Wednesday, December 21, 2011

He Without Sin


            I realize that not everyone was as excited as – much less cared about – my birthday as I was this year. Facebook, for all the things about it that frustrate me, has been a tool that has humbled me to no end with all the “Happy Birthday” shout outs that I received on the 19th. I attempted to respond to every person who was kind enough to stop what they were doing that day just to drop a note to me but it was too much so for those of you to whom I didn’t personally say, “Thank you,” forgive me and thank you.
            I realize that it is only by the grace of God that any of you have been a part of my life. To some degree or other, we have all made some kind of impact on each other. Sometimes I feel like it’s the “Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon” game. Particularly with Facebook, when you can get online and see who has mutual friends and which friends of friends you’ve never met. Pretty cool, actually.
            So, in some way we’re all connected. This brings me to Christmas – the most obvious time in our existence when we’re connected on a large scale. I don’t care – well, let me rephrase that one – I understand that some folks simply choose not to believe in the existence of God. Some, in fact, blatantly disregard him and deny his very existence in ways that – in their own minds – lift them up to an “enlightened” place. Well … that’s tough because I feel pity for you. In my mind, the saddest person is he who dies “enlightened” yet has chosen NOT to walk in the Light.
            My wish this Christmas is that humanity would quit mocking God. Maybe that’s an unattainable request but I’ll throw it out there anyway. My heart breaks for those of you who continue to crucify my Lord because you criticize his followers thereby criticizing Him; but He said you would do that. All I can think to share with you at Christmas are the words of the Savior: “Let he without sin cast the first stone.”
           
1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
 11 “No, Lord,” she said.
   And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

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