I could not believe what I was listening to. 'This person really does not think that he is doing anything wrong,' I thought to myself. What made it worse was that this person claimed to be a Christian. The sin and the sinner are irrelevant, because there are many similar instances.
Sadly, this is nothing new. You can find as much sin within the Church as you can outside of the Church. I do not have a problem with this in theory, because the Church is called to be a place where sinners come. If the Church were perfect, I could not belong, and neither could you. My issue comes when we become more comfortable living with sin than dealing with sin.
That's when we have a problem.
That was also the problem for the Israelites back in the days of Samuel the prophet. The Philistines had just returned the Ark of God, the national symbol of Who they followed. Perhaps because it was out of context, several Israelites, upon seeing the Ark return on a cart, decided to take a peek inside. (1 Samuel 6:19-20).
God struck them down. Our choices have consequences. Their response was less than encouraging. They should have repented. They could have. But they did not. What they did was ask who they could pass the Ark on to.
When we would rather move God to an unseen corner of our world than deal with Him, live with His standards, and have Him in the center of our world, we have a problem.
Sadly, this is nothing new. You can find as much sin within the Church as you can outside of the Church. I do not have a problem with this in theory, because the Church is called to be a place where sinners come. If the Church were perfect, I could not belong, and neither could you. My issue comes when we become more comfortable living with sin than dealing with sin.
That's when we have a problem.
That was also the problem for the Israelites back in the days of Samuel the prophet. The Philistines had just returned the Ark of God, the national symbol of Who they followed. Perhaps because it was out of context, several Israelites, upon seeing the Ark return on a cart, decided to take a peek inside. (1 Samuel 6:19-20).
God struck them down. Our choices have consequences. Their response was less than encouraging. They should have repented. They could have. But they did not. What they did was ask who they could pass the Ark on to.
When we would rather move God to an unseen corner of our world than deal with Him, live with His standards, and have Him in the center of our world, we have a problem.
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