"Forgivenss?"

Rather than giving you an entire message, here is a brief devotional thought for you to consider from the message that I preached this past Sunday Morning, enjoy:

The text is in Mark Chapter two. Four men brought their paralytic friend to Christ. They wanted him healed. When they came to the house, they could not bring their friend through the door because of the large crowd that had assembled themselves to see Christ. They would not be deterred. They climbed the outside stairway, and broke open part of the roof and let their friend slowly down to Christ holding unto ropes as they lowered him in his bed.

How did Christ respond? His first words were, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

That message is my target thought for this devotion. Wasn’t it obvious that the reason why these four men had brought their paralytic friend to Christ was because they wanted to see their friend healed! Why did Jesus begin with a message on forgiveness first?

Sin stops all communication with God. Forgiveness is why Christ came into this world.

If a man is not forgiven of his sin, he has no access to the throne of grace. The lines of communication between the sinner and God have been severed.

Communication is everything. In a marriage communication is everything. Sin stops that open line. A husband and a wife no longer talk.

Most people think that the immediate need of every problem is "healing the hurt." If you cannot even talk with the great physician, the real heart of the hurt is not mended!

The message of the gospel of Christ is: Jesus died to take the punishment of your sin, he is your redeemer. He was buried and he arose again from the dead on the third day. He came to "save his people from their sins."

Yes, Christ also healed the man of his physical impairment, but he began with his heart.

The other day, I rented the film, "The Miracle Worker." It is the true life’s story of Ann Sullivan’s work with Helen Keller. As a little girl, Helen Keller was smitten by a disease that took both her hearing and her eye sight. The family of Helen Keller simply pitied her. She was spoiled. They attempted to put on controls on her life. They wanted to make allowances for her disability.

When they hired this "teacher" to come into their home, she rejected the premise that their was "no hope" for this little girl. She went to work. No, she could not recover heal her of her physical blindness. She could not restore her hearing. But she could open up to her the "lines of communication!"

She taught her hands to speak the deaf sign language! This took time and effort, but once a line of communication with her teacher took hold, a whole new world opened up to her. She came alive!

How is your communication with God? Do you have a "sin" problem? The greatest need in our lives is for each one of us to hear these words from our God, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee!"