Sight

I would like to begin this article by thanking the Manslick Road Church of Christ for inviting me to come and do the adult class for their annual vacation Bible school.  We had great participation from the adults as well as the kids all week long.  I hope that a lot of good will come out of the work done last week.  I know it will.  I would also like to thank the congregation here at Northwest for allowing me the time to go and do that.  I am thankful to Chris for stepping up and taking my place last week.  It is such a blessing for a congregation to have not just men capable of doing the work, but men willing to do the work.  Praise the Lord for men like that!  I am very thankful for a number of things from last week.  And, with that said, I would like to share one more of those things with you.

            It was about a quarter until 10AM last Friday when a man walked into the auditorium where we were about to do the last adult class for the week.  I immediately noticed that a man (who turned out to be his brother) was leading him through the building to their seats.  I didn’t notice the gigantic black seeing-eye dog until a little later.  They took their seats right in front of the podium I would be using and we started talking.  In that short conversation, I believe that I learned more about real faith than in a lifetime of study.  Even though he couldn’t see it, I cried at how beautiful his faith was.

            His name was Dave.  He was in his late forties or early fifties.  He had lost his sight in an accident several years ago.  He didn’t say much more about how he lost his sight, but he said some things related to it that just blew my mind.

            One thing he said to me was that losing his sight was one of the best things that could have ever happened to him.  I don’t know, maybe he sensed my skepticism, but he continued to tell me why it was such a blessing.  He told me that, since he lost his sight, he realized that he never has to worry about the “lust of the eyes” (1 John 2:15-17) anymore.  He told me that this was a huge struggle for him throughout his life and that he was so very thankful that the Lord took that struggle away from him.

            Another thing he said to me was that, since losing his sight, he has met people who he would never have met otherwise, people who were in similar situations both physically and spiritually.  As such, he was able to tell them about Jesus, about the One who had the power to make lame men walk, make the blind to see, and to even raise the dead to life everlasting (Matthew 11:5; 15:31).  And, as a result of that, several of them have come to church with him on a regular basis.

            One final thing of which I will relate to you is this: right before class started and our conversation ended, he said something that made me tear up.  He told me with tears in his own blind eyes that he was excited that the next thing he would see would be the Lord God Almighty welcoming him home.

            Friends, THIS is REAL faith!  REAL faith understands things beyond the physical world (Hebrews 11:1-3).  REAL faith causes a person to walk by their faith and not by their sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  REAL faith brings other people to Jesus’ healing hands (Matthew 9:27-31).  REAL faith allows a person to hear those beautiful words spoken by the Lord in the Last Great Day: “Well done, good and faithful servant... Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21, 23).

            How beautiful it is to see faith like this!  Let us all strive for a similar type faith!

~Curtis Carwile

Three Types of Sin

            By my estimation, there are three types of sins.  No, I am not talking about those discussed by John in First John 2:15-17 (i.e., the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life).  No, I am talking about a different three.

            The first type of sin I’m talking about is the type of sin we most often think about as being sin: rebellious sin.  This is where a person says, “You know, God, I know that You have told me to do this or not to do that, but I’m going to do what I want to do and that’s that.”  This is what Eve did in the Garden (Genesis 3:1-6).  This is what Nadab and Abihu did at Mount Sinai (Leviticus 10:1-3).  This is what all Israel did in the Wilderness (Numbers 13-14).  They knew the will of God and did something else.  And, so often, people are guilty of this sin.  We say, “God, I know You don’t want me to drink any amount of alcohol, but I’m going to do it any way” (1 Peter 4:1-7).  We say, “God, I know that You don’t want me to engage in any form of fornication or even to lust after a woman, but she is just so good-looking” (Hebrews 13:4; Matthew 5:28).  We say, “God, I know You tell me to love my brother/neighbor and forgive him, but You just don’t know what he has done to me.  So, I’m not going to do it” (Romans 12:10; Luke 10:25-37; Ephesians 4:32).  We know that things like this are sin and deserving of everlasting punishment (Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:14-15; 21:8; Matthew 25:41).  But, there are two other types of sin to go along with this one.

            Another type of sin is accidental sin.  What I mean by that is this: a person is going about their daily business and rather carelessly falls into sin.  This is what happened with Uzzah when he touched the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6:6-7).  He knew that he wasn’t supposed to touch it, but it was a knee-jerk reaction to stable the Ark.  Some people might argue that it wasn’t sin, but God called it an irreverent error; it was just as much of a sin as if he had intended to touch it because it violated God’s Law.  It is interesting that the Old Law even made this point, that an unintentional sin was still a sin and that the sinner was in need to the Lord’s forgiveness (Leviticus 4-5; Numbers 15).  And, how many people are guilty of this today?  An example of this in today’s life would be something like stubbing your toe in the middle of the night and accidentally letting a curse word come out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29).  Another example would be speeding when you don’t exactly know what the speed limit is (Romans 13:1-7).  And, another example would be a man going to the store for milk and noticing an attractive young woman and then realizing that he has lusted in his heart (Matthew 5:28).  In none of these examples do people set out to sin; it was never their intention to sin.  But, they did.  And, each one is just as much of a sin as if they had intended to sin.

            And, a third type of sin is the sin that we don’t even know is a sin.  This is one of the many sins Judah was guilty of at the beginning of Josiah’s reign (2 Chronicles 34-35).  They people were sinning in various ways, but one way they were sinning was in not keeping proper Temple worship.  And, when Josiah learned of this sin for reading the Law for the first time, he tore his clothes because he knew that they had been sinning.  The same could be said today for those who are trying to worship God, but in ways in which they shouldn’t.  For example, many people are ignorant of the fact that God wants them to partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week (Acts 20:6-7).  Also, many people are ignorant of the fact that the only way for the local congregation to receive funds is through the freewill offering of the saints on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9).  And, many people are ignorant of the fact that God wants us to sing praises to Him with our heart (Ephesians 5:19).  And, because people are ignorant of the Lord’s will, they take the Lord’s Supper only once or twice a year and they raise funds through raffles and bazaars and they “worship” with mechanical instruments.  All of these things are sin, regardless of a person’s ignorance of God’s will, and are just as deserving of punishment as accidental and rebellious sins are (Ezekiel 18:20).

            Sin is sin regardless of whether you intended to cross the line or not, regardless of whether you even knew there was a line or not.  Therefore, let us know the will of the Lord (Ephesians 5:15-17), let us always be sober-minded (1 Peter 5:8), and let us always humbly submit our will to His (James 4:7-10).  May the Almighty and All-Wise God aid us in our endeavor to “perfect holiness” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

~Curtis Carwile