"Why me?!?!?"
I was doing my nightly checking of Facebook (something I don't have time for mind you) and saw that a friend of ours got a ticket. It was one of the pesky "Red Light Tickets." For those of you who don't know,TEXANS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO STOP AT RED LIGHTS!
The city has placed still-shot cameras at various locations around town to attempt to force people to stop running red lights. Basically, if you run the light, then your license plate is photographed and a ticket is neatly tucked into a City of Fort Worth envelope and mailed to the addy that matches the license plate.
So . . . my friend ran a red light, got a ticket for it, and THEN asks "Why me?" I assume the question is grounded in, "Why did something like this happen to me? I'm not a bad person, I don't deserve this!" The assumption is that she is not a criminal, she pays taxes, leads a good, quiet life, tends to her family (Which by the way, these things are true). Why, then, did she get the ticket and not someone else? Simply put, she broke the law.
If the above paragraph is accurate, and it is (pardon my arrogance for the moment), then the situation provides the foundation of all lies which mankind comes up with so frequently when we do something wrong.
The bottom line, we are all smitten with sin. It is rooted very, very deep. So deep that we think we are not infected with it. Otherwise, my friend wouldn't have assuemd she was "above" getting a ticket for a crime she committed. Granted, running a red light is no match to murder or rape or something of the like. But its the attitude behind her words that make the difference.
BUT, It's not just her . . . it's me too, its also my beautiful, kind, forgiving, and loving wife, its you, its your best friend, your mother and father, siblings, its all of us. That is, all of us are steeped in sin, yet think we are generally good people.
For you theology buffs out there, you should know that I'm no Calvinist, but I do believe in the typically ascribed Reformed/Calvinistic idea of TOTAL DEPRAVITY. (though I hate ascribing a biblical teaching to a man compiled system of theology)Scripture says,
- "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23
- "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" Romans 5"12
We are all guilty; and we have all been guilty sense the day we were born. We were born into this world, this world is sin-filled, and we can't escape it. Some might think, then, that because we couldn't avoid being born into a sin-filled world that we are not guilty for it, by no means! "All have sinned and fall short of God's glory" and "Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered." Proverbs 11:21
Interesting how we automatically assume when we break the law that we somehow ARE NOT to blame. Reminds me of Genesis 3 when God calls upon Adam to confess his sins of eating the forbidden fruit. He didn't confess, no he blamed God first, then he blamed Eve. Adam's finger never got around to himself.
THANKFULLY we have an "out" of our sin nature, Jesus Christ came to this world and became the perfect sacrifice for sin. He accepted the punishment for my sins and for yours, and "he is in the business of saving souls" as my Pastoral Ministries prof likes to say.
If you believe in him, confess your sins, and live faithfully in Christ, he is just and will forgive you of your life's sin.
Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father desire to be in relationship with us all. That relationship comes through by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection from the dead.
"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him." Romans 10:12
"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Corinthians 3:14
posted by Bryan Laramore @ 9:10 PM
2 Addendums:
...word...
Two things...
1. You don't believe in the Calvanist idea of total depravity. You believe in Total Depravity light. The difference being that while most Baptist claim to believe in total depravity, its final tenet says that because of that total falleness no man has the ability to choose God without His direct intervention. So... You can't believe in total depravity and then not follow through with other 4 points unless you believe that everyone is going to hell. :)
2. I think the main problem that generally good people have with getting caught in something wrong is that their infractions seem so innocent or inconsequential. Getting a ticket for not stopping at a red light when no one was coming the other way is annoying when your neighbor has been cheating on his wife with his boss's hot wife for three years. The problem is that simple infractions are the simplest to catch and therefore society is going to catch them much more often.
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