Why Is Sin So Sinful?

This seems like a silly question. Even so, it needs to be answered in order for us to understand why God hates sin.

Sin separates us from all God's goodness and his love for us. We see that when Adam and eve hid after eating that forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:9 (BBE) shows how the loving relationship between the first two people and God caused panic in their souls. "And the voice of the Lord God came to the man, saying, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'Hearing your voice in the garden I was full of fear, because I was without clothing: and I kept myself from your eyes.'"

For millennia, people have shunned the Lord's word. We find how he felt about that rejection in Jeremiah 44:4 (KJV) when he said, "Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate."

God showed how wicked wilful disobedience is in 1 Samuel 15:22 and 23 (BBE) when King Saul didn't destroy all of the enemy's livestock like the Lord told him to. "And Samuel said, 'Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders? Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and to give ear to him than the fat of sheep. For to go against his orders is like the sin of those who make use of secret arts, and pride is like giving worship to images. Because you have put away from you the word of the Lord, he has put you from your place as king.'"

People often quote Jeremiah 29:11 (BBE) as if it applied to themselves. It actually was addressed to Israel while the nation was in Babylonian captivity. The verse reads, "For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end." But it is true that God wants to give us blessings.

Jesus told a parable about a landowner who hired out his vineyard to labourers. They beat and stoned the servants whom he sent at harvest time and the tenants refused to pay their rent. Mark 12:6 and 7 (BBE) records, "He still had one, a dearly loved son: he sent him last to them, saying, 'They will have respect for my son.' But those workmen said among themselves, 'This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death, and the heritage will be ours.'"

As Christ predicted,Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. And a day will come when the entire heavens and Earth will be replaced with new heavens and a new earth. Every person ever born will be judged then.

I'll be mentioning this fact often in my next book, You Think You're Going to Heaven? People think their Christening or good works will get them there but they won't.

On Saturday, I'll hopefully post about a piece of furniture which writers use and why it's such a blessing to have one.

Saint Patrick and What We Must Remember

Every March seventeenth, the western world celebrates Saint Patrick's Day. But these people know little about the man whose birthday people are celebrating.

You can Google Saint Patrick's Day if you wish but here's the basic story. He was kidnapped from Britain as a youth by Irish pirates. He managed to escape and go back to his home. But God laid it on his heart to go back to Ireland with the gospel. Patrick did so and that act of obedience changed the entire nation.

As Christians, we're commanded by Christ to proclaim the gospel everywhere. People need to hear the good news of salvation-without-works, as the Apostle Paul pointed out in Romans 10:14 (BBE). "But how will they give worship to him in whom they have no faith? and how will they have faith in him of whom they have not had news? and how will they have news without a preacher?"

In Patrick's case, the people listened to him. But that wasn't the case for God's prophets. Jeremiah 44:4 (KJV) shows how often the Lord tried to bring back Israel to have faith in him. "Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, 'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.'"

Even our Lord Jesus was rejected by his own people. John 1:11 (BBE) reads, "He came to the things which were his and his people did not take him to their hearts."

Likewise, Christ expressed his anguish in Luke 13:34 (BBE) when he cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who were sent to her! again and again would I have taken your children to myself, as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, but you would not!"

It's easy to preach to those who speak our language but heartbreaking when they refuse to hear the message God gave us. Ezekiel 3:7 (BBE) shows why this is so. "But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart."

I'll touch on the hardness of people's hearts in my book, You Think You're Going to Heaven? Most of them won't listen to us because they refuse to hear the heavenly Father. What a shame!

On Thursday, I'll be posting about why learning patience doesn't come immediately.