Today’s reading is Acts 5:1-6:15.

To me, Acts 5 contains one of the most shocking stories of the entire New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira lied about the price of their property when they laid the money at the apostles’ feet. With very little time to repent, God took extreme measures and killed the couple. Admittedly, that seems a little harsh to us. Death for lying? When some read this today, they believe God is immoral, hateful, cruel. That is sad, because they are missing the point.

The story is not to teach us that our God is an immoral killer. The story is to teach us exactly how bad sin is. Ezekiel 18:20 had said, “The soul who sins shall die.” Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” 

Here, at the beginning of the new covenant, God gave a great demonstration. Our sins are not light matters. Our sins make us worthy of death. God, as judge of the universe, has every right to meet out that judgment immediately. The fact is with every lie we’ve told, we deserved death from God for sinning against Him. When we think that is harsh, that doesn’t mean we are more enlightened than God; it means we lack the understanding of how tragic every sin really is. Have you ever lied? Then you need a Savior.

What is truly amazing is not that God struck down Ananias and Sapphira immediately. Rather, it is amazing that the pages of Scripture are not covered with the blood of sinners. It is amazing that you and I are still standing, having been given time to repent and receive the free gift of God which is eternal life (Romans 6:23). The pages of the New Testament are not covered with the blood of sinners because they are covered with the blood of Jesus who died so we don’t have to. Praise God!

***Question: What are some other shocking things you find in Scripture and what do you learn from them?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Romans 5:1-6:23.

I can’t help but see how folks can easily ride the pendulum of extremes from Romans 6:1. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”

Keep in mind that Paul spent most of the first five chapters dealing with the objection, “I’m no sinner.” He pointed out whether I am a Gentile or a Jew, I sinned. The Gentiles turned from God’s natural revelation to worship the creature rather than the Creator. The Jews, despite having the oracles of God, broke their commands. 

For all those people claiming they aren’t that bad, Paul wrote Romans 3:10-18, 23. He then started talking about the salvation offered through faith in Jesus because of His obedience and life. Is he able to just move on and delve into awesome teaching about spiritual growth? No.

First, he has to deal with the objection from the opposite extreme. People go from trying to claim they aren’t a sinner to saying, “Dude, I’m a sinner, but that’s okay. The more I sin the more I rely on God’s grace. So, actually I should just keep on sinning so God’s grace can abound. (hiccup) Hand me another beer.”

Paul’s answer: “By no means! how can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2).

We need to walk away from the extremes and instead walk on Christ’s strait and narrow path between these extremes. If we want to claim we have no sin, we’re liars (cf. I John 1:8). On the other hand if we want to embrace and continue in sin even if it’s for the seemingly noble reason of honoring God’s grace, we’ll still die (Romans 6:23). Jesus’ middle path is to recognize we are sinners and need a Savior. Then we honor His grace by using the freedom from sin it gives us to pursue the things of the Spirit.

Certainly, it’s a growth process. We won’t be perfect today. But we’ll grow in the Spirit as we stay in God’s word.

By the way, I can’t get past this passage without pointing out part of the Roman Road to Salvation that is usually left out of the tracts.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”–Romans 6:3-4

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 3:1-4:25.

I’ve been a Christian for almost 23 years. In that time I’ve fought with varying degrees of success against sin. However, in that fight, for a long time, I maintained that really I had never been that much of a sinner. I had done a few things here and there, but it’s not like I was a murderer or anything.

As you can see, I was easily growing into the Pharisee who looked at the publican and essentially said, “Hey God, be thankful I’m not like that guy.”

All that changed when I was encouraged to actually write out an inventory. Go through my history and write down the sins I’d committed. Pick the top couple and give as complete a history of my involvement in those sins as I could. I was amazed. No, I didn’t suddenly remember that I had in fact murdered someone. However, I was brought face to face with the fact that I don’t just kind of need a Savior, I absolutely need a Savior.

Of course, this is what Paul is driving at in Romans 3:10-18. No one is righteous. We’ve all turned aside. Our throat is an open grave. Venom is under our tongues. Our feet are swift to shed blood. We have no fear of God in our eyes. That is exactly where we were before Jesus came on the scene. Even if you really can write out your list and it only contains a handful of minor infractions (though I doubt you can do that), sinning at all puts us at odds with God. Jesus is the one who reconciles us.

If you haven’t done it, I encourage you write your own inventory. Be gentle with yourself. Make sure you have someone you can call when the emotions overwhelm you and make you want to escape through your favorite sin. Come face to face with how much you really need Jesus. It is humbling and helpful.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Leprosy Victim

The leper of Mark 1:40-45 amazes me. Jesus told him to keep his mouth shut and he couldn’t. What saddens me is Jesus has told me to keep my mouth open and I don’t.

The thing I need to recognize about this whole scenario is the leper couldn’t keep quiet because of the joy over his cleansing. He knew exactly how defiled and vile he had been. Therefore, he was overjoyed at his newfound cleansing. He had to tell someone.

Who do you think he told first? I imagine he told the only people that had stayed with him, the other lepers he had been relegated to live with outside the city. He probably told his family. He may have told his friends. I bet he told the next person he saw in the street. 

What I need to do is realize just how defiled and vile I was spiritually. Only then can I have the joy of the cleansing Jesus has given. Perhaps, when I remember that and meditate on it, I won’t be able to help telling people about it either.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

I always have a little trouble when I get to Ephesians 2:1-3.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lied in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (ESV)

It reminds me of the trouble I also have when I get to Romans 3:10-18.

None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes (ESV).

 The problem I have is, I hear these descriptions and think, “I just wasn’t that bad.” I mean, I have done some really bad things. But I am not a bad person. I’m actually a pretty good person over all. I have great intentions. I really do fear the Lord. I don’t want to deceive. I have dallied in the passions of the flesh on occasion, but I don’t think I was really following the prince of the power of the air or was by nature a child of wrath. 

What’s amazing about that is that I have even done some exercises where I have tried to honestly lay out my sins and how far they went and I realize I really have done some really, really bad things. But to say I was like these verses describes always makes me come up short.

Perhaps it is some kind of subconscious trick so I won’t see how much I really need to surrender to God. I don’t know. Anyway, I was reading this passage and it hit me. These passages are not saying I am a sinner because I am this bad. They are saying, I am this bad because I sin. No matter how bad my sins are on some kind of scale; no matter how I compare with other sinners (there will always be someone worse in my book); no matter what I have or haven’t done, this is how I look to God when I commit any sin. This is why I need a Savior. Even when I have committed what seems to be the most harmless of minor infractions, I have turned from God to submit to Satan and followed the course of my flesh just like everybody else has done. In that moment, I have not just become a person who made a social faux pas, I have become a rebel. 

What amazes me even more are the verses that follow in Ephesians 2:4-7:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (ESV).

Despite how I looked to God because of my sin, He still sent Jesus to die for me so my sin could be removed and I could look holy, spotless, blameless and clean to God.

Thank you, God, for your love and mercy.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

If I plant watermelon seeds, I won’t get pumpkins and vice versa. Or as Jesus would say, we can’t get figs from thistles or grapes from thornbushes. We grow what we plant.

Therefore Paul says:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8, ESV).

All too often, as we Christians argue about where to draw our personal moral lines, we end up defending planting the seeds of the flesh. You may not agree with me regarding issues like the lottery, social drinking, couples dancing, etc. I just ask you to think about this passage.

What seeds are we planting if our best friends are drinkers? What seeds are we planting when we attend their parties filled with drink? What seeds are we planting when we hang out in casinos? What seeds are we planting if we look the other way as our friends get high? What seeds are we planting if unmarried couples rub their bodies together to the rhythm of the music? What seeds are we planting when we watch shows filled with the immodest and the immoral? What seeds are we planting when the songs that entertain us glorify immorality? What seeds are we planting if the books we read, the movies we watch, the tv shows we enjoy provide a constant and steady stream of the immoral?

I hear people all the time justify the “gray areas” in which they delight and then they wonder why they struggle so much with sin? Anecdotally, we hear of the increasing numbers of unmarried pregnancies, cases of adultery, alcoholism, drug abuse, homosexuality, prescription drug abuse, divorces, etc. These stories are not from the worldly but from within Christ’s body. I’m not sure a month has gone by over the past few years that I haven’t heard of another preacher or elder committing adultery. Of course, I cannot think about these who have fallen without thinking of my own sins and recognize but for the grace of God go I. 

What is happening here? Is the problem starting at the moment of the major sin? No. The problem is in our continual fight for our personal rights to claim we can watch what we want, read what we want, listen to what we want, go where we want, drink what we want and do what we want. Whether we realize it or not we are sowing seeds to the flesh. When our general practice is to justify and defend sowing the seeds of the flesh, we shouldn’t be surprised when we reap corruption. Paul proclaimed the hard and fast rule. If we sow seeds to the flesh, we will reap corruption from the flesh. 

Somehow, Christians today think we can plant thistles but get figs. We think we can plant thornbushes but get grapes. It doesn’t work that way. When we sow the wind, we will reap the whirlwind.

If we really want to help people overcome full blown immorality, we need to quit telling them to just say, “No,” to the biggies. We need to help them start planting the right seeds. We need to start planting seeds to the Spirit. We need to increase our prayer and Bible Study. We need to deepen our relationships with other Christians. We need to come clean and confess to our brethren. We need to assemble with the saints, worshipping God and edifying one another. We need to cut off our right hands and pluck out our right eyes if they get in the way. 

Here is the great comfort. If we plant grapes, we won’t get thornbushes. If we plant figs, we won’t get thistles. When we plant seeds to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life. That cannot be helped. It is just the way things work.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC