Sin makes you a burden to yourself

Lunminthang Haokip *

CHRIST WILL REIGN FROM ZION: ZCS stands for Zion Country School. It's a rural centre of learning run with limited resources for the under-privileged backblock students.

The Youth Camp at LT Phai (13 to 15 Oct, '22) was meant to activate the soul and the spirit of young boys and girls who are YWNM - Youth With No Mission. It's our collective effort to labour with the repentance of sinners in mind, pray to recycle sin, and help sinners to become YWAM - Youth With A Mission. Zion was the the 'Scion of heaven's fave haunt.

It was the favoured place where our Lord Jesus hobnobbed with tradition-fixated religious leaders, got hated for the sake of divine truth and eventually, offered Himself to be crucified on the cross of Calvary. Zion or Jerusalem was the epicentre of 'volcanic spiritual explosion' ignited to send waves of ripple-effect to the whole world by Jesus. The proverbial 'thousand year rule' of Christ will occur at Zion.

Rev. 20:4-7. We should also be prepared to make our own village of shelter a mini Zion where Christ and His Word hold sway. Why did God choose Zion to be the action station of He what He did and will do on earth? Psalm 132:13 gives the answer, "For the LORD hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation." What is Jehovah's will shall precede over what is not. And "No weapon formed against His own shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17)."

WE ARE COMMANDED TO REPENT: Christianity is all about preaching Jesus and making people follow the teachings of the Saviour. We were born with the burdensome baggage of ancestral sin. Lamentation 5: 7 says, "Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities." There's a chain of unbroken curse being inherited from gen-last to gen-now.

The ruining curse will be handed down to gen-next if the root of sin is not axed out, now. Sin once committed is never lost. It comes back in its 2.0 version. Numbers 32:23 says, "Ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure, your sin will find you out."

When sin comes back on our beloved kids in its more destructive version, the sting is more deadly. The harm it causes to the harmony of the family could have been checked had the impulse to sin been foiled before the 'father' sinned.

But many dads were ignorant about the fatal ramifications of sin. Acts 17:30 says, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commander all men everywhere to repent." Now is the time to repent for our sins. The reading between the lines should be, 'Repent or lament.' A miss is as good as a mile, the saying goes.

TRADITION DEFIES WHAT IS NEW: The pioneer Missionaries in our part of of India came and won souls for God's kingdom. Stress was made on belief in Jesus and to accept Him as one's personal Lord and Saviour. Knowing who they were at that fragile juncture of time, the path-breaking preachers couldn't afford to teach new converts the finer principles of repentance, confession of sin and cleansing of conscience.

Some mission field workers insisted on cessation of and disconnect with heathen culture. 2 Corinthians 5:17 demands, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." If we become new, we must hate the old nature and the old practices. A person who had been done with his old self should be totally cut off from the old fads and fancies.

If we say we belong to Christ and keep following old ancestral ways of living, we are blocking the 'Spirit of Life in Jesus' to operate in us. And the Scriptures cannot grow and take roots in our person. In Matthew 15:3, Jesus questioned, "But He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"

The Lord reveals the human code of conduct and the 'dos and don'ts' He desires, in the Holy Bible. We may ignore them at our own peril!

SIN MAKES YOU A BURDEN TO YOURSELF: God created Adam and put him in the garden to be the 'Chowkidar' of His wonderful creation. Genesis 2:15, "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden to dress it and to keep it." The first man was a delight to his Maker as long as he walked in perfect tandem with divine codes of conduct. But the adversary wanted to see man fall in the sight of his Master.

Sin's entry to jeopardise human sanity was very subtle. A dangerous desire was offered by the devil. Genesis 3:1-6. Eve, the 'over-ambitious' first lady of fruit-laden Eden got taken up by the deadly bait to 'disobey.' The 'fall-guy' of Eden failed to reason, and foolishly played ball. Tripped by 'Madam,' Adam became a burden to Eden.

Job 7:20 says, "I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?" The Spirit of God exited from the first Adam. He was damned! His conscience was dead.

Eve's 'Steve' was no more the 'Blue-eyed boy' of His Maker. He became a loser, because he chose to be a sinner. Our progenitor's eldest son, Cain, took disobedience to another level. He shed his brother's blood (Genesis 4:8). He reduced himself to be a double-burden to himself.

JESUS CAN SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST: At the end of the day, Jesus is going to judge the world. Rev. 2:27 forecasts the shape of things to come, "And He shall rule with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." The angels will open the Book of life. Revelation 20:11-15.

The footage of heaven's cctv camera on each individual's life will be rolled. No evil you did, unless they have been confessed (Romans 10:10) to God and men, would go undetected. Your tongue , to twist which you couldn't resist, if not cleansed by Christ's touch, will be your nemesis, then.

Luke 12:3 warns, "Therefore whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." It reminds us that the bad words we speak can land us in eternal trouble. James 1:26 warns us to reign in the tongue. Every other tool, like a knife, gets blunted with constant use.

But the tool of 'sharp tongue' gets sharper with frequent use. Yet, the grace of God sent His Son to once and for all deal with the sin factor. Jehovah certainly does not want to see us, the masterpieces of His creation, to rot in hell.

Whatever our sins be, if we approach Him with a broken heart, He is willing to forgive us through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Hebrews 7:25, "Wherefore He is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."

YOU LIVE ONCE AND GET ONE CHANCE ONLY: Being in the loop, having been chosen by the Lord to be still in the land of the living, is the greatest blessing men can ever get. I could have died a long time back due to accident or serious illness.

Why was I spared? I know God wants me to serve Him. In a moment of weakness, when I could scarce bear the pressures of life, I prayed and asked God as to whether I should call quits to preaching, in the midst of personal 'setbacks.' the Lord spoke to me from 2 Chronicles 29:11, "My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD had chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, that ye should minister unto Him, and burn incense."

You can't do much to advance His interest if not chosen to serve; and you can't afford to run away like 'Jonah' if not hand-picked for His job. In fact, I used to say, during my service tenure, "IAS, for me, first meant 'I Am Saved;' and later, it became 'In Almighty's Service." It all began with my penitence and confession of sin in 1993.

After being forgiven by my Lord (Romans 8:1 & 2), His grace gave me the high privilege to have a personal rapport with God. I sought His will when I was in doubt, whether to join a risky place of posting. The all-knowing Author of my life assured me from Jeremiah 15:19-21.

"And if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth: ...And I will make thee unto this people a brasen wall …..And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will deliver thee from the hand of the terrible." And the Lord proved His promise true in my life.

Praise be His holy Name.