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Confession,
Forgiveness and Life
There
is no uplifting message this week as I sit at my screen and let my thoughts flow
out to the screen in front of me. I have been making the rounds to my various
web log friends. And the topic of the day is centering on the atrocities being
committed in
Iraq
by coalition forces. At first only
U.S.
soldiers were implicated, but now it
seems to be spreading to
U.K.
forces also. One of my friends asked
the question, “What kind of monsters have we become?”
Something
about this question really stirred me. And instantly, the answer shot into my
head; we have always been monsters, ever since the fall of humankind. Oh, we put
up a good exterior. We pride ourselves on good conduct and civility. But even in
the best of us, blackness lies just under the smooth, white, unspoiled surface
of our consciousness. It is the blackness of an unspeakable horror we fear so
much, we won’t even acknowledge it’s presence. It’s the evil that takes
over the moment we let our guard down. It then draws back and mocks us. “See
what you did? You are so horrible” Or perhaps it encourages us to do more.
“See what it accomplished? So you did a little wrong, no big deal; the ends
justify the means don’t they?” Either way, driven to despair or deeper into
the evil, we seem to be doomed.
Jesus
was once addressed as “Good Rabbi”, to which he quickly responded, “Why do
you call me good? No one is good but your Father in heaven.” Jesus
acknowledged his human side and knew the darkness that resided within each one
of us. Are we doomed from the evil within? No, the answer is in Christ Jesus who
illumines the grotesqueness of the evil within us. You can’t fight what you
can’t identify, that’s why we need to spend our time coming closer to the
light of God through Jesus Christ. By seeing and acknowledging the evil that is
within us, we are empowered to resist it and to refuse it influence on our
lives.
Confess
what we are: hideous evil creature with a white coating,
Ask
for and receive the forgiveness of God,
And
receive power to resist evil and the assurance of God’s presence.
Come
around anytime, I’ll be here and so will God.
To
send Pastor Dennis an email, just click on his name.
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Pastor
Dennis Devotions 