Neil Young: "The Needle and the Damage Done"

This Canadian guitarist wrote a song about people destroyed by addiction to hard drugs. Sadly, this still happens today. Check out this song here.

Sin is like an addictive drug and like babies of drug addicts, we all are addicted. As Ecclesiastes 7:20 (Bible in Basic English) notes, "There is no man on earth of such righteousness that he does good and is free from sin all his days."

We also learn from James 1:13 and 14 (BBE) that giving into sin is our own fault. "Let no man say when he is tested, 'I am tested by God;' for it is not possible for God to be tested by evil, and he himself puts no man to such a test: But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire."

According to the Bible, religious sinners are the worst as they don't think they need salvation. As Jesus, in John 8:34-36 (BBE), explained to the Pharisees, "And this was the answer Jesus gave them: 'Truly I say to you, Everyone who does evil is the servant of sin. Now the servant does not go on living in the house for ever, but the son does. If then the son makes you free, you will be truly free.'"

We see how Christ makes people free from sin's addiction in 1 John 3:8 (BBE). "The sinner is a child of the Evil One; for the Evil One has been a sinner from the first. And the Son of God was seen on earth so that he might put an end to the works of the Evil One."

In spite of being new creatures, Satan continues to put a monkey on our backs. When we give in, we still can become clean. We read in 1 John 2:1-3 (BBE), "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may be without sin. And if any man is a sinner, we have a friend and helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright one: He is the offering for our sins; and not for ours only, but for all the world. And by this we may be certain that we have knowledge of him, if we keep his laws."

I hope Christ returns soon but if he hasn't come by Saturday, I expect my post about being in with the out crowd will be up for all to read.

The Guess Who, "Hand-Me-Down World"

 One of Canada's most notable bands, The Guess Who, released this excellent song back in January of 1971. Though it wasn't their first international hit, the song did chart in America.

Listen to it here.

Everything we have in this world is secondhand. First of all, God made every single particle in the universe. Whatever we have is from his creative hand.

Psalms 95:3-5 (Bible in Basic English) expresses this truth well. "For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all gods. The deep places of the earth are in his hand; and the tops of the mountains are his. The sea is his, and he made it; and the dry land was formed by his hands."

And in the world of ideas, nothing is new. Ecclesiastes 1:9 and 10 (BBE) reveals, "That which has been, is that which is to be, and that which has been done, is that which will be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything of which men say, 'See, this is new?" It has been in the old time which was before us."

Some folks might claim that redemption is a new thing. But we read in Genesis 3:14 and 15 (BBE) how God promised a redeemer to Adam and Eve when Satan led them to sin. "And the Lord God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast of the field; you will go flat on the earth, and dust will be your food all the days of your life: And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded.'"

We also see that sin occurs the same way from the beginning. As James 1:13 and 14 (BBE) describes, human propensity to sin has never changed. "Let no man say when he is tested, I am tested by God; for it is not possible for God to be tested by evil, and he himself puts no man to such a test: But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire."

That's how the first two humans fell and how we are tripped up today by our thrice-unholy tendencies.

If our Saviour hasn't returned by Monday, I hope to post about a great song by a former Guess Who.