Oversimplification

We have a lot of questions in this world these days. There is Trump and there are the Democrats. There are the radical Muslims and the murdering Buddhists. (I know, that one doesn't really make sense in my mind, but they're out there.) There are the crazy people that think they are Napoleon or Alexander the Great or a girl when they were born a guy or a black woman when she has white parents. We have Christians that don't care for God's Word and Christians who don't pray or meet with God's people. We have people that identify as Christians and don't believe in Christ. Go figure. There are gun problems caused by people problems. There are murders and thefts and rapes. There is inequality, injustice, and people who suggest that both of those can be satisfied by further inequality and injustice. I can't begin to figure out how someone can exclude others in the name of inclusion, but it happens ... far more than you'd think. People opposed to judging while they judge others for it. People who are intolerant of the intolerant and hateful of the hateful. It goes on and on. And I'm just scratching the surface.

I don't like it when people complain without a better idea. I don't want to do that. What, then, do I see is the problem? First, what it is not. It is not better gun laws, better economic sanctions, better government. It's not in eliminating the enemy whether that's the right or the left, the Dems or the GOP, Trump or AOC. Racism isn't solved by outlawing it. Prayer meetings don't come about by scheduling them. You don't make a better Christians with better rules or better arguments. You don't make Christians with more coherent defense of the faith. All of these are symptoms. Fixing them won't fix the problem underlying those symptoms.

What is the problem? Sin. Plain and simple. Sin. We don't do what we know God says to do because we're sinners. We argue against what He had written down because we're sinners. We shoot and we kill and we bully and we rob and we steal because we're sinners. We tell lies from the womb because we're sinners. You can't outlaw sinners. You can't make sinners into not-sinners by better arguments or rules. Oversimplification? I don't think so. I think I'm just pointing out the actual underlying problem. As long as we focus on the surface matters, nothing matters because the real problem gets ignored.

Where are you falling short? Repent. Where are you missing the mark? Repent. Who have you harmed? Confess. Is your pile of sin intact, or have you given it to Jesus? If the former, call on the name of Jesus. If the latter, confess and repent. We don't need better rules or government or political parties or how-to books. We need Jesus and the longer we pursue remedies of surface problems and not the relationship with and glory of God, the longer we will paddle around in the cesspool wondering why things still stink around here. Jesus is the answer. Oversimplification? Not at all. Just the Truth (John 14:6).