inserted to allow him to breathe and a nurse assigned to stay by his bedside and regularly clear the tube. Instead, the nurse fell asleep and when she awoke the tube was blocked and the little boy was dead. The doctor raged, “Never will she practice nursing again.” He promptly sat down and wrote a vitriolic letter to the Medical Board asking for her prompt and complete dismissal from the nursing profession. Then he called her into his office and berated her for such blundering and inexcusable behavior. “Please forgive me. Please give me another chance,” she pleaded. He almost laughed in her face. However, that night he could not sleep. Something inside him kept saying, “Give her another chance. Give her forgiveness.” He did. She went on to become the head of a large hospital and one of the most honored nurses in all of England. Forgiveness is Jesus style – hate the sin, but not the sinner. When we pray for forgiveness for our sins God hears us and grants our request. It is a fact. It is underlined by what happened at the cross. It is a truth written across the face of eternity. That He truly loves us, forgives us, redeems us, warts and all, seems to wonderful to believe, doesn’t it? There it is in all its wondrous truth. God is unwilling to give up on us. You and I are pursuing too often our lesser selves, while He sees in us our better selves. Oh, I believe Jesus weeps as He forgives us. I know it hurts Him when we sin. He forgives us anyway. This is the kind of forgiveness Christ gives. He sees us for what we really are and gives us mercy. Forgiveness is Jesus style. It is more than His accepting our words, “I’m sorry.“ It is the gift of redemption, which translated from the original Greek means redeem a man from slavery. Surely that is the right word, for isn’t that what sin does? Enslaves us? Shackling the best in us; sin makes us stumble and fall. Taking away our right to choose anything but evil. It is slavery to sin. Christ comes into a life, making a spiritual emancipation proclamation. The chains of sin have always dropped away. Repentance. It all just falls in line, doesn’t it? A prayer, a purpose for a person to be redeemed. It is a cleaning out of the attic of our minds. Repentance is putting our house in order. Repentance is taking an inventory of what is rattling around in the storerooms of our soul. Repentance is filling ourselves with thoughts worthy of the miracle of thinking. The picture of a child praying at his or her mother’s knee comes to mind. The picture of a Bible wet with tears of joy because of sins forgiven also comes to mind. The picture of Christ’s great act of love upon the cross is indelibly etched in our hearts. Picture ourselves giving thanks for forgiveness by living a better life. Don’t just practice a cleaning up one’s thinking, but rather seek out a filling up the mind with thoughts of God. Not just praying to sweep away the darkness, rather praying to let in the light. Life is like raindrops falling on the top of a hill. Some drops go down the hill heading east. Some go down the other side and go west. It is why in the great adventure called life we must constantly make our prayers and asking, “Lord, on the hilltop of living, where am I headed?” Rev. Neil Wyrick’s 9th book, published by Magnus Press, is
THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN V. Neil Wyrick 7430 SW 59th Street Miami, Florida 33143 neilwyrick@earthlink.net
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