No guilt, no shame
I was listening to an old sermon about personal witnessing. At one point in the sermon, the preacher said he asked people, “What do you do with your guilt?” That was a compelling question ten years ago, but not today. We live in a society that, for the most part, carries no guilt and feels no shame.
Many people of our nation have become like the Israelites during the life of the prophet Jeremiah. God had been punishing the country, but the Israelites refused to turn back to God. Here’s what God had Jeremiah declare to his nation:
“Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a prostitute’s forehead; You refused to be ashamed.
Jeremiah 3:3 (NASB)
A prostitute’s forehead
By saying that they had a prostitute’s forehead, God said they had become as comfortable and callused with sin as a prostitute. This verse from Jeremiah hit home to me when I picked a detective show to watch on TV. I was so shocked by the rating that I took a picture of it (sorry for the low quality). So, the rating czars decided that a show containing violence, sex, and drug use was ok for fourteen-year-old kids. Wow. 😞
As Christians, for the people in our lives, especially the kids, we need to be the container of sin’s antidote, Jesus. We need to be like baking soda on battery posts.
Baking soda on battery posts
A car’s battery contains sulfuric acid, and over time it will creep up and corrode the electrical connections between a car and its battery, effectively making the car useless. But, if we sprinkle some baking soda, which is alkaline, on the battery’s connections the acid is neutralized; it keeps the battery connected to the car. That’s our mission. Through prayer and conversation, we need to neutralize this world’s acid that continually tries to corrode everyone’s lives.
Clean and tight
As believers, we need to keep our connection to Heaven’s battery (Jesus) clean and tight. We can, for we have this promise of Christ’s love for us:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. –
Romans 8:35,37
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