Don’t hang on to your fear. Let yourself hope. It is only brave people who find life beautiful.”
–William MacLeod Raine (Challenge to Danger)
“I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear. I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land.”
–Leviticus 26:6 (NLT)
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If you ever get the chance, read some of the sermons by William E. Sangster, do so. He was an amazing preacher during the 20th-century. Ponder these thoughts from his pen.
“Sin is deadly. It is the one thing God won’t tolerate. The war between good and evil is to the death. And you lend yourself to sin without knowing what a dirty enterprise you have sold yourself…until you see that cross…. So it is with sin. You can discuss it academically. You can even argue whether there is such a thing or not, or whether it is all the imagination of moralists. But then go and look at the cross. It does that. It is the most deadly thing known to God and man. It would slay the body and damn the soul. It is hell’s worst. You can see it when you gaze upon the cross.”
Remember the old saying, “You play with fire, you’re gonna get burned.” The same thing is true of sin. It is nothing to play with. In fact we are told to flee, to run, to avoid, to stay away from all aspects of sin. Why play with sin, when God won’t tolerate it?
There was a student a few years ago that wanted to discuss the issue of gays. I said, no. He then said that I was “homophobic” to which I replied, that I wasn’t afraid of them, it wasn’t a fear that I had. Then I answered him, why should I talk of, dwell upon something that God calls an abomination? Sin is deadly and not to be played with.
Smart people have developed all kinds of programs to deal with the failure of man; they will not call it sin. However, these programs all fail. They do not take into account the only thing that will change sin, that can deal with it effectively and that is the Cross.
If we could really see sin the way God does. If we could really see what took place upon the Cross where the Son of God hung, died, and bore the sins of mankind. If we could just…then we would see the deadliness of sin.
This Easter season, take PLENTY of time to gaze upon the Cross.