This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
Here in the season of Lent leading up to Easter, one of the big buzz words we come across is Sin. I want to take some time to explain what Sin is because unless you understand it, the power and relief of Easter loses its impact.
Sin is a condition we all suffer from. All of us have Sin from the moment of our conception. As a part of the human race, we suffer from the condition of Sin. The best analogy of Sin that I can give you is cancer. Cancer is when the body turns against itself. It doesn’t make any sense as to why the body would do that, but it is the closest analogy I can think of to how Sin operates in our lives. Sin is the temptation we face daily to do things that are contrary to our living our best life. Why do we prefer junk food to vegetables fresh from the garden? Why do little kids need to be watched 100% of the time? Why is pornography a multi billion dollar business in the United States alone? It is because left to our own devices, our natural inclination is toward destruction. Just like Cancer is a mysterious condition where the body turns on itself, Sin is a natural inclination to anything that is not good for us.
The reason we call the story of Jesus the Gospel (literally translate means Good News) is because His purpose was to tell us that we have another choice. We do not have to live as slaves to Sin. We can do much more than live, we can thrive. We do this by choosing based on a higher standard than our own feelings and desires. That is why He taught us such valuable lessons as the importance of loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love other people. It is core values like this that can give us a reason to fight those Sinful desires we all have.
Sin is a condition that we all suffer from and the symptoms of Sin are what we refer to as sins. These are the moments when we give into Sin and indulge a desire in a destructive way. Jesus came full of grace and mercy to tell us that the result of those sins is no longer separation from God. But that grace is not given to us so that we can commit all the sins we want with no consequences, that grace was given to us so that we know how much God loves us.
The danger is if we decide to continue to act on our own Sin nature prioritizing sins over more valuable things. The last thing that Jesus wants is for our lives to become saturated with Sins that those sins crowd out anything healthy and wholesome in our lives. This is an abuse of the forgiveness that Jesus offered from the cross. Jesus gave His life to draw us back to Him, He did not give His life to give us license to prioritize Sin.
I know that we are still a few weeks out from Easter, but I would like to invite you to join a church here in St Marys for these next few weeks leading up to Easter. If you have a connection to a church already, I couldn’t be happier for you. But for those of you who may not have a church to call home, Wayne Street would love to welcome you this Sunday.
We are just a congregation of people who are doing our best to make choices in contradiction to our Sinful nature so we can live our best life, both now and forever. We are located at 130 N Wayne and our services on Sunday morning are at 8:30 and 10:45. If you would like to know more about what to expect from either of our services, you can check us out on YouTube. Feel free to introduce yourself to me, I am the one walking around with the Microphone headset. I am pretty easy to find on Sunday morning.