King's Business - 1967-04

THE S IN WE ARE AFRA ID A TO COMMIT!

by Rev. Bruce W. Dunn

fretful care and anxiety — can be destructive of health, to say nothing of a personal witness for Jesus Christ. One such book by a Dr. Ed Podolsky is called “ Stop Worrying and Get Well.” Here are some of the chapter titles: “What Worry Does to the Heart; High Blood Pressure and Worry; Rheu­ matism and Worry; How Worry Can Cause a Cold; Worry and the Diabetic; Worry and the Thyroid.” If you and I believe that the Bible is correct when it says that our bodies are the temples o f the Holy Spirit, that we are therefore to glorify God in our bodies as well as in our spirits which are His, then from that standpoint alone we ought to be con­ cerned about the effects of this sin upon our effec­ tive witness for Jesus Christ. It seems to me as you read the New Testament accounts of those early believers, one trait stands out in large meas­ ure: the composure, the dignity, the poise, with which those early Christians accepted all the chang­ ing circumstances of life. This impressed the world! In Acts you read that when the ruler saw that it pleased the people that James was put to the sword, he took Peter also and put him in prison. He was kept in the inner ward, chains about his feet and ankles, sleeping between two soldiers. Ah — there’s something — sleeping between two sol­ diers! — unconcerned for the morrow. Those early disciples rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name. In Acts 16, we read that Paul and Silas went from prison, having been beaten for Jesus’ sake, to the Philippian be­ lievers, and having comforted them, they departed. Note that — those who were beaten, those who had been in prison — they comforted the church. One would expect to read it in the other way — that the church comforted them. Someone says, “Well, you know, Pastor, it’s natural to worry.” I will have to agree with you, but since when was the Christian life ever to be

W E w a n t t o d i s c u s s in this article the sin that we are not afraid to commit. When I say the sin that we are not afraid to commit, I am talking about evangelical Christians — God’s own believ­ ing people. “The Sin That We Art Not Afraid To Commit.” There are, of course, many sins from which all of us would flee as we would flee from Satan him­ self — the more obvious, the more crude, the more vulgar sins, with which any true believer will have no part and which he quickly recognizes as dis­ honoring to Christ and destructive of his personal witness. Unfortunately, there are other kinds of sins that are not quite as recognizable by us, so it seems, which I dare suggest in some ways are more destructive and more dishonoring to Jesus Christ than some of the more easily identified ones. The sin that we are talking about is the sin of fretful care — the sin of anxiety, or to describe it more bluntly with a word more familiar to all of us, worry — the sin that we are not afraid to commit. I recall years ago how my brothers and I would sometimes say to mother, “A Christian isn’t sup­ posed to worry, Mom.” She would reply, in her Scotch brogue, “ I’m no’ exactly worrying, I’m just a wee bit burdened aboot it.” Perhaps you are “ a wee bit burdened aboot it,” or perhaps you are fretful and anxious to the point of grieving the Lord as if your Heavenly Father knew nothing about your problem, as if He didn’t have a plan in it at all. We have the mistaken notion, so it seems, that such fretful care is not a sin, that it is perhaps a failing of our natures or our disposi­ tions, something over which there can be no victory and from which there can be no deliverance. Yet books have been written by men in the medical profession, and by others, showing how worrying—

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