January 22, 2015
Your Sins Are Forgiven
I attended a church that has
a time of “Confession of Sins and Forgiveness.” After the corporate confession
the pastor said, “Therefore, as a called servant of Christ and by his
authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.” When I’ve attended other services where there is a
public absolution I’m somewhat uncomfortable because it feels like the preacher
is somehow standing between me and the Lord. However, it just dawned on me that
if I were to hear another person’s confession, I too can state the obvious and say
that their sins are forgiven — not that I forgive them, but that the Lord
forgives them. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NIV).
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Gail;
-----I will never forget the morning of January 28, 1986. For me, it started quite ordinarily. But for seven astronauts and their loved ones, it didn’t start so well. The space program had had its disasters and near misses (you think they would have skipped the number 13 when naming Apollo missions.) History leads to a today which we always expect to proceed uneventfully into tomorrow. We know tomorrow has its share of disasters. But they’re tomorrow, not today. The Challenger showed today is not immune. And change is sudden.
-----The Challenger also showed how small details can change the course of history. September 11, 2001 confirmed it. So did February 1, 2013. Foam peeling off the main fuel tank was not that common in the early years of the space shuttle program. But, by the time of the Columbia mission, the foam recipe was changed for environmental friendliness, and it just wasn’t sticking to the tank so well anymore. Oops! A security person at an East coast airport had not been real comfortable with an Arabic passenger preparing to board a trans-America flight. He momentarily detained the passenger until he was told by his superiors to let him proceed without any investigation at all. Oops! Nor did the NASA top brass want to hear anything of it being a couple degrees too cold to launch that January morning. Oops! Small details are important.
-----The big accusation thrown at Jesus for His personally forgiving sins was nothing short of blasphemy. There was no debating the fact that only God can forgive sins for rejuvenating lost fellowship with Him. Their accusation of Jesus didn’t stick, of course, because Jesus is God. The pastor was not forgiving sins they did against him personally. But he was personally forgiving their sins against God. Oops!
-----I don’t think any jetliners are going to blast into buildings as a consequence of it. But if we all were able to look upon the tiny details which changed most people’s individual history courses unto a flow into Hell, we would be more careful with our details for the sake of the impressions they leave.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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