Posts Tagged ‘ Parable ’
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”
Luke 16:10, ESV
We have been called to share the gospel and hold each other accountable in Christ, and He also helps us to be faithful when we rely on Him and each other.
A little birdie told me to tell you to find some wisdom at Proverbial Thought!
I remember seven years ago, I was sitting on Arizona State University’s main campus waiting for some friends to get out of class. We were going to meet up for a quick dinner (I was not a student, but they were … in fact, I was practically homeless at the time!), and then go to the weekly Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) meeting. I was sitting in the middle of the watery area near the Union reading my Bible, specifically Matthew 26 (verses 25-27, in the NIV):
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?“
Immediately after reading this, I looked up to see a bird flying overhead, performing all sorts of aerial acrobatics.
Then this poem came into my head.
It is rather fitting considering we just celebrated Thanksgiving in the good ol’ USA, as it is a reminder to focus on how God provides for us.
O birdie
O birdie in the air,
flying to and fro and everywhere,
what is it that you think about?
Do you worry about the clouds?
Is God a concern of yours?
That He is your real food source?
Do you contemplate people?
Do you wonder if they are real?
If God made you, then He made them,
so do you think about heaven?
Of all the cares that you have,
is it where you get your next bath,
or just maybe … perhaps …
that this world will not last?
But why should you care about that?
Do you know God controls your path?
O birdie flying oh so free,
Will you please share your thoughts with me?
Make a deal with Wisdom and read more at Proverbial Thought!
I read a story in high school, that I think actually played a role in my responding to Christ’s call.
The story has many variants over the centuries, but I will relate the version from my high school textbook.
Faust was a man who felt he had learned all he could. He became bored with life and lamented not being able to learn more. So he made a deal with the Devil: in exchange for his soul he could receive earthly knowledge and pleasures. After a certain amount of years, the Devil would come to collect.
Faust lived for many years growing in knowledge and enjoying many pleasures. After those years, and knowing that his time was growing short, he purchased a Bible to use to defend himself when the Devil would come. He carried the Bible everywhere with him.
One night, while Faust was eating dinner, there was a knock at the door. He went and opened the door, and there stood the Devil. In that moment, Faust realized he had left his Bible on the table. There was no time to get to it. The Devil took the man’s soul down to Hell.
When I became a Christian, I read the story of Simon the Magician in Acts chapter 8 (ESV):
9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. . . .
18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” 24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
John 15:20I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:5-9
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Psalm 14:3And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Mark 10:18Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Romans 3:20-25
There is nothing we can do to escape Satan’s grasp nor the wrath of God. Jesus paid the price that moves us from being children of Satan (John 8:44) to saving us into children of God (1 John 3:1). Through Christ’s faithfulness we can have faith that Satan has no lasting power over us, that sin has no lasting hold on us, and we are God’s loved and redeemed children!
Find wisdom in unlikely places, such as through the thoughts of a rag-tag group of pastors, lay-leaders, and a young woman at Proverbial Thought!
If you have followed by blog for a reasonable amount of time, you may have learned I am a Whovian, a fan of the British sci-fi television show Doctor Who. The Doctor is a time-travelling alien who looks human, but he is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He is able to escape death by regenerating (all Time Lords can do this), but this has the side-effect of changing his appearance and personality while still being in essence himself.
The topic at hand, however, is one of his companions. He picks up companions frequently, usually from Earth but not always. For the show, companions act as a sort-of stand-in for the audience to ask the questions we might ask … or to simply help move the plot along.
Before I continue, however, I must warn of possible spoilers, specifically about an episode from Spring of 2013, The Name of the Doctor. If you do not wish to have anything spoiled as you watch through the series, you may wish to stop reading now!
In the above mentioned episode Clara Oswald helps the Doctor in a big way.
It must first be known that she is called “The Impossible Girl” because she was first seen earlier in the season in an episode in humanity’s future in which she saved the Doctor and his companions. In that season’s Christmas special, she saved the Doctor in Earth’s past.
This is the episode in which we find out how she could have existed hundreds or thousands of years in the past or future and exist in the present.
Clara “Oswin” Oswald, to save the Doctor from being torn from Time/Space by an enemy, jumps into the Doctor’s personal Time-stream. In doing so, copies of her are seeded throughout his lifetime to help him at important junctures in life and thus help him retain his Time-memory and not cease to exist. (Yes, it is very complicated. Just know that she was able to help him in every regeneration the Doctor has had.)
Recently, I have read some articles critiquing newer episodes, especially in connection with Clara’s personality and memory of these other events.
A friend and I noticed how religious some fans get over this show, and how like Christians they act over “dogma” and ideas they have but do not fully understand about the show and its characters.
In this similarity, Christians do not understand things such as the Trinity, and this misunderstanding throws off other elements of their theology.
The Doctrine of the Trinity is simply that God exists as three distinct Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) yet is a single Being. The word “trinity” never appears in Scripture, but it has been deduced from Scripture (e.g. see Matthew 3:16-17 which has all three Persons present simultaneously).
Clara helps demonstrate this (and, please remember from here on out that nothing can adequately explain/compare to the concept of the Trinity. Our finite brains will always struggle with this concept) in that while she was interjected into various points along the Doctor’s timeline, each “incarnation” experienced birth, life, and death in each context. Therefore, while each and every “Clara” is, was, and will be Clara, they are never exactly the Clara who is the current companion of the Doctor.
In a sense, she is one being who has been many persons in the Doctor’s life.
It is no wonder, then, that so many people, many of whom are not necessarily Christians if not agnostics/atheists, struggle with this concept of Clara.
If Christians have been arguing about this concept for two thousand years, why should we expect anyone to grasp a fictional adaptation (that was not intended as such by the writers of the show)?
Make sure your soul is okay and find some wisdom at Proverbial Thought!
My wife and I recently watched a movie about the battle between good and evil. Angels and demons fought over the lives of humans, and what could have been purely a love story was about more of the battle for our souls.
They included the basic elements of good versus evil, grace, forgiveness, and the power of love. These were masterfully portrayed.
However, I must say, I disagreed with so much of the theology of the film. They twisted basic understanding of good and evil and the character of God. They elevated the importance of angels and demons. They made the Universe out to be God.
That being said, I still liked the movie, overall.
It may have been theologically unsound with un-biblical ideas, but I thought it was okay.
There was this overarching theme of how important it is to love unconditionally and that we play important roles in each other’s lives.
I can hear all of the voices in the Christian realm complaining about its New Age-y messages and dangerous ideas, and all I can think of is “Would these people have reacted the same way as the Pharisees did to Jesus’ parables?”
I am in no way comparing a modern movie (with clear theological issues) to Jesus’ words, except to point out that Jesus told wild stories to get important messages to people … if they were willing to listen.
“And [Jesus] was teaching them many things in parables . . . And he said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.‘”
Mark 4:2-9
I am a fan of Doctor Who. That means I am a Whovian.
I enjoy the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, and Doctor Who covers that in spades (and probably has or will literally).
I have found several devotionals based on Doctor Who, with a common theme of the Doctor as a Christ-like figure and his companions as disciples. There are a few which put the Doctor in a different role, biblically speaking, and within all of these there are times when our circumstances are compared to his and with the Bible.
This is one of those odd-ducks in which I deviate from the Christ-likeness.
If I were to compare the Doctor to anyone, it would be the Apostle Paul. Here is why:
The Doctor is a Time Lord who comes from the planet Gallifrey, so he is an alien to Earth. He is not the one who controls time. He is often used by Time to help good win.
He has two hearts, is very clever, and he travels around in a T.A.R.D.I.S. – Time And Relative Dimensions In Space – through all of time and space and occasionally outside. He usually has one, two, or several companions who travel with him (usually from Earth, but not always), whom it is very clear (at least if you pay attention, sometimes) he loves dearly. And he has a sonic screwdriver which helps him get out of and into sticky situations.
The Doctor has a knack for showing people the truth behind circumstances, and he saves the world (and the universe) on a regular basis.
One of the more amazing things about the Doctor is the way he and the Time Lords can escape death: regeneration into a new body.
Now consider Paul:
He was a Jew who was called to preach the Gospel (the truth of Jesus Christ) to the Gentile world (Acts 9:15, Romans 15:15-16).
He had many disciples which he left in cities to lead the church, some of them Jews and some Gentiles. With the help of the Holy Spirit he was saved or revived from sticky situations and helped many people or the glory of God.
All of this was possible because his heart was regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:22-24) (you could argue he, and we as Christians, have two hearts as evidenced by our sinful desires and a new desire for God). We also have the promise of regenerated bodies at the end of the age (2 Corinthians 5).
Paul is not God, but he was used by God to help win over hearts and minds.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “test everything. Hold onto what is good.” (Technically speaking about prophecy, but it is so applicable in our world.)
It is just as Paul used the pagan god statues in Rome to witness for Christ, or God using secular (non-Christian) songs to pull someone closer to Himself (such as Backstreet Boys’ “As Long As You Love Me” helping me realize my deep need for unconditional, perfect love).
I also really like G. K. Chesterton’s quote:
“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
I enjoy Doctor Who, and other works of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, because they remind us of who we are, who are meant to be, and that we can and should be more than we are.
Mine is God and the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ, but Doctor Who reminds me of that!
With a full year behind it, you know it is full of wisdom. So head on over to Proverbial Thought to partake of that and new wisdom commentary!
Imagine for a moment that you have an umbrella. Not just any umbrella, but a super-durable umbrella.
This is an umbrella that seems to defy physics. It is incredibly light yet is strong enough to take hail and fire and brimstone falling from the sky. It is no thicker nor less functional than your average umbrella; yet it will not crumble under said hail and brimstone, burn up in said fire, nor dissolve in a shower of acid rain.
Now imagine you live in a city that has constant acid rain showers. There is relative safety in most buildings, but if we are honest we know that buildings will not hold up indefinitely to acid rain.
Some buildings are in worse shape than others. People can not stay in them long without being in the same conditions as outside.
Now imagine that you actually live in a bunker under a mountain. You are pretty safe inside. It would take quite a while for acid rain and most other things to get in.
So what do you do?
Your Dad asks you and your siblings to go out and help those in the acid rain.
Some say to each other, “We are safe. Our Dad can welcome those people in if he wants to. We can stay and prepare for the great feast!” What they do not realize is that they will find themselves kicked out of their home just before the feast.
Some others grab their umbrellas and hurry outside. Seeing how dangerous it is, they run back inside and complain about how awful the world is outside, and they spend their time talking about how great things are since they are saved from the outside world.
Others say to each other, “We will be safe with our umbrellas. We can go outside and tell them how great it is inside!” They may see some people believe them, but while outside they complain about their lazy siblings and how horrible it is outside. This pushes many away, and some with umbrellas may find themselves joining their lazier siblings outside during the feast.
There are a few who take their umbrellas and hurry outside. Some walk around their neighborhood telling others about their safe home, bringing many inside and helping them get umbrellas of their own. Others run to the far ends of the city proclaiming the news of safety and peace. Some of these reach out from under their umbrellas, getting burned by the acid rain, just to get to some of those struggling through the acid rain. Some even brave the full onslaught of acid rain to allow others enough precious time under their umbrellas to get to safety, and they end up looking just as burned and messed up as those they saved.
At the end, most of those who remain for the feast look worn out, tattered, and disfigured from the acid rain.
Isn’t it a wonderful feeling? We’re stinging, again.
Maybe you have already caught on to the point.
One of my favorite passages comes from Jude, verses 22 and 23 (NIV):
Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
In the above parable, the city is Earth, the home under the mountain is the Church, the umbrella is the Gospel, and the acid rain is the sin that soaks into every part of our lives and world. Obviously, then, the Dad is God. Those who reside within the mountain and go out into the city are Christians.
This past Sunday was the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Almost six weeks later, just before His ascension, He issued this commission:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20, NIV
We cannot reach out to people unless we go where they are.
We cannot rescue people if we do not get involved with their lives.
We cannot teach them if we do not do as we were instructed: to live like Jesus.
If Jesus, God made Man, came to our sin-soaked world, walked with us, suffered with us, even died with us, can we not suffer a little with our world to show them the resurrection power of Jesus?
Firstly, here is your regular reminder to get some good ol wisdom from Proverbial Thought.
Perhaps you have heard the line – or even said it yourself – “I believe I can get to heaven, because I am basically a good person. I do a lot of good things, at least way more than the bad I do!”
There are a few reasons why this is wrong, and I will explain this some a little later.
First, a story:
You are a car. You were built with the modern combustion engine, and you run on gasoline. As you drive around, you occasionally speed or roll through a stop sign; but overall you follow the rules, let people merge ahead of you, let people take the closer parking spot at the store, and do your best to keep your engine running well.
One day, you realize that the way you are living is actually harming your surroundings and causing some issues within your engine, because it runs ever-so-hot and fills the air with corrosive and poisonous gases. You decide to clean up your act! You switch to a biofuel, like E-85. You still live much the same way, but now you have much less of an effect on your surroundings. Good for you! You are now the envy of so many other cars who wish to live the same way as you!
There is still one problem: No matter what kind of fuel you use or how well you drive, you are still polluting your environment even just a little. No matter how well you drive, even if you follow all of the rules of the road and let every one else get ahead of you on the road and in the parking areas, you still pollute your environment at least a little. Your good intentions will always stain your environment and hurt the air.
One day, you learn of the Master Mechanic. When you choose to let the Master Mechanic work in your life, he offers an upgrade you can not get on your own. He switches out your engine for a fuel cell and tells you to obey all traffic laws and offer your spot on the roads and in parking areas. He tells you that you have to come to Him regularly to ensure your engine is running smoothly. In the process, you will no longer pollute the air or run too hot. Instead, all you produce clean, pure water. You may still drip the occasional break fluid or wiper fluid when you forget to check in with the Master Mechanic, but He fixes you right up and helps you clean the spills when you remember to spend time with Him.
Did you get it?
Perhaps this was a little too straight-forward, but here is the explanation:
Our hearts are like the engines. While we eventually come to realize that our actions have consequences, that we can do many things to make our bodies run efficiently and healthy by changing habits or diet, we still have a problem. We may occasionally do truly selfless acts, but we all have selfish motives at one time or another. We all deny God in some way at one time or another. We all put ourselves in the place of God at one time or another.
This is called sin. One sin is enough to taint every part of our lives. No matter how good our intentions, we all will fail in the end to live perfectly pure and clean lives. A car that runs on biofuels will still require oil to help the engine run smoothly. A person doing good works will still do many things with selfish intentions, or make something (including their good works) more important than God, or they may think they might have the control that God alone has to decide who suffers and who does not or who lives or dies.
Good Intentions
What a person like this fails to realize is that even good intentions can lead to horrible results. I know of someone who once was told by his dad not to let anyone touch the car in the driveway. It seems like a simple enough request. His friend called and said, “I need a ride to the store, can you help?” He thought, “Sure. What could be the harm of a quick five-minute drive?”
His friend came over, and they pulled out of the driveway. At the stop sign at the end of the block, they rolled through the stop sign and were struck by another car. His friend was killed almost instantly.
You see, his dad wanted no one to use the car, because his dad had gone to find new brakes having taken the ones from the car to match.
This young man had good intentions, but his desire to do something good at the sake of disobeying his father led to drastic repercussions.
It must be remembered that even our good intentions may have unintended consequences. Think of the age-old cliché “Be careful what you wish for!” As the show Once Upon a Time … puts it, “Magic comes at a price.” There are countless ways to express this.
The Whole Point
Here is what it all means:
Apart from the work of Messiah Jesus through the Holy Spirit living in us, we can do nothing on our own to get us to Heaven. While we are capable of good works on our own, they are meaningless without God. We must believe in the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, that He brought us grace, forgiveness, and peace for our sins.
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God. All have turned away,
they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .
Romans 3:10-18, 23Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Here is your regular, friendly reminder to get your daily dose of wisdom from Proverbial Thought!
As working through the book of Luke with our youth group, I was inspired to write about some things. I had a great idea for a passage from Luke 12, but my theology was rocked so hard that I will wait on that one! Instead, I am going with one of the other ideas from that chapter.
The Parable of the Rich Fool
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:13-21, NIV
Stuff and People
There are two ways to handle stuff and people in this life, and our youth group is intelligent enough to notice! In their words:
“We can use things and love people or love things and use people.”
We can get so caught up in what is ours and what is not ours that we can forget about people.
For example, someone in the crowd may have just lost his parents, yet he is more concerned with getting his share of the inheritance than mourning. This shows one aspect.
Another aspect is that his brother is clearly there, otherwise Jesus could not tell him to share the inheritance. What really makes this poignant is that Jesus had just finished talking about avoiding hypocrisy, so we know what the first man was really getting at: that he judged his brother a hypocrite. (What does this show of him, then?)
One further aspect is that our own selfishness and greed gets in the way of another relationship. This man is talking with a wise leader, he might even know this is the Messiah. Instead of actually listening to the teachings (meaning taking them to heart and learning from them), he tries using this Teacher to get what he wants.
How many times do we go to God asking for things instead of seeking His will?
One more thought: Who gets rebuked?
At first, it looks like a rebuke of the man wanting his inheritance. “‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed’.”
It is as if Jesus is saying, “Dude! Get over it! Stop being so greedy!” (Also, He was and is the perfect judge and arbiter, but He was making another point)
But then He goes on. He tells us about a man who became quite wealthy and hoarded it all. This certainly sounds like the brother was being rebuked for his greed at the same time the original brother was being rebuked for his greed.
WHOA! Jesus is a great multitasker!
One man was not worried about his family and used God to get what he wanted. The other man also was not concerned about his family, instead holding onto his new possessions.
Used and Loved
Both of these brothers were guilty of breaking the greatest commandment(s): “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
We can be guilty of the same (in fact, we all are: Romans 3:22-24).
We use people and God to get the things we want, when we should be using things and loving God and people.
Instead of a question this week, a suggestion:
Check yourself. Find out where your heart is: with things or with God?
There is the belief among most Christians that since Adam and Eve all of humanity is under the curse of sin. Many argue that it is inherited through birth. Many others argue that it comes through our own decisions in life. Many others still do not care enough or feel they are not smart enough to grasp the concept; it is enough for them to know that the Bible says we are sinful (see Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20; Romans 3:9-12) and in need of a Savior.
How could it be possible to carry forward sin?
Is it not as though God is condemning everyone for the fault of two?
Consider:
A woman does drugs for years. In a time of desperation, she has sex with a dealer to get her drugs, and this act led to pregnancy. The woman is so dependent on drugs that she continues abusing them throughout her pregnancy. Her baby is then born addicted to those drugs. The child did nothing wrong, but must suffer for the sins of the mother. It was passed along.
A man acquires AIDS through his promiscuity, but he does not realize it until he is married. He and his wife now have AIDS and then have a child. This child is also born with AIDS, again at no personal fault. It was passed along.
A single dad plays the lottery with the dream of making the life of his family better. He squanders his money on lottery tickets to the point of neglecting bills. He dies as his child comes of legal age. The child inherits the father’s debt and follows the example given and gambles to attempt to raise the money needed. The child did not create the financial mess. It was passed along … as well as the behavior that created the mess.
Is sin something that is genetically passed on? Quite frankly, I do not know. However, we can see evidence that a sinful nature is present early on in the way our children only think of themselves. Granted, they cannot help it too much. Children are born rather powerless to change their situation and require a lot of help.
A friend of mine shared a story a few years ago. His family runs a business making plastics. People have to help the system along and inspect the final product. Part of the process is to move some containers from one part of the machine to another, but they have to be careful to not touch them with their hands otherwise a black mark appears on the plastic. It is also possible that touching part of the machine that handles the plastics can cause each of the containers to get identical black marks. Another part of the process is for the inspectors to watch for damaged, misshapen, or tarnished items and pull them off the line. If they miss one, it ends up going out on the market where someone buys it, takes it home, and discovers the problem. The only way to remove the stain or fix the impurities is to go through the expensive and time-consuming process of cleaning the machine and sending the product back to be melted down, refined, and sent through the process again.
Our actions always have consequences. Sometimes they are good, and sometimes they are bad. Our ancestors took an action that they technically knew was bad. Ever since, we are all stained with a black mark. It is as though they took God’s creation, us, and handled it improperly. Their fingerprint stained us.
God, however, inspects every single one of us. He was not content to let us remain with that stain. He sent His Son to show just how rough the remaking process would be. He took the time and paid the price. His blood cleansed the dirt. Our part is to let Him work us through the furnace that removes that black mark we carry, to let Him reshape us in the image of His Son.
a simple man of God 