SPIRITUAL NUGGETS: DRAG THEM IN by Sam Adeyemi

Luke 14:23

God has prepared the solutions to mankind’s problems and they are readily available. Mankind’s greatest problem has always been SIN. Until sin entered our world, there was no family malfunction, sickness, poverty, hatred or greed. Sin is not just an act, it is a nature; it is Satan’s nature. When God told Adam and Eve the day that you sin, you will die; He wasn’t just talking about physical death. Once they sinned, they lost God’s nature and Satan’s nature became the driving force in their lives. It is not when we sin that we become sinners; it is because we are sinners that we sin. For Adam and Eve, it was a choice but after them, anyone born of man inherited the corrupted nature. Sin is embedded in the human nature and we have seen the extremes to which people take evil and wickedness. Determination and New Year resolutions cannot handle sin. When sin into the first family, murder and family dysfunction also came!

God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us. Jesus was sinless because He did not come through a descendant of Adam. The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life though Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23). Jesus did not just pay for our sins, He became sin personified. God did this because He loves us and wants to keep us from eternal damnation. Hell was created for Satan but Satan has decided that he is going to take as many people as he possibly can just to frustrate God’s plans and purposes. Since sicknesses and diseases came through sin, God has dealt the same blow on them as He did on sin (1Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53: 4-5). Legally, there were demands for sin but because Jesus was sinless, God could credit His death into our accounts. When we’re free from sin, then we’re free from all the other consequences.

The good news is that the provision has been. Still, many people in the world do not know this and so they are trying to live their lives and solve their problems by themselves. Mankind has developed different laws and rules which have not been able to combat sin. People do not want the consequences of sin; yet they do not want to stop sinning. The master in Luke 14 sent his servants out to invited people but they all had different excuses for not coming. A common thread in their excuses is that they had no desperate need for God in their lives. Many people do not feel a desperate need for God until they have serious challenges in their lives. The master then asked the servants to go and compel (force or drive especially to a course of action; have a powerful and irresistible effect or influence on) others to come. When you realise that you are inviting people to a way of life which affects them for eternity, you will not invite them casually. Remember that out of all that you achieve in your lifetime, influencing someone for Christ is the greatest thing you will achieve.