GIVE IT SOME THOUGHT…FROM THE PASTOR

     Spring has sprung, and spring cleaning has begun (I started with my garage).

    This is the first time since arriving in Odessa that my garage has actually been clean. I finally had enough of rearranging this junk, hiding that junk, and ignoring stuff stashed in those corners.

     Now the questions must be answered, why did I do that, and why did I wait so long?

Truth be told, I waited about 19 months. Excuses piled up. 

1. “I am too tired today” 

2. “Out of sight out of mind” 

3. “It’s not that big of deal” ….and the list goes on and on.

In the grand scheme of things, that’s true. Chances are, you had no idea my “parsonage garage” was messy. I didn’t show it off, and no one questioned me.   

     There are a lot of people who live their lives (Christian or not) with a lot of junk in their garage (meaning life…not a literal garage, though that may be true as well).

They have junk (sins) in their life they don’t want to deal with, and like my garage, the excuses pile up. 

1. “It’s not that big of deal” 

2. “Everyone else is doing it” 

3. “Nobody is perfect” …and while these are real human excuses…they are not good reasons to give up keeping our “garage” clean.     

     To man, sin is just something we know everyone does (Romans 3:23), (and we constantly struggle with) and after all…the Bible does say that no one can actually get to the point of perfection on this earth in this area. (1 John 1:8). 

These verses are obviously true, but that doesn’t mean we give up and quit trying to live sinless.     Depending on what the sin is, man tends to take it pretty lightly.

     Sin is not to be taken lightly. It cost the life of our sinless Savior on the cross to buy our freedom from the consequences of those sins.

Rather than take them lightly, we need to obey 1 John 1:9 which tells us to Confess: “to admit or declare oneself guilty of what one is accused of” our sins, and he will forgive us.

     We are not to just admit to God what he already knows and then continuing in doing it. The idea is that I am repenting “the act of changing one’s mind” from living my life of sin to live for Jesus.