Labor Day Musings -- #1

Growing and bearing fruit in the Gospel (Col 1:6) brings with it enlightenment. We think differently. I am reading through the entire Bible with The Journey (Darrin Patrick’s church in St. Louis) this year and this morning, I bumped into a passage in Proverbs 11.
When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes;
all he expected from his power comes to nothing. Proverbs 11:7

And, I had an epiphany. Before God straightened out my theology, I really used to think that there were three groups of people. There were: 1) the wicked people, the really bad people who do evil things, 2) the sinners, people who were basically good, but did not know Jesus, and 3) the born again Christians. I now know two things. That there are only those whose hope perishes when they die (we all have a wicked and deceitful heart), and those that Jesus has come and rescued from this hopelessness. And, at one time I was among the perishing wicked. I was not just a sinner that was basically good. Proverbs 11:7 was about me. But, I was washed, I was sanctified, I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). So, hope rises this morning!