While many in our society proclaim the goodness of man, there is a deep theological problem with that statement, that no man can escape. The first century Roman Philosopher Seneca wrote ““Every guilty person is his own hangman. No matter how often a man tells himself he is good, he inevitably sees that he cannot help thinking, saying, and doing wrong things and feeling guilty about it. This guilt drives people to alcohol, drugs, despair, insanity, and more and more frequently to suicide.” this sounds like a quote from the 21st century! Today men feel guilty because they are guilty. The guilt feelings, however, are only the symptom to the real problem, which is sin. The guilt that we experience today has only one cause – our own sin – and unless that sin is removed, our guilt cannot be removed. That is why the first element of the gospel is confronting people with the reality of their sin. How can a person accept the “GOOD NEWS” of salvation, if they are convinced in their heart that they are not evil enough to need it. In Romans 3:9-20 Paul pictures a courtroom scene, and we are all the defendants in … READ MORE

Our sin leads us to hide our sinfulness from others. We attempt to camouflage our sin, and hope that no one can see it. James 5:16 tells us to “confess our sins to one another, and pray for one another, that we may be healed.” I am not suggesting that we should “air our dirty laundry” but at the same time we must understand that we all struggle with sin, and we must be willing to call that sin for what it is, and to learn to turn from sin and to God. We should seek out mature people we can seek to help us become accountable for our actions and thoughts. In so doing we will be able to have a network of spiritual people to help us overcome sinful choices in our lives. Our Goal can be seen in James 4:10, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift us up” In creation man was not designed to live apart from God or others, we must be willing to seek relationships that will help us grow and mature in our walk with the Lord.… READ MORE

In Genesis 3:7-8 we see that after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the first thing that Adam and his wife did was to hid themselves from each other. This continues to be a problem with relationships today, we hid ourselves from God and others! We all find it hard to reveal to people who we are, and struggle to become what we believe that people want us to be. The idea of being laid “bare” before others causes us to panic, and therefore, we often conform to the image of the group so that we can blend into the crowd rather than being salt and light. One of the things that makes a follower of Christ different from the world, is that we find our identity in Christ, and not in the opinions of man. Yet it is still hard for us to overcome this battle. How do we do it? We have to recognize that according to Romans 12:2 we are “… transformed by the renewing of your mind, …” We are not what we were, and we do not have to be what we think the world wants us to be. We … READ MORE