Have you noticed that we don’t live in a perfect world? It was perfect when God created it, but something happened that totally messed things up. The Word of God (the bible) says that Jesus created everything that exists. Well, no doubt sin exists so that must mean that Jesus created sin, right? Hold on here! That is not true. Jesus created man giving free will. Man has the ability to choose things in life.

We all know the bible story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God had instructed them not to eat the fruit from one particular tree and warned them that if they did they would die. Then Satan came along and deceived Eve resulting in her taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. She then offered it to Adam telling him how delicious it was. Now Adam wasn’t deceived. He purposed in his heart to taste the forbidden fruit. That was the start of sin in man’s life. It was not the first sin however.

Satan committed the very first sin while he was still in heaven only he was not Satan then. He was an angel … a special angel … named Lucifer. He was in charge of all worship and homage unto God. He thought to himself that he was something special and that he was capable of taking on God and literally taking over. He talked 1/3 of the angels in heaven into joining him. They tried but failed. God is more powerful and Satan was no match for Him. Upon defeating Satan God kicked him out of heaven and sent him to earth where he reigns over the entire earth. He is the god of man. He is responsible for all the sin in the world. That is why I say … IT IS BROKEN!

When something is broken we either fix it or throw it away. God is no different. He wants to fix it. He made a way to fix it. He offers to fix it, but if it never gets fixed He throws it away. We alone decide whether to allow God to fix the problem in our lives.

It has been said that we are a throw away society. It is amazing how much stuff gets thrown away that is perfectly good or has very little wrong with it. While serving in the U.S. Navy for 8 years I visited several other countries and saw first hand the vast difference between the U.S. and most of these other countries. They would be elated to get their hands of most of the stuff we throw away. They would resurrect it all and get many more years of life and service out of it.

God is like these other countries that can take what appears to be junk and make something out of it. God is an expert at it. Here is an example … Ron and Sharon Frazier. Ron was a bar tender and a drunk. Sharon was a hippie. Now they faithfully serve the Lord in the singing ministry.

God specialized in changing hearts and lives. Up until we get saved we are self created individuals, but when we get saved God starts an ongoing work in our lives to recreate us. We are imperfect but forgiven.

We all need to realize that Christians are simply saved sinners. We are all sinners. Some of us are forgiven and the rest are unforgiven. None of us are perfect. Only God is perfect so it is important we keep our focus on Him and not on any other person. Being imperfect we will let you down, we will disappoint you. We are likely to offend you. All of that being said Jesus told us that we are to strive to live holy lives … to be perfect. If and when we fail if we simply turn to Jesus confessing our sin, our failure and asking for forgiveness He readily will forgive us and cleanse us from our unrighteousness.

Now I want to ask you some questions. Do you think you are a good person? Do you believe that you deserve to go to heaven? Do you believe in God? What do you believe? Where do/did you get your beliefs? Do you believe that the bible is God’s Word to man? Do you believe the bible is our absolute authority or do you believe it comes from man? I ask that as many people reject the bible as our source of authority and believe in what man tells them instead. That is especially true of Roman Catholicism. Satan is a liar and deceiver. Early on he infiltrated the church bring his false teachings and convincing the people to follow what they were told by man instead of what God told them.

Satan has been very successful at leading many away from the truth. He didn’t stop with Roman Catholicism. He went to establish other false religions around the world … Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Adventism, Mormonism, Scientology, Jehovah’s Witness, Armstrongism and hundreds … maybe thousands of others. Millions of people who Jesus died for have been mislead by Satan and ended up in hell sincerely believing what man taught them. Oh Satan isn’t stupid. He has come up with so called bibles or holy books which have changed God’s Word or claim to be what God has said. In Islam there is a vast contrast between what God has said in the bible compared to Satan has authored. Usually one will find just the opposite. Allah is a totally false god … he is really Satan. Of course, that is true of all false religions.

Satan does not want you to read the bible. He’ll tell you it is full of contradictions. He will tell you that it is too difficult to understand. He will tell you it was written so long ago and it no longer applies. He will tell you that you are okay just as you are. He will tell you that God is a loving God and would not send anyone to hell. He will tell you that churches are full of HYPOCRITES. He will tell you whatever it takes to keep you from the truth and salvation. He is a master of deception. He’s got your number and he is out to get you. You have a choice. You can go with the flow or wake up to truth. The world we live in is broken. Jesus is the answer … the only answer. BTW, God’s Word tells us that the bible is the written Word, while Jesus is the Living Word.