The Class Action Lawsuit

(click to listen)

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

Have you ever heard of mesothelioma?

Most likely you’ve heard of it from the class action lawsuit ads on television.

The ads are run by lawyers who want you to sign up for the class action lawsuit, IF you are one of the people negatively affected by the defendant.

If you answer the ad, sign onto the lawsuit and join the “class,” then you are in line for any benefits that come from winning the lawsuit.

But what happens if you don’t answer the ads?  You don’t sign onto the lawsuit.  You never join the class.  No one even knows that you, too, were a victim of the defendant.  What will you get if they win the lawsuit?

Nothing.  You didn’t join the class, so you don’t get the benefits of being in the class.

Sometimes I think of salvation this way.  It’s like Jesus has already won the case and is paying out benefits to anyone who joins the class.

He has put out the call far and wide, all over the world, come and join the class!  The price has been paid, the case has been won, benefits are already being paid out by the truckload, just come and join the class!

And millions of us have already done it.  We were damaged by sin.  We got the raw deal.  It was a rip off.  Then we heard about this offer from Jesus.  “Come to Me,” He said.  “I will take care of that sin problem.  I will forgive you.  I will wash you clean and make you whole.  I will restore your soul, and your relationship with the Heavenly Father.  Then I will give you My Spirit to fill you and walk with you for the rest of your life here.  And then I will take you home to heaven to be with Me forever.”

Those are the benefits of this class action!  All we have to do is sign on.

How do you sign on?  Tell God you want to.  Say, “God, I’m in.  I want in on this deal.  Please forgive my sins and wash me clean.  Make me new and whole.  Make me that new creation You talk about.  I’m sorry.  I repent.  I’m ready to leave sin behind and come to You. Sign me up for this class!”

Then you’re in!

But what if you don’t?  What if you never do?  What if you never turn to God like that?  

Then you’re not in.  You’re not in the class.  You can’t get the benefits of the case if you don’t sign onto the class.  

There’s almost nothing sadder than finding out there was a huge payout in a class action lawsuit that you should have been a part of, but you weren’t, simply because you didn’t make the effort to sign on.

So…sign on today!  Turn to God and say, “Here I am!  I want in!”  Like the old song says, “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me…O Lamb of God I come.”

But keep this in mind: like all class actions…this is a limited time offer.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

What Is Sin?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

What is sin?

The Greek word for sin in the Bible is ἁμαρτία which is pronounced ham-ar-TEE-ah.  It’s literal meaning is “to miss the mark.”

Sometimes we whitewash sin.  We give it different names, like adultery becomes “having an affair.”  We try to minimize the impact by acting like it’s not so bad, if it’s even bad at all.

So let’s look at it from a different angle.  Let’s look at it through Jesus’ construction analogy at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

In Matthew 7 Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house…”

That’s a construction analogy.  He “builds his house.”

When you build a house or some other large structure, you build it using a blueprint.

The expert creates the blueprint, then the builders build what they see designed on the blueprint.

So when the wise man builds his house, as Jesus said, what is his blueprint?

Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings of mine…”  That’s the blueprint.  The Word of God is the blueprint.  It’s the blueprint for building our life well.

When we follow the blueprint closely, we build well.  When we stray from the blueprint, we build poorly.

So back to this definition of sin as missing the mark.  If you are spending your hard-earned money to build your dream house, how many times do you want the builder to miss the mark on the blueprint?  None!  You want him to NEVER miss the mark.  You want him to follow the blueprint precisely.

So when it comes to building our lives, why would we ever want to miss the mark, if missing the mark means building poorly?

Sin often happens after some alluring temptation.  We fall for the lie that “it’s going to be so good and fun.”  But if sin is missing the mark and building poorly, it should be easier to avoid, because who wants to build poorly?  It’s a waste of time and resources.  It ruins your reputation.  Poor buildings even hurt people, and sometimes people even die due to poor building practices.

There is much more to this topic, but today let’s stick to this one slice of it.  What is sin?  It is missing the mark.  God has a blueprint for building our lives well, and whenever we sin, we are disobeying the blueprint and building our life poorly.  

As for me and my house, I want to be the wise man who built his house well; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was built precisely according to God’s blueprint.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.