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James 4:17
To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
Someone once said: “A belief is what you hold, a conviction is what holds you!”
So what holds you, constructs you, leads you with a push when needed?
One thing is for sure...we human beings do not drift toward goodness.
We drift toward lukewarmness, toward tolerance for more and more that should never be tolerated.
It was a small, sleepy seaside village called Capernaum. Its box-shaped houses were made of stone. The roofs were fashioned of saplings held together with a mixture of sand and mud and tar.
All the houses were sheathed in silence, except for one which was almost concealed by a noisy crowd. And on this particular day there is great excitement.
It could hardly be otherwise for in the center of it all is a man from a small village called Nazareth. He wears only a simple, seamless garment and as more and more speak of this Jesus, it is with awe and admiration for the word has spread that He is a healer. Just a few days before in the synagogue, He has healed a man with an unclean spirit. And all of Galilee is talking about it.
Now, He can go nowhere without being overwhelmed by the sick and the lame. Everyone wants to be near Him and be touched by Him or merely to touch the hem of His gown.
Around Him are His disciples and then suddenly there is the sound of pounding. But not at the door. What is it? Who is it?
A hole appears in the ceiling and a body is lowered down on a mat through the ragged opening. Four persistent friends of a crippled man want him to be healed...and they are not about to sit around just thinking about it.
So there is Jesus looking down, the paralyzed man looking up, and what does Jesus say? "Your sins are forgiven. Take up your mat and walk." And he does.
It is a two fold miracle. The man’s restoration from physical paralysis is obvious...but Jesus wants also to free him from the paralysis of guilt.
We preachers are always talking about this about becoming a "new person in Christ." Not a repair job, not a thin coat of paint, but a complete, spiritual turn-around of the soul.
By way of example, next to our home is a new house and it is larger and better than the house that was there before. The old house that had been there for years could have been repaired, enlarged and with other changes certainly improved upon. But instead, it was destroyed. And what rose out of the wreckage was a new, in a sense born again house...
And that is what our being "born again" is all about. Not just a paint job to cover up our sins. More than just adding on another layer to our personality. But destroying the old part of us that kept on sinning even though we knew it was wrong.
Freed from sin. Forgiven. No longer paralyzed by guilt.
Choose or lose. That's what I'm talking about, for if you do not choose to follow the Lord, you lose the opportunity to know the great overwhelming wonder and joy of becoming a new person in Christ.
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