Natural Born Sinners

When people get into arguments, discussions, whatever you want to call them, about homosexuality, I've heard one side say "it's not natural" and the other side say "it's perfectly natural". I never thought about it much, I just agreed with the former and not the latter. God's design just lined up and made sense and I figured that was the end of the story.

Well I've changed my thinking on that a little bit.

I will argue now that it is definitely natural. And so is fornication. And adultery. And envy. And lust. And greed. And malice. And slander. And drunkenness. And theft. And murder. And whatever other list of sins you want to throw in here that could stretch around the globe.

All these sins are perfectly natural, because by nature we are sinners. We're not sinners because we sin -- for that implies it's possible to not sin, and only one dude in all of history managed that one, and he was God in the flesh. Instead, we sin because we are sinners, by nature.

Think of a dog and a cat. The act of barking doesn't cause one to be a dog, and the act of meowing doesn't cause the other to be a cat. The dog is a dog before it every barks, and the cat is a cat before it every meows. In the same way, we're sinners before we ever sin.

But it doesn't take long for that true nature to be revealed does it? Think of children. This whole idea that "it's all because of the child's environment" is a bunch of crap. Regardless of the environment, you don't have to teach a child how to be selfish, how to lie, how to hit out of anger, how to argue, how to complain, or any of that stuff. They just act on what's already inside of them.

That's why when they're young, you have to teach your children well. And not just teach them good character and good morals -- don't be selfish, don't hit, don't argue, don't complain, etc. You have to go bigger. Make sure they know that Jesus is the only way and why. Make sure they know we're natural born sinners with no hope of saving ourselves, and so we need Jesus. Make sure they know he took all the sins of the world upon himself when he was on that cross as a sacrifice to pay a price for us that we cannot pay.

Grace and Peace friends.

Greatest Sacrifice

Brian made a good point in something I was listening to the other day that I kind of thought about before in the back of my head but never really articulated it clearly.

Some time in the past he thought that perhaps God the Father did not make the greatest sacrifice on the cross, but only the second greatest. After all, if he was going to make the greatest sacrifice, then why not sacrifice himself instead?

That made sense to him until he had kids.

Those of you reading that have kids, do this. Get a pen and paper and make a list of all the people on your listen that you would sacrifice your children for.

Is your paper blank? Mine certainly is. There is no such list. I would certainly die for my own children, but there is no way I'd willingly send them somewhere to be harassed, tortured, and killed.

But God has such a list, and your name is on it. That's how much he loves you!