3-14-15

 Good Morning All,

          James 4:17; “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

      We spend a lot of time thinking about sin as doing something wrong.  In the Old Testament, they are called “transgressions” which can be translated as “crossing the line”.  They are viewed as rebellious acts or acts of defiance.  We know what they are; if you kill someone or speak evil of them; you are actively doing damage, you are actively harming the other person.  Most of us even realize that if we intentional harm nature that we are engaging in a sinful act against God and his creation.

    But what about sin; which can be best defined as “falling short or missing the mark”; what about those failures?  What happens when you know of a need of a neighbor ad you just look the other way?  It is one thing to avoid doing what is wrong; most people, even unbelievers, can do this.  But what about not doing the right thing; how well do we do the right thing?  There are times when we really struggle with this; for one thing, it requires some effort.  I can very easily not push you down; I just have to walk away.  But it takes time, effort and willingness to stop and help you stand back up again.  When you do the right thing, you have some skin in the game.

    This is part of the forgiveness of sins which we receive from God because of Jesus.  The first part is to stop doing what is hurtful and harmful.  We are to stop causing pain and doing things that are against God’s will, things like greed, envy, jealousy, theft and the like.  But the next step is to do what is right; to share with those in need, to place our wants below their needs, even to place our needs below their needs, this is true agape love that Jesus showed for us when he surrendered his life for us.

    Yet a huge part of our faith is doing the right thing, doing the thing that benefits our neighbor.  God has restored us to his family; he has restored us to be his children.  We all hold onto this; we all see this as a great mercy that God has promised ad delivered to us.  Yet we are slow to follow through with the balance.

    Since we are restored to God’s family, we are also restored to our original purpose.  We are restored to the purpose to which we were created.  We are to live humbly in God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise, we are to take care of each other and we are to take care of God’s creation.  These are things to do and failing to do them is a sin, we are falling short of God’s will in our life.  God’s will is to “do no harm” but to also “do some good.”  Take care of each other and take care of God’s beautiful creation.   We are to bring healing to God’s creation; we are to go and do good.

Father, too often I fall far short of your will.  Strengthen within me the desire to seek your face and to love your heart.  Give me the will to do your will and to show your great love to all that I meet.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret