What's Your Problem?

If you were to look over my shoulder on most days of the week you would see hundreds of bottles of pills.  Hundreds.  I work in a little hospital pharmacy where we dispense prescription medication to sick patients every day. 

Imagine if the next time you went to your pharmacy that the pharmacist opened up the door and simply said to you, "help yourself."  No instructions.  No direction.  Throw away that prescription.  Just a welcoming invitation to take any bottle from the shelf and ingest any number of tablets with the sincerest of hopes for your health and happiness.

What would happen? 

Maybe you would get lucky and happen to lay hold of the bottle you needed and administer yourself the appropriate dose to promote your well-being and health.  Maybe.  Not likely.

More likely the average person would grab the wrong medicine in the wrong amount and die; or at least get no better.

How come?  Aren't they all, in theory, good medicines?

Yes.  Of course. 

But they are not all suited to cure your specific problem. 

When making the choice to prescribe a medication your physician (assuming he or she has your best interest in mind) will make their decision based upon their careful and specific diagnosis of what is wrong.

Does it matter which medication they prescribe?  Of course it does.

Now let's change the illustration a bit.

Does it matter which church you attend?

On any given Sunday you can presumably (at least in many U.S. locations) take your pick from dozens and dozens of church-options within a reasonable distance from your home.  Does it really matter?

As with medicine, I submit that the church you choose will either help you or hurt you (or do nothing at all) depending on what is really wrong with you. 

Every Sunday, from thousands of pulpits across our nation, "medicine" is being dispensed into the souls of those gathered to worship. 

If you choose your church without an accurate diagnosis of what is really wrong with you it is possible that your heart will get sicker and sicker.

So what's your problem?

The Bible's answer to this question is clear.  You may choose to disagree with the diagnosis.  If, however, the diagnosis is correct - the fact that you disagree will not alter to course of your condition.

The Bible says that mankind's fundamental problem is sin.  

That is it in a nutshell.  Sin.

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" - Romans 3:23
"But the Scripture has confined all under sin" - Galatians 3:22
"You were...dead in trespasses and sin" - Ephesians 2:1

The "right" church then, for sinners, is the church that clearly and consistently points this awful fact out.  Our problem is not fundamentally our circumstances.  It is not our spouse (sorry hun).  It is not our parents (sorry kids).  It is not our personality or health or job. 

But what, exactly, is sin?  Simply put, sin is rebellion against God's law.  God has said "do this."  And we don't.  God has said "don't do that!"  But we do. 

That's sin.

And God hates it.  And if we think that "hate" is too strong a word for how God views sin - we are mistaken.  The Bible says God hates it. 

And so the right church for sinners is the one that tells them every week how God has chosen to deal with sin and offer salvation. 

How has God chosen to deal with mankind's sin?

First, He sent His Son to pay the debt for our sin by dying on the cross:

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of  us all" - Isaiah 53:6

"I am the good Shepherd, the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep" - John 10:11

"having made peace through the blood of His cross." - Colossians 1:20

Second, He offers salvation freely to any who will repent of their sin and believe in His Son.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" - Acts 16:31

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish" - John 3:16

Third, He offers to change us.  God has not wiped away our sin only to send us back to our old ways.  No, we aren't perfect yet.  Far from it.  But He gives a new heart and His Spirit to begin the work of changing us.

"If any man is in Christ Jesus he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

"we are no longer slaves to sin" - Romans 6:6


So, does it matter what medicine you pick when your body is sick?  I think so.  So do you.  Even the best tasting (but wrongly chosen) medicine may be killing you.  Some, to go back to our opening illustration, would look at all the bottles of pills and just walk away.  Too many choices.  Better to not pick any at all.  That's too bad.  Because there is a right choice, and there is help available.

And does it matter which church you pick if your soul is sick?  Yes, I think so.  The question for us to ask ourselves is not "how did that sermon make me feel?" but rather "did that sermon address the real problem with my soul?"  Some, like the discouraged patient, look at all the church-choices and simply walk away - skeptical and indifferent.  That is too bad also.  You don't have to walk away.

If your problem (like my problem) is our sin - there are churches who will help.  There are pastors and teachers who will point you to God's cure as presented in God's Word.  God hasn't left you to wander around forever.  Christ offers Himself.  "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am chief."

What I Believe...1-3-1

The older I get, the more I appreciate simplicity.  Achieving simplicity, however, is not easy.  I am fond of the quote attributed to Blaise Pascal (and others): "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

Rambling is easy.  Simplicity takes time and effort.  The goal of simplicity in writing is to maximize the number of things you do not say.  And so, with simplicity as a goal, I wish to express what I believe as a Christian.

• I believe 1 thing about myself.
• I believe 3 things about Jesus.
• I believe 1 thing about the future.

That is the outline.  1-3-1.  I don't know how to reduce it any further.  And so, let me now explain what those things actually are.

I believe 1 thing about myself:  I am a sinner.  Of this fact I am utterly convinced and persuaded.  Both my own experience and the Bible confirm this time and time again.  Animals have instincts.  Their actions may be pleasant or unpleasant, but they can never truly be classified as right or wrong.  Man is different.  We are bound inescapably to an awareness of good and evil, right and wrong.  We call this the Moral Law.  I am obliged to keep this Moral Law.  But I don't.  And I know it.


I believe 3 things about Jesus:

     First:  He was not merely a man, but God in the flesh.  Jesus was God entering into the human world as a man.  No other conclusion adequately explains everything He did and said.   His birth and life fulfilled every prophecy that the Old Testament predicted.  The only rational explanation is this:  He planned it.  He was both the Author of the prophecies and their fulfilment.  His miracles, words and life confirmed He was God.  Add to this the fact that He actually claimed to be God.  Good men don't do this - unless, of course, it is true. 

     Second:  He died as a substitute for sinners like me.  The cross was a cruel, but not uncommon, instrument of death.  But Jesus' death was unique.  It was not an accident.  It was not a failure.  It was not, ultimately, a tragedy.  His death was a planned and purposed substitution - bearing the penalty for sin that sinners like me deserved.  Like the lambs slaughtered by the priests in the Old Testament as sacrifices for sin, so Jesus Christ died as a perfect, sinless sacrifice for all who would put their faith in Him. 

     Third:  Jesus rose again from the dead.  On the third day He rose.  Death could not hold Him.  God the Father accepted His sacrifice and acknowledged Jesus Christ to be precisely who He claimed to be.  The soldiers, whose lives depended on guarding the tomb, could not explain away what happened.  And so remarkable and convincing was His resurrection that His disciples, previously discouraged, were now willing to die preaching the good news of this truth to others.  And most of them did. 


I believe 1 thing about the future:  A Day of Judgment is yet to come.  If this is not the case, then the world we live in makes no sense to me.  Those who do wrong often seem to get the furthest ahead.  Those struggling to do what is right often suffer for it.  Cruel misfortunes seem to fall randomly upon our race.  If all our hope is tied merely to this life, then life is ultimately meaningless.  There is no right or wrong.  Life would be, to quote Shakespeare's famous line in Macbeth "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."  But this life does mean something.  I know it does.  And I think we all do.  Life is significant.  What we do and what we believe matters.  Right now, in fact, counts forever.


That is as simple as I can make it.  I'm sure others could do better.  Maybe if I had more time...I could too.