Redefining Sin?

Hello everyone,

I trust you had a blessed Easter Sunday. How wonderful to be able to celebrate the Lord's resurrection. We had a great turnout for worship at church, and a beautiful morning to go along with it.

I'm writing from our house by the lake this morning (Monday). We thought since Alex doesn't have school today, it would be good to get away for a few hours. In fact, I toyed with the idea of calling in sick, and not writing a column this week. :-)

It is hard sometimes to decide on a topic for the newsletter, but with so much of what I would describe as total ignorance of Biblical truth, there is plenty of material. Last week, I received via email a link to an article in the Tuscaloosa Alabama News. In the article, the author interviewed several people as to whether they viewed homosexuality as a sin. One person answered this way: "I think the Bible is pretty clear that traditionally homosexuality has been a sin, but I think there are other things in the Bible that have traditionally been declared a sin that God's people have determined are no longer sinful."

What I would like to know, is when did "God's people" acquire the right to overrule God in defining what is sin and what is not? And, what does God think about that?

Let's look in His book and see how he would answer that question: "The word of the Lord is right and true" (Psalm 33:4), "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Mark 13:31).
.

Today is April Fool's Day. The Bible calls those who reject God fools. Intelligent, and presumed wise men, have rejected the word of God as irrelevant to our time. Jeremiah 8:9 says, "The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and  trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?"

Jesus died for all our sins. If we confess our sins, he will forgive. Everything the Bible calls sin can be forgiven, except the sin of rejecting his offer of salvation. There are consequences to rejecting the word of God, and they are eternal. Please don't be so arrogant as to proclaim that we humans can decide what is sin and what is not.

In Truth,

Pastor Jerry