rescued

Tuesday July 16^th, Colossians 1:  13-14 God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. Unfortunately many of us still haven’t learned the lessons of sin.  This means that for many of us we need to repeat the lessons again and again and again as long as we keep repeating those same old sins.  So life is the constant turning of sin, forgiven and repeat until we move on to some new sin, which at least is a step forward.  That is our lot in life, living as the forgiven children of God, and living as sinners, each and every one of us each and every day.  The way Luther said it was that we are at the same time saints and sinners.  What God did was rescue us from the dead-end alleys and through forgiveness moves us on to new frontiers.  Our job is to learn what it means to walk out in the light and to work on overcoming our addiction to these dark dead-end alleys.  It is an adventure each and every day and it is amazing how often we turn the corner and head down toward those same old back alleys again.  That is when God tries to turn our focus back toward the light.  Sometimes we listen and are amazed at the grace.  There are no new sins in the world, only new manifestations of the ones we have been forgiven for time after time after time, generation after generation after generation.   The essence of sin is the desire to be in charge.  The essence of forgiveness is to let God be God.