Category: Redemption

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Stable Stool in a Wobbly World

I know you have eaten in a diner where the table was wobbly because one leg was a little short (and you probably put a wad of a napkin under it.) Do you know that a three-legged stool will never wobble? A carpenter puts a diagonal brace in a structure because he transforms a rectangular object into two triangles thus stabilizing the structure.

When rock climbing or climbing a ladder, the safest way is to always have three points of contact—move only one foot or hand at a time.

You see where I am going with this, right? Something of “threes” brings stability. A three-legged stool never wobbles.

“Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12 NKJV).

In the wobbly world we live in, let’s look at the three legs of stability. In a stable society, we need three points of contact to stay secure. We need faith, family, and community.

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What Has Changed? Times or People

Recently when I was preaching, I said something that really resonated with my audience. The statement I made was this: “Often people will say that times have changed. But that is not true. Times have not changed; it is people that have changed.”

The rural community I lived in as a boy was not perfect. We had a few rough folks living among us. The little farmhouse we lived in had a screen door and wood door with the top third being three panes of glass. It had a lock, but I never saw the key to it. We never locked the front door. We would sleep inside with an unlocked door. In the summertime every window would be raised and only a flimsy screen separated us from the boogey man outside.

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Looking Into Their Eyes

I have seen some pitiful folks in my time. It is not the ragged clothes I see or their crippled limbs, but their eyes that give me a glimpse of their misery and hopelessness. I believe every person was granted to exist by God; this in itself makes me know that there is dignity in every life.

Many choose to take a path that is not God’s best, but some seem to have it thrust upon them by poverty, abuse, sickness, or where they were born. I have come to know with more awareness and certainty of the dignity of every human being. I know Christ loves them just as He loved the women He saved from a stoning, the demoniac He delivered from legions of demons, and even my wretched soul.

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Parched Piece of Ground

I hear people talking about leaving a legacy and I understand their sentiment, but often it has a scent of narcissism. After all, legacy is an earthly reminder of a person’s achievements while the crowns in Heaven are thrown down at the throne of God. My simple mind tells me to just be faithful in the Kingdom of God and leave the accounting to God’s record.

In 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, the Bible tells a sin in King David’s life. He sinned by numbering Israel out of a bad motive. Instead of trusting God, he trusted the strong arm of flesh. He wanted to feel secure in the number of warriors he had at his disposal. Joab, the leader of the army, was sent throughout the land to take a census of his fighting men.

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Marred Image of God

Recently, I saw a news report where some protestors marred a few expensive works of art in a museum. A once beautiful artistic work was marred, so it is with God’s original image of mankind, it has been marred by disobedience.

Do you realize we are all marred images? When I look in the mirror, that is not a concept I can argue about. A visit to Walmart will also verify that fact.

Mankind was originally made in the image of God according to Genesis 1:27 (NKJV), “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Of all the creatures of creation, we were the only ones created in the image of God.

I believe the image is more than an obvious outer appearance such as nose, ears, etc. We were created as spiritual beings with self-awareness, a capacity for moral judgment, and consciousness of divine existence (knowing that we are part of something beyond matter, energy, and time).

Man’s image became marred when the first couple ate the forbidden fruit opening their eyes to both evil and good. Then they had the capacity like God knowing the good from the evil. This put them in a dire position of knowing good from evil yet not having the inner power to always choose the good and refuse the evil.

We often speak of this marred image as our broken human nature. Every man born has a broken nature. There are many different forms and degrees of brokenness. Some are obvious and usually tolerated like an argumentative person. Others are cloaked and dangerous like a serial killer.

There is some form of brokenness residing in all of us. The image of God in us is marred—broken. We happily say, “No one is perfect!” It is true, yet, we say it happily to convince others not to judge us too harshly.

We should not get comfortable with our brokenness and wear a badge to prove it. We should not expect people to get comfortable with our brokenness. And most of all, we should not expect a wink and a nod from God concerning our brokenness. From time to time, someone will post on social media something like, “Don’t judge me, God doesn’t judge me.” Someone who thinks that God is not the ultimate judge, evidently has not read the description of the “Great White Throne Judgment” in Revelation 20:11-15!

Let me remind everyone, we all are broken in some way! I have certain unhealthy and/or sinful propensities, you have another kind. I do not expect or want anyone to affirm my brokenness. I will try to show mercy and grace and pray for you in yours.

“Brokenness” is a synonymous term describing sinfulness or the propensity for sin. The Bible describes besetting sins or “sin which so easily ensnares us” (Heb. 12:1 NKJV). It describes our weakness or fault point. The sin that easily ensnares us is another way of describing brokenness.

Again, we all struggle with something. Even though it may be an easy sin for us, it should not be an easy excuse for us. How many times have you heard someone say with a smirky attitude, “Well, that’s just the way I am, and people will just need to get used to it!” Really??

Or… “If you stay around them long enough, you will get to know them and get used to their ways.” Maybe most of us do not have that much time!!!

My brokenness is not an excuse for my conduct or lifestyle. It is not an excuse for my demand upon anyone to tolerate my brokenness, much less celebrate my brokenness. I should confess, repent of it, and ask Holy Spirit to empower the victory over my brokenness.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV)

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24 NKJV)

Do you know that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die on a cross for our sins a.k.a. “our brokenness”? Why should we so casually glory in the sin that Jesus died for?

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

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The Value of Life

People are more than globs of carbon compounds organized by DNA. We, yes, you and I, were created and designed by God, in His own image. In the second chapter of the Bible, the declaration is made, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7 NKJV).

For all of you animal lovers, yes, treat your critters humanely, but they are not equal with us. Human beings are at the apex of the creature pyramid. Our eyes are on the front of our heads which makes us a predator. A five-hundred-pound black bear is much more likely to run from us than attack.

We are not gods, but we do have the spark of divinity in us. We were created in the image of God. Just as God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so he created us as a triune being with a spirit, soul, and body.

The main point to this: We were created in the image of God with a soul, and everyone is inherently spiritual. A person is a spiritual being regardless of their morals or religious leanings, people can be spiritually righteous or spiritually evil.

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Shadow of the Cross, Light of Christ

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6 NKJV).

The day of Christ’s crucifixion was a dark day when the sinless Lamb of God was stripped, beaten, crucified, and killed. It was the fulfillment of God’s plan for the Sinless Son to die for the sinners of the world. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21 NKJV).

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Redemption Parable

I remember as a child singing the hymn written by James Rowe and titled “Redeemed” with the refrain bouncing off the walls of our country church and settling into my spirit, 

I’m redeemed by love divine!
Glory, glory! Christ is mine, Christ is mine! 
All to Him I now resign, resign
I have been redeemed, redeemed!

Redemption Parable
One day vicious raiders from the north country raided our village. They broke into all our houses, stealing all the precious items our families had worked hard to provide. The men were ruthless and merciless.

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