The Immutability Of God

Men have tried to change it’s name. They call adultery “an affair.” They call homosexuality a “gay lifestyle.” They call abortion (killing of the innocent) “a pregnancy termination.” In short, they call sin a mistake.

Man calls sin an accident; God calls it an abomination.

Man calls it a blunder; God calls it blindness.

Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.

Man calls it an infirmity; God calls it iniquity.

Sin is still causing people to cheat and lie and kill and rob—and it continues to happen everywhere, regardless of culture or race or region.

Sin takes us where we don’t want to go, keeps longer than we want to stay, and costs us more than we would ever want to pay.

The effects of sin remain the same. It is still responsible for despair, pain, suffering, disease, war, and death. We can deny its existence but the fact is that we continue to build more and more prisons, more and more alcohol and drug-treatment centers.

Illus.: “Pet Sins”

For 8 years, Sally had been the Romero family pet. She was only one foot long when they brought her home. But Sally grew and grew until eventually she reached a length of 11 feet and weighed 80 pounds. Then one day, Sally, a Burmese python, turned on 15-year old Derek, strangling him until he suffocated and died. Police said that the snake was “quite aggressive, hissing, and reacting” when they arrived to investigate the young man’s death.

Sin is like that. When a sin first enters our lives, we think of it as harmless, almost cute. Yet it doesn’t stay small. It has a way of growing. We think we candle it, but then it begins to handle us. And it always leads to death.

Sad to say, the only things that has changed about sin is our attitude toward it. We need to realize it’s devastating effects on our lives. It’s ruining our health, tearing apart our emotions, breaking up our families and destroying any chance of being united with God in eternity.

2. Sorrow Has Not Changed

When Adam and Eve looked with broken hearts on the lifeless body of Abel after he had been murdered by Cain, that was the beginning of the crushing sorrow that fills human hearts. Sorrow is the universal language of the world today.

Even while we sit here in these comfortable surroundings, tears are being shed the world over. There is weeping and wailing in New York, Afghanistan, Israel, and wherever the grim reaper has passed by.

Whether the result of disease, natural disaster, divorce, or some other calamity, sorrow fills our planet.

3. Death Has Not Changed

We may make light of it, avoid discussing it, try to postpone it, and even try to escape it, but death is still here.

The Grim Reaper still stalks the earth, going about his grizzly business. His blade cuts a wide path, striking the young as well as the old, the rich as well as the poor, the noble as well as the common, the good as well as the evil. Case in point: David, the teenaged son of a pastor from Waterloo.

We may delay his coming but he still comes.

Sin, sorrow, death. These have not changed. Therefore, man’s need for a Savior has not changed. He is still available. Not all is dark. There is still hope. There is Someone we can depend on, Someone we can cling to in a changing and yet changeless world.