I love my dog, but I’m not an “animal lover” fanatic. For some reason I was browsing YouTube and started watching some animal rescue videos. Some of them really get to you emotionally.
Some of the videos are very heart warming. Some are heart breaking. Either way, an animal rescue gets to you emotionally. Let’s take a look at this short one:
Some observations:
- They DIDN’T MEAN to get in trouble
- They DIDN’T KNOW the danger
- They cannot help themselves and they do not know the intent of their rescuer
Yet, when attempting to rescue an animal, the first thing one must due is to subdue it. That’s right, a distressed animal will fight the one trying to rescue it.
Well, that’s because they’re just animals, right? Well, let’s look at humans:
- We calculate risk
- We know, or should know, danger signs
- But unlike animals, we can help ourselves and we do know the intent of our recuer
Basically folks, we’re smarter than the animals!
Or are we?
Candidly, most of the trouble we’re in is a result of the choices we make.
- We choose to sin
- We ignore the warnings
And then we find ourselves in trouble spiritually. But we’re smart? Right? All to often we’re not
- When tempted, we RESIST the Holy Spirit, and
- IGNORE the warning signs, even
- silencing the alarms
- People flee the church when they need it most
At at time when we should be running TOWARD God and the church, instead we run FROM God and his church. Name the spiritual problem…
- Abusive relationships
- Divorce
- Substance abuse
- Marriage problems
- Financial problems
- etc
So often, people walking through these various hell’s ABANDON the church. Why? After all, the church is PURPOSED to minister to people and help them through these troubles. God is in the rescue business.
While the people who leave the church are responsible for their own choice, we are complicit
- In our condemnation of sin, we fail to love the sinner
- In our teaching to accept personal responsibility, we have adopted a “blame the victim” mentality
- We’ve taken sin management to a level of moral compliance that no one can attain
- We embrace GRACE as it applies to salvation, but once saved, we pretty much abandon it
Remember when Jesus was presented with the woman caught in the act of adultery? The penalty under the law was death by stoning.
What part of “he who is without sin let him cast the first stone” do you not understand?
By the way, there was ONE person present who was without sin!
DataGenesis 