Are all sins equal?

If you were raised at all like I was, my Sunday School teachers were always quick to remind me that 'all sin was sin' and that all sins were 'equal.' Even as a 10 year old I knew this wasn't quite right... After all, which would you prefer: that I call you a bad name or shoot you in the heart? (see how sinful my heart is?!)

Now, to clarify, while all sins are offensive to a Holy God and it is our sin (as a condition) that separates us from Him, the Bible clearly supports the idea that some individual sins are, in fact, greater than others.

Yet another casualty of learning Doctrine by flannel-graph.

According to world renown theologian J.I. Packer, "Scripture shows that in God's estimate some sins are worse and bring greater guilt than others, and that some sins do us more damage. Moses rates the golden calf debacle a great sin (Ex. 32:30). Ezekiel in his horrific allegory says that after Oholah (Samaria) had ruined herself by unfaithfulness to God, Oholibah (Jerusalem) "became more corrupt … in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister" (Ezek. 23:11, ESV). John distinguishes sins that do and do not inevitably lead to death ..."

Exodus 32:30

 ³⁰The next day Moses said to the people,"You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."

Ezekiel 23 (excerpts)

"Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors ⁶clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men...She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. ⁸She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. ⁹Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ¹⁰ These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.... ¹¹"Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister...But she carried her whoring further...."

Kids Pushing Parents?

Hello, everyone! Long time, no blog...sorry about that!

Having worked with kids/teens/youth for the last 15+ years and now raising our own, Susan and I have often discussed our culture's disposition to push our children in unhealthy ways under the guise of 'giving them opportunities we never had,' and how quickly things have shifted in our culture from letting kids be kids into making them into mini-versions of grown ups. Following is an article released from the Psychology Today website on this recent cultural phenomenon, with a particular focus on the recent travels of 16 year old Abby Sunderland and her desire to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world.

This article in interesting in that it hints at the next phase that we now see occurring in this process-and it has experts alarmed; the shift from parents pushing their kids into too much/too soon, to what is happening more recently-kids pushing their parents to assist them as they set out to achieve their own dreams of competitive success and fame. This idea aligns perfectly with numerous other studies that now report that kids no longer want to be nurses, doctors, teachers, firemen and lawyers as they have in previous generations, but instead, just want to 'be famous.' Sadly, just recently, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, I heard a young girl from a good home (age: 5) tell her mom that she wanted to 'be skinny' when she grew up. I don't' know about you, but that gave me the chills when I heard it.

Kids want fame, not education: [http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/02/19/fame.junkies/index.html]

Wherever you land within this conversation, I want to encourage you to take a few moments to read the following article. As parents, teachers, school administrators, pastors and heck-adults, we all have a share in serving as the guardians of the emerging generation-a generation that will have more major national/international conundrums to navigate, problems to solve, and issues to address than perhaps any that has preceded it. And somehow, I don't think wanting to be famous when they grow up is going to set the trajectory for their success in a world that has gone mad. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Here you go: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/marriage-and-parenting-in-todays-culture/201006/abby-sunderland-sails-around-the-world-superkid

Have a great week.