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It's a private group so email me if you need an invite.

Are there different levels of sin?

This question came from the youth group pickle box. Yes I know that pickles don’t come in boxes but we didn’t have a jar so we had to substitute a box, therefore we have a pickle box. This is one of those questions that have a yes and no answer. Let me start with a bit of simplified background.

The Catholic tradition teaches that there are two different types of sin, venial and mortal. Venial sins are those sins that can be forgiven and do not prevent someone from entering heaven. Mortal sins cannot be forgiven and there are three conditions that must be met in order for a sin to be considered a mortal sin. The conditions are: full knowledge of wrong doing; deliberate consent of the action; and the sin must be of grave matter. These mortal sins separate us from the saving grace of God. This separation is why we need the saving power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

However, as Protestants, what do we believe the Bible teaches about sin?
Romans 3:23 states “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 states “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So at this point I think that we agree with the Catholic tradition, we have all sinned and when we commit a sin we are separated from God. But if we back up in Romans a couple of chapters we read in 2:12 that “all who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” Paul is stating that even if we do not know God’s law that we are still guilty when we break the law. Compare it to driving down a road at 55 mph not knowing that the speed limit is 45 mph. If you get pulled over by a police officer he can still write you a ticket even though you could honestly say that you did not know the speed limit and did not intend to break the law.

Paul goes even further in Romans 2:14 & 15 and takes away our ignorance argument. He states, “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” Paul is stating that we know when we are doing something wrong even when we may not necessarily have heard that doing it is wrong. James 2:10 states that “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” He goes on to say in 3:2 that “We all stumble in many ways.” Between Paul and James, I think that they sufficiently state that we all commit sin and that just telling a small white lie is the same as committing murder.
Well, they are the same at least as far as separating us from God. No matter what we do wrong, it is enough to separate us from a perfect God. So from this perspective the answer to the original question is no, there are not different levels of sin.

Now, that does not mean that different sins do not have different consequences here on earth. If you tell that little white lie (“Yes I did all of my homework”) is not going to get you into nearly as much trouble if you do commit murder. We even have different levels of punishment for murder based upon a number of different circumstances. So from the earthly consequences perspective the answer to the original question is yes, there are different levels of sin.

I think that we should not over worry about trying to remember each and every sin that we commit. The ones that we can remember will keep us busy enough. What is important is to realize that each and every sin is enough to separate us from God and should not be treated too lightly.

Greatest Commandment

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:34-40

The past few weeks we have been looking at the Greatest Commandment in the Bible. Jesus said that the two most important things in life are to love God with everything we have and love everyone around us as much as we love ourselves.

As a youth group we came up with a couple of ideas of how we can love God and love our neighbors. Here are our lists so far, we will be continually adding to them.

Love God:
Come to church
Bring friends to church
Read the Bible
Pray
Worship God
Follow in God’s footsteps

Love Our Neighbors:
Help the elderly
Care for neighbor’s pets
Give them food if they need it
Have respect for them

Loving God and loving our neighbors are two things that our youth group will be focusing on this year, so keep the ideas coming!

Locked Out

So I found out that I do not know how to properly operate a door lock, the church office door lock to be precise.

Yesterday I was planning on doing a bunch of homework and sermon preparation here at the church. I had my computer set up, my schoolbooks at hand and my bottle of water all ready to go. It was close to lunchtime and I was getting the munchies so I went down stairs to raid the youth group stash of snacks.

Mmmmmm…a bowl of Shrek shaped Cheez-Its...yummy.

Doh!!!

As I go back up stairs the office door is locked. I know I unlocked it to get in and apparently it does not stay unlocked until you flip the thingy on the back of the knob. No problem, I will just use my handy keys to unlock the door.

Doh!!!

They are sitting on the table of the office. Along with my computer and my books. So I ended up walking home to get a spare set of car keys. By the time I finally was able to get back into the office most of the day was gone and I did not get much work done. I did however get to listen to the wonderful songs of the cicadas as I dodged their attempts to land on me while I walked home and back to the church.

What have we learned from this? Make sure you carry your keys with you at all times and make sure you learn how to use a door lock.

Mike

Must See T.V.

Way back in the day...in the 90's NBC started calling their Thursday night T.V. lineup "Must See T.V." it had a bunch of great shows on like The Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers and Wings.

I know what your thinking: "Wow, Mike! You're old!"

You can say that if you want, I will just turn down my hearing aide and it won't bother me a bit.

So, if you were to set your "Must See T.V." lineup what shows would it include?

For me the shows that I love to watch are:

Friends - which is ironic because I never watched the show when it was on, and even made fun of it but now I watch it in reruns.

Stargate SG-1 - which is on the SCI-FI channel and is in it's last year of shows. It is based on the movie Stargate.

Stargate Atlantis - which is also on the SCI-FI channel and is a spin-off of Stargate SG-1.

So, leave a comment and let me know what shows you like to watch.

A Buzz For Hunger

Ah, yes the 17-year cicadas are upon us. There is not much buzzing here at the church but if you take a short walk down to my house the forest preserve has quite the ruckus of cicada song. My wife and I took our dog, Nike, for a bit of a walk on Sunday and every tree and bush was covered with the crimson-eyed bugs.

The last time the cicadas invaded I was working VBS and us leaders thought it would be funny (and gross) to pretend to eat a cicada for the kids. We all had a great laugh as the kids screamed and yelled in disgust.

This time around I was reading a National Geographic article on the crunchy critters and came across this paragraph:

Cicadas are said to make good eating because they are low in fat and high in protein. They are considered a delicacy by many people around the world. The European settlers in North America observed the Indians eating them. During the emergence of Brood X cicadas in 1987, a number of people in Cincinnati and Illinois were reported to have tried deep-fried and stir-fried cicadas. There was also talk of cicada pizzas and cicada candy, and local newspapers printed cicada recipes.

Just as I was thinking how that was some really good information to have, I clicked to the next page and read the next paragraph:

Experts say that the best way to eat cicadas is to collect them in the middle of the night as they emerge from their burrows and before their skins harden. When they are in this condition—like softshell crabs—they can be boiled for about a minute. It is said they taste like asparagus or clam-flavored potato.

Hey, how about that, boiled cicadas! I think I will have to try that recipe and cook a special dinner for my wife. So if you are looking for a tasty and nutritious snack take a walk to your nearest buzzing tree and grab a handful of creepy-crawly chow while it lasts.

What 's playing on your iPod?

I would really like to know, what is playing on your iPod? If you don't have an iPod (or similar mp3/cd player), what songs do you crank up every time they play on the radio?

If you were a radio DJ, what would you play?

Let's start a list and see what songs are most popular. They don't have to be Christian and you are not trying to impress me.

I have my iPod playing in the background as I am typing this and here are the last few songs that have played:

You're Beautiful by James Blunt
Clint Eastwood (edited original version) by Gorillaz
Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf
Crashed by DAUGHTRY

Quite an eclectic collection of songs, I will throw in some Beatles, Third Day, Jars of Clay and B.B. King to name a few others that I enjoy.

BTW, DAUGHTRY is the group fronted by Chris Daughtry who is, as I am told, of American Idol fame. Huh, interesting. Have any of you watched the show? I have to admit that I have not watched it.

So, leave a comment about what music you play a lot.

-Mike