Sunday Reflections

By |Published On: October 7, 2018|Categories: News|

When well-meaning Christians insist that healing was a ministry priority of Jesus, I like to remind them of what Jesus said in Mark 9:43. Because this same Jesus who healed withered hands clearly said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.” Jesus is always making us deal with our sin, inasmuch saying that it’s worth losing your physical hand (and more) if it means securing your eternal life.

I thought about this when I recently read a true story about a man who had to make a quick and drastic decision to cut off his own hand when it got caught in a machine. How awful! But as the article made clear, his radical choice saved his life. The unnerving story gave me chills – that man’s quick and definitive action to free himself from certain death is a telling example for any of us who are tempted to make sinful choices.

In a way, it’s why I’m glad that my hands don’t work. Even if I wanted to, I cannot reach for packs of cigarettes, bottles of wine, or vials of pills. But there are other temptations that we all face, whether it’s to dull our spiritual sensibilities with an off-color sitcom, pick up a gossip magazine, or click on a pop-up window that feeds your curiosity of downright wrong things. In cases like these, we “cut off our hand” when we close that account, end that subscription, turn the channel, or dump it in the trash.

Drastic measures? Yes. But if it will free you from your entanglement in sin, then there is really only one option. Do whatever it takes to free yourself, and do it now.

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