I saw a photo posted on Facebook by Josh, a friend of mine working in Afghanistan. It was a shot of a small boy – no older than 5 – carrying a huge, and I mean *huge* bag. It was almost bigger than he was. Something about this little kid had captured Josh’s eye and so he snapped the shot.
What struck me was that it reminded me of an image I had when I was growing up. My dad always used to buy me a Christian magazine which ran a cartoon strip based on John Bunyan’s book, Pilgrim’s Progress. At the beginning of his journey, Christian (the main character in the book) makes his way out of the city of Destruction, through the Wicket Gate and stands at the foot of the cross. All his life he’s been carrying this huge sack around on his back – a picture of the sin in his life. There at the foot of the cross he asks God for forgiveness and his heavy sack falls to the ground.
Sin. A weight that you carry around and that you cannot get rid of without God’s intervention. That’s an image that you won’t find many people like to think about these days. People prefer to live like they did in the time of the Judges – everyone doing what seems right in their own eyes. But that’s not what the Bible teaches about life, and it’s not how we are to deal with our sin.
Sin needs dealing with and there’s only one way to deal with it. You need a saviour. There is only one saviour who can deal with sin. His name is Jesus.
Check out Two Ways to Live – http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/