Keeping The Wall Occupied

10“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’  11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

I love the phrase in this verse that states, "and we rot away because of them." Dr Karl Menninger in 1973 wrote a book called, "Whatever Became of Sin?" and since that day, we have even moved further away from discussing the ramifications of what sin is.  The basic nature of the human race is sinful, a willing disobedience to God that sets who we are above who He is. We serve our base nature, rather than the creator, and sin is the result of our actions and our emphasis.  Sin has escaped our basic vocabulary because of our unwillingness to acknowledge God. If God doesn't exist, then sin doesn't either. As culture has evolved away from the concept of sin, it makes it easier to escape repentance, because if there is no sin, than there is nothing to repent from, so repentance is dead too. Yet, you can deny the existence of the concept of sin, but the results of sin continue to rot away the fiber of human existence. It reminds me of dry rot, a condition that happens behind the exterior of a building. It may not be seen at first, because the exterior of a building hides what is going on in the walls.  Dry rot is a fungi that attacks the interior wood structures of a ship or a building, and it can exist without the presence of moisture. 

It is this dry rot that weakens the structure, and eventually the structure fails because of the lack of support. Sin is similar in nature to the character and nature of a human being. The outside appearance may be maintained, but inwardly there are lies, immorality, and every form of evil manipulation. The recent stories in the news about basketball coaches molesting players, and more recent stories of pedophiles in Hollywood are indicators of moral and spiritual dry rot. Sexual abuse is a subtle thing at first, perhaps an innocent infatuation, but it never stays innocent for long. Sin is the same way, it portrays itself in such subtle ways, but the end of the matter is destruction. 

That is why we need watchman on the wall reminding us, warning us, teaching us about this subtle enemy called sin, and without those watchman, we are vulnerable to the subtleties of sin.  We need these watchman to tell us the truth about sin and to challenge the move by culture to remove it from our vocabulary. Churches who do not preach about sin are guilty of blasphemy against God.  Jesus came to destroy the power of sin over our lives, and to set us free from it's capture hold.

Here is a short message from a watchman on the wall from Seattle Washington: Pastor Mark Discroll on 9 sinful views on sin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD04WfpKG1A&feature=relmfu 

Keeping it honest and truthful....K