When God Calls It Sin – Part 1 – #3 The Malignancy of Sin
About this Series: “When God Calls It Sin” was originally a 5-week study I had lead in 2019 for an adult Sunday School class at my old church.
The outlines and lessons were based on Jerry Bridges’ book “Respectable Sins,” which I highly recommended for anyone serious about confronting the sins in their own hearts that are often overlooked.
For the blog, I am adapting my own notes and slides from the class and posting them almost verbatim. Since each class was an hour long, however, I will be dividing segments of each lesson into separate posts for easier reading.
Jump To:
- Part 1 (Introduction)
- Part 2 (Ungodliness || Unthankfulness || Anxiety || Frustration || Discontentment)
- Part 3 (Pride || Selfishness || Judgmentalism)
- Part 4 (Anger || Impatience & Irritability || Envy, Jealousy, & Related Sins)
- Part 5 (Sins of the Tongue || Wordliness)
Part 1 Segments:
- Ordinary Saints
- The Disappearance of Sin
- > The Malignancy of Sin
- The Remedy of Sin
- The Power of the Holy Spirit / Conclusion
The Malignancy of Sin
Instead of always looking at those sinners outside of the Church, we need to ask ourselves: “What about me? I have never murdered anyone or committed adultery. Just how bad is my own sin?”
Below is a short video in which Paul Washer explains just how wicked our sin truly is before a righteous and holy God.
It is my prayer that the video has helped you to understand your own sin just a little better. And this is why it is so important for us to study, honestly, what the Lord calls sin.
In his book, The Sinfulness of Sin, Ralph Venning uses the following words to describe sin: it is “vile, ugly, odious, malignant, pestilent, pernicious, hideous, spiteful, poisonous, virulent, villainous, and deadly.”
Charles Spurgeon likewise had strong words for sin:
These little sins burrow in the soul and make it so full of that which is hateful to Christ […] A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable. […] The sea is made of drops; the rocks are made of grains: and the sea which divides [you] from Christ may be filled with the drops of [your] little sins.
Charles Spurgeon, “Morning by Morning” devotional
Spurgeon is absolutely right. Sin is a cancer. If left untreated, even our “acceptable” sins will begin to fester, grow, and spread. And even though our hearts have been renewed and we’ve been freed from the absolute dominion of sin, even though the Holy Spirit dwells within us, the principle of sin still lurks about, waging war against our souls.
When we fail to recognize that awful reality, we are cultivating the very soil in which our “respectable” or “acceptable” sins can grow and thrive.
But how do we often respond? We tend to judge ourselves by comparing our morality with that of the culture in which we live. We think things like “I’m not as bad as the rest of my family” or “I’m not different from the others in my church.”
And since Christians generally do live life to a higher moral standard than the rest of the world (namely, aiming to live up to God’s standards of morality), it is easy for us to feel good about ourselves. But if we think that God feels the same way, we fail to recognize the truth of the sin that still dwells within us.
Our sin, no matter how small it seems, is an assault on the majesty and sovereign rule of God. It is cosmic treason! To sin is to despise the Word of the Lord, to despise the Lord Himself, and to put ourselves on the throne and declare that we know better than God!
Let us not be like that fish that cannot see how wet it is! Let us examine ourselves and let our sin crush us; let it kill us; let it humble us before the Lord!
<< Previous: The Disappearance of Sin | Next: The Remedy of Sin >>
When God Calls It Sin – Part 1 – #2 The Disappearance of Sin
About this Series: “When God Calls It Sin” was originally a 5-week study I had lead in 2019 for an adult Sunday School class at my old church.
The outlines and lessons were based on Jerry Bridges’ book “Respectable Sins,” which I highly recommended for anyone serious about confronting the sins in their own hearts that are often overlooked.
For the blog, I am adapting my own notes and slides from the class and posting them almost verbatim. Since each class was an hour long, however, I will be dividing segments of each lesson into separate posts for easier reading.
Jump To:
- Part 1 (Introduction)
- Part 2 (Ungodliness || Unthankfulness || Anxiety || Frustration || Discontentment)
- Part 3 (Pride || Selfishness || Judgmentalism)
- Part 4 (Anger || Impatience & Irritability || Envy, Jealousy, & Related Sins)
- Part 5 (Sins of the Tongue || Wordliness)
Part 1 Segments:
- Ordinary Saints
- > The Disappearance of Sin
- The Malignancy of Sin
- The Remedy of Sin
- The Power of the Holy Spirit / Conclusion
The Disappearance of Sin
Now, most people have heard the word “sin,” but very few would actually consider themselves to be “sinners.” At least not big sinners.
If you were to go out on the street and ask a random person “Do you consider yourself to be a good person?” the chances are very good that you would receive a very enthusiastic “Yes, I am a pretty good person” in reply. Almost everyone on Earth is a “good person” in their own eyes, especially when compared with the rest of the world.
And I believe that a big part of the reason for that is because our culture has been working overtime to remove the strong Biblical language for sin from our vocabulary, and they have done so in very subtle ways. For example:
- Corporate executives no longer steal, they commit fraud.
- No one commits adultery anymore; they have an affair.
- Little white lies are not that bad because they don’t hurt anyone.
We now have countless “rehab” centers dedicated to a multitude of sins that have been reclassified as “illnesses,” “syndromes,” and “addictions.” By doing so, the culture is removing the accountability aspect of our sins:
- Alcoholics are not sinful, they have a disease.
- The sex addict is not wicked, he is just sick and needs help.
- The man that watches porn is not doing what is evil, he is just a man doing what men do.
Do not be deceived; Christians are not immune to this mentality either!
We are very quick to condemn the “obvious” sins of abortion, homosexuality, and murder, but we tend to ignore or downplay our own sins of gossip, pride, bitterness, and lust.
Side Note: Speaking of lust, there was a survey conducted in 2014 in which 388 self-professing Christian men were asked about their porn-viewing habits (the actual survey results from ProvenMen.org has since been locked behind a registration wall):
- 54% of them admitted to looking at pornography at least once per month
- 44% had viewed pornography, at work, within the prior 90 days
- 31% had a sexual affair while married
Side note aside, as Christians, we tend to ignore our own lack of spiritual fruit as well. I read on a bumper sticker one time that “patience is a virtue that you appreciate win the driver behind you, but scorn in a driver ahead of you.”
And that kind of hypocrisy is something with which I can identify, if I am being honest. But I tend to take it a step further and view my own hyper-critical nature, for example, to be a benefit to others. I am often very quick to point out the error of someone else’s ways, a shame to which my wife could certainly attest.
Have you ever said (or even thought) something like this: “I can’t come to bed yet, honey; someone is wrong on the internet!” If you have, then we share a common, sinful bent.
While we may be justified in becoming frustrated or angry with those pushing for abortion and same-sex marriage, how often do we fail to remember that, as Paul told the Corinthians “such were some of [us]” prior to being “washed, sanctified, and justified.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)
Instead, we ought to pray like the tax calculator in Luke 18:13:
‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
Luke 18:13b LSB (emphasis added)
<< Previous: Ordinary Saints | Next: The Malignancy of Sin >>
When God Calls It Sin – Part 1 – #1 Ordinary Saints
About this Series: “When God Calls It Sin” was originally a 5-week study I had lead in 2019 for an adult Sunday School class at my old church.
The outlines and lessons were based on Jerry Bridges’ book “Respectable Sins,” which I highly recommended for anyone serious about confronting the sins in their own hearts that are often overlooked.
For the blog, I am adapting my own notes and slides from the class and posting them almost verbatim. Since each class was an hour long, however, I will be dividing segments of each lesson into separate posts for easier reading.
Jump To:
- Part 1 (Introduction)
- Part 2 (Ungodliness || Unthankfulness || Anxiety || Frustration || Discontentment)
- Part 3 (Pride || Selfishness || Judgmentalism)
- Part 4 (Anger || Impatience & Irritability || Envy, Jealousy, & Related Sins)
- Part 5 (Sins of the Tongue || Wordliness)
Part 1 Segments:
- > Ordinary Saints
- The Disappearance of Sin
- The Malignancy of Sin
- The Remedy of Sin
- The Power of the Holy Spirit / Conclusion
Ordinary Saints
Before we can begin taking a closer look at what God calls “sin” and how we tend to tolerate or excuse them in our own lives, we need to lay some foundations and define a couple of terms first.
Let’s begin by reading 1 Corinthians 5:1-2:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
1 Corinthians 5:1-2 LSB
What we really need to notice here is that the church in Corinth had a very serious sin problem. They were behaving so immorally that even the godless pagans around them would look on with disgust. And yet, if you were to flip back to the first chapter, you will also see that the Apostle Paul refers to the Corinthians as “saints.”
Could this possibly be the same church? How could Paul refer to the Christians at Corinth as “saints” when they were so proud and boastful of their own sexual immorality?
To answer that question, we need to look at the definition of the word “saint,” as found in Scripture (Hebrew: qadosh | Greek: hagios).
Today, the word has lost much of its original meaning and is usually reserved for those “sainted” by the Roman Catholic Church, including most of the original Apostles, and tender old grandmothers who would never hurt a fly.
However, in both the Old and New Testaments, the word translated as “saint” in English means to be “sacred” or “set apart,” either by God, for God, or both.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:2 that we, as Christians, “have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints…” In other words, we have been “set apart in Christ Jesus and called to be holy ones.” (JB)
Therefore, if you are a Christian, having repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, you have been set apart for God and now have a new identity: you are now a saint. We do not need to clean ourselves up or be fully sanctified in order to be a saint. Look at what Paul tells us just a few verses later in chapter 5:
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.
1 Corinthians 5:7a LSB (emphasis added)
He is telling the Corinthians to clean up their act because they are saints, not in order to become saints! We cannot attain sainthood through any actions of our own; it is an immediate and supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that takes place the moment He regenerates our hearts through repentance and faith!
Ezekiel 36:26 describes the Spirit’s work like this:
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26 LSB
So, we become saints through God’s choosing and His alone. We receive a new heart, with new Godly desires and truly do become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:7).
However, there is a disconnect or a tension here because, obviously, we all do still sin. In fact, Paul spends most of the rest of 1 Corinthians telling the church that because they are saints, they need to start acting like it! The Corinthians were not living according to their calling as saints.
If you have ever heard the military expression “conduct unbecoming an officer,” then you have a general idea of the principle at work here. Just as the military would chastise its leaders for behavior which was not consistent with what the military expects of their officers, we as Christians run the same risk.
When we gossip, or are impatient, or get unjustly angry, we need to remind ourselves that our own conduct is unbecoming a saint. Like the Corinthians, I suspect many of us are acting inconsistently with our calling.
That ought not to be!
In the Bible, “conduct unbecoming a saint” is also called “sin” and it covers a depressingly wide range of behaviors.
QuickThoughts: Job & Suffering
Note on the new "Quick Thoughts" series: I post much more often to my Twitter feed than I do on my blog. Usually this makes sense since tweets tend to be very short and quick to read. Sometimes, however, a tweet will become longer than originally intended and turn into a much longer thread. It is times like that where I will try to post to the blog instead. These will not always be fully-fleshed out articles, but just some quick musings on Scripture or life that I may have.
In the midst of pain most could never imagine, Job wrongly believed God was pouring out His anger upon him. Job used some pretty terrifying and heartbreaking imagery to describe his anguish:
📘 “He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;”
Job 16:12
Do you ever feel that God is doing that to you?
Job was never told about the secret meeting between God and Satan; He never found out why he, a blameless man (Job 1:8), was suffering under God’s hand.
Likewise, we may never perceive the cause of our own suffering.
But, if we have repented of our sins and trusted in Christ to bear the wrath of God in our place, we can be sure that God will never grasp us by the neck in anger!
📘 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment…
1 John 4:18
And there is no punishment remaining, no wrath stored up against those whom Christ has redeemed!
📘 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1
Give thanks for God’s love, grace, mercy, and righteousness, for His wrath against us for our sins has all been spent!
What do we do with our suffering, then? How should we respond? Should Man find fault with God? Throughout all of his suffering, Job never blamed God (Job 1:22), but He did recognize that his suffering ultimately came from the Lord. Instead, he confessed his lack of knowledge, repented for it, and worshiped God:
📘 Then Job answered Yahweh and said:
I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too marvelous for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You make me know.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I reject myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:1-6 LSB
What is UNPARENT®?
Note: A portion of this article is a work of fiction and is not intended to be understood as a factual account of true events.
On Monday, June 24, 2026 (the 4th anniversary of Roe v. Wade’s demise), Planned Parenthood opens their first UNPARENT® healthcare facility in Eerie, Pennsylvania, with the full financial support of the United States government. Thousands of similar clinics are already being developed in Democrat-run cities around the nation.
Within hours of the first clinic’s grand opening, Planned Parenthood releases the following:
Recognizing the growing need to provide cutting-edge reproductive healthcare to our neighbors, UNPARENT® offers a revolutionary new service, aimed at struggling parents who are burdened with mental health issues due to their unwanted children.
The first of its kind anywhere in the world, UNPARENT®‘s patented technology uses a specially formulated hydrogen-cyanide gas (Molechovina™) to quickly, safely, and mercifully terminate the continued development of your birthed offspring.
Provided the undesired “visible parasite” is not yet capable of intelligible verbal communication*, thus establishing their lack of personhood, simply drop them off at the nearest UNPARENT® clinic and return home, with more freedom to be the real authentic you! The United States government will even cover all associated costs!
UNPARENT® stands ready and willing to provide the moral support and lovingkindness that the MAGA Republicans still fight to withhold from the most oppressed in society.
Birthing persons have the fundamental human right to choose what they do with their own bodies and with anything produced by their bodies, after all.
- Do you wish to revoke your consent to parenthood?
- Are you concerned with being a responsible citizen of this great Earth and no longer wish to selfishly raise another pollutant?
- Has your home become a stressful hellhole due to needy, expensive, or otherwise bothersome little mouth-breathers?
- Do you deserve more attention from your life partner(s) and/or spouse(s)?
- Do you need more time to figure out who you truly want to be without worrying about unnecessary distractions?
- Is the thought of placing your offspring up for adoption, knowing they may be raised by a parent of questionable moral character, unbearable?
Know What You’re Worth and Undo That Birth!™
* This current limitation is a work in progress. Due to opposition from Republican lawmakers, this is the maximum level of development they have willingly agreed to.
The nightmarish scenario above should no longer be considered a dark fantasy, but a likely reality in the near future.
The 2022 mid-term elections in the United States revealed a disturbing and heart-breaking truth about our nation: we are firmly seated beneath the cup of God’s wrath, and He is pouring it out full strength, plunging us deeper and deeper into pagan depravity.
The US used to stand upon biblical principles. We used to recognize that there is a God in heaven who is just and mighty, loving and holy. In short, our country, as a whole, used to fear God.
As a result of that national devotion to God, He has blessed us immensely in our relatively short existence. We were one of the first “super powers” in the modern era. We were a moral nation (for the most part), known around the world as a safe harbor, welcoming and full of opportunity. And we were envied by all.
That has changed. Oh, how that has changed.
A fitting description of what has happened to our nation in the past 50+ years can be found in the book of Romans:
📘 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Romans 1:21-23 NASB95
We no longer gave God the credit for the prosperity and freedom we enjoyed for so long. We abandoned our worship of God and turned our adoration instead to politicians, Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes, the military, the flag, and even freedom itself.
As a result of this ungodliness, the Lord has revealed His wrath against us in three ways:
- He “gave [us] over in the lusts of [our] hearts to impurity, so that [our] bodies would be dishonored among [us]. For [we] exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…” (Romans 1:24-25)
By abandoning our theistic roots and worshiping man-made idols of people and even nature itself, God has caused the lust of our hearts to deepen, even to the ruin of our own bodies.
- He “gave [us] over to degrading passions; for [our] women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” (Romans 1:26-27)
The so-called “sexual revolution” of the 1980s-90s has lead to a level of perversion and debauchery that has never before been witnessed on Earth. Not even the infamous Sodom and Gomorrah ever sunk to the depths of wickedness to which the United States has gleefully marched.
Homosexuality, transgender ideology, child mutilation, and the sexualization of infants are all not only accepted in society, but championed, celebrated, and rewarded.
- He “gave [us] over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper…” (Romans 1:28)
Since our desire as a nation has become one of hedonism, self-worship, and idolatry, God has removed the common grace of restraint from the people. We are quickly losing the God-given ability to discern right from wrong. Our consciences have been seared and our own pleasure and feelings of self-worth have become the sole deciding factor in all that we do.
A nation under God’s judgment will exhibit several specific characteristics, according to Scripture and they again fit the United States’ current condition perfectly:
For we have become “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; [we] are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful…” (Romans 1:29-31)
In short, although we once knew God’s Law, and feared the penalty for breaking it, we have ignored those truths and dived headfirst into lawlessness for ourselves, but also entice others to join us and praise them for doing so (Romans 1:32).
Given the all-encompassing nature of God’s judgment, as laid out above, do we have any cause to be surprised when the nation rallies together in support of murder-for-hire convenience?
Child sacrifice is nothing new for pagan nations. The Bible speaks of numerous nations who caused their children to “pass through the fire” as sacrifices to the demon-god Molech. Even Israel herself was guilty of this atrocity on several occasions. (2 Kings 16:3, 17:17, 21:6; Jeremiah 32:35; Ezekiel 16:21, 20:26,31)
Molech, whom I believe to be a literal servant of Satan who once masqueraded on Earth as a “god” to pagan nations, is alive and well today. He is still at work in the hearts of wicked men and women, no longer presenting himself as a deity, but stroking egos and inspiring these “inventors of evil” to sink deeper and deeper into their own depravity.
Abortion in the United States has become a genocide the likes of which the world has never known. Its evils far out-pace those of the Holocaust, chattel slavery, Communist atrocities, and all others.
Global wars have been fought for much less. Our own nation stepped onto battlefields around the world to rid the Earth of lesser villainy. Since the United States was formed, it tolerated slavery for only 89 years (1776-1865) before its evils were recognized, fought against, and finally eradicated.
So the question needs to be asked: At what point does the never-ending slaughter of children become worthy of such a response? And is physical violence the only (or even the best) solution?
Let us endeavor to answer that a bit later.
If the (currently) fictional account of UNPARENT® causes us Christians to respond in greater horror than we do to the abortion that already takes place in our nation, we have a big problem.
We need to recognize that there is fundamentally zero difference between the services rendered by UNPARENT® (the slaughter of toddlers) and those of Planned Parenthood! Do we act or speak as though there is?
The toddlers being gassed by UNPARENT® are no more human, no more deserving of life, than the unborn child in its mother’s womb. Can we truly consider ourselves pro-life, evangelical Christians if we abhor one practice yet quietly tolerate the other?
We should be just as outraged at what is currently happening to the unborn as we would be should UNPARENT® become a reality.
Are you?
So what do we do? How do we save the lives of babies while also bringing light to the foolish hearts of the world which have been darkened?
Do we take up arms and fight for the liberation of children? Do we sit back and just offer prayers to God?
In this, I am honestly struggling to come to a conclusion. One thing I do know, however, is that the child sacrifice will not end so long as this nation is under the judgment and wrath of God. And apart from a massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s saving grace, bringing about a national repentance, God’s wrath will remain.
So again, what do we do? We do as we are commanded to do by Jesus Christ Himself:
📘 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…”
Matthew 28:19-20 NASB95
We need to go about the business of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His is the only Light that can penetrate the pitch-black wickedness that plagues our nation. Apart from His calling people to repentance, the insanity of abortion will continue to progress.
So we must pray, and we must pray hard. Pray that hearts would be transformed and the broken thinking of the lost be mended. And of those who persist in their rebellion and refuse to repent but press on in their wickedness, we should pray that they be crushed under the Lord’s justice and that He remove their influence from the Earth.
But we must not stop with prayer. We must share the Gospel. We must remind our nation that there is a God in heaven who is holy and just. We must tell our neighbors that they are sinners before this righteous God. And we must tell them that repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is the only way they can ever be reconciled to the Father.
📘 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:14 NASB95
As we do go about sharing the Good News, let us also remember that the horrible sins of abortion and child sacrifice are not beyond God’s grace and forgiveness! When speaking of Christ’s love to those who have had abortions, or if you have participated in the act in some way yourself, it needs to be made clear that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to atone for those sins as well!
Just as the Lord promised to forgive Israel for their sacrifices to Molech, He extends that same offer of undeserved grace to any individual who will repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us never forget the mercy of our great and marvelous King and God!
Mourning Memories Never Made & Seeing God’s Grace in It
July 4, 2022
This Independence Day weekend (in the USA), we celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. On that date, our founding fathers declared their independence from Britain and set about creating a nation that protects the freedoms granted to all humanity by their “Creator.”
While some of those men were not Christian, most of them believed in a God who was sovereign over all creation, including this new nation they sought to build.
Just under 250 years later, we are still a nation of great freedom, but that distinction is rapidly dissolving as God’s judgment is poured out on the United States for its wickedness and rebellion against Him.
And yet, in the midst of all the turmoil we are witnessing around us, our God is faithful and just, rich in mercy, and still enjoys bestowing His people with countless blessings.
My family experienced many of those great blessings this weekend.
An Unprecedented Attendance
On July 2, my wife and I hosted our annual celebration of Independence Day by inviting friends and family to our home for an evening of games, fellowship, and food, all culminating in the largest fireworks display we’ve ever done.
This year was to be our last big hurrah for a couple of years, as we anticipated financial and civil difficulties in the years to come. With that in mind, we decided to go all out, sparing no expense. The final list of those invited numbered around 60, more than double the count of how many have been able to attend in past years.
As the date of the party drew closer, we were amazed to see that nearly everyone invited had committed to come, including several we never expected to be able to make it.
It was very odd to us, in a great way, that the Lord was opening the doors for so many to come. One of the primary goals for the party was to share the Gospel with everyone in attendance, both as a reminder of God’s grace for those who had already experienced it, and as a calling to those who have not yet repented of their sins. The fact that so many additional friends and family were coming was a surprising outpouring of God’s kindness and blessing.
The Planning Begins
The party itself took months to plan, with myself ordering the first batch of fireworks in February. For the next few months, we received dozens of Amazon deliveries, made and remade countless lists, maps, and charts.
The Lord has blessed my wife with an almost supernatural gift for organization and thoughtfulness. During her planning of activities, she considered every single person who was planning on attending, even ordering specific snacks or planning on games with a particular child in mind.
Planning the Show
The fireworks display was where I focused my own attention, since I have a passion for things that go boom. As mentioned, I began planning the actual display back in February. I researched available fireworks and downloaded video clips of others shooting them off so I knew exactly what to expect.
My wife and I chose some wonderful music to which the fireworks would be set and began laying out the exact order and timing for each firework. Over the months, I edited those video clips together, visualizing the exact show we intended to put on, all synced to the songs we had chosen. You can watch this pre-visualization video here, if you are interested in what might have been.
We felt we had chosen some truly beautiful and unique effects for the show and were greatly looking forward to “oohs” and “ahhs” of the crowd, especially hoping to wow the children.
The task of timing the show properly was a daunting one for me. Since I had endeavored to sync the fireworks to music for the first time, I needed to calculate how much fuse was needed between each piece to make sure they all fired on cue, or as close as possible.
Different fuses burn at different speeds so there were several spreadsheets and diagrams created to make sure I had the right length of fuse and that the fuses would all reach their intended targets.
Setup and Safety
For several hours on the big day, a couple of helpers and myself set about placing the fireworks in the yard, grouped together according to the song they were meant to accompany.
Safety was a big priority for us, so we took many steps to ensure the show was as safe and error-proof as possible:
- Since the mortar racks are reusable, I take the extra step of cleaning them out each year, making sure there are no obstructions or debris that could cause issues.
- For the week prior, the grass under and around the firework area had been watered frequently to prevent fires.
- We glued cakes to wooden boards or duct-taped them together so as to prevent any from falling over (and thus firing in any direction other than up).
- All of the fireworks were covered with tin foil and the fusing with masking tape to prevent any sparks from accidentally igniting them too early.
- Many people secure their fuses together using zip-ties, but I prefer tape because zip-ties may fall into the mortar tubes and obstruct the shells being fired; it is just safer with tape in my eyes.
- We then secured all of the fuses to either the boards or the fireworks themselves (preventing them from moving around as they burned, potentially lighting other fireworks off prematurely or starting a fire).
- Fireworks that shoot out at an angle were not placed next to taller fireworks (so the angled shots would not ricochet off adjacent boxes).
- The sequence of the fireworks were double-checked many times to ensure everything was connected properly.
The lighting of the fireworks themselves would be done remotely with electric ignition; nobody would need to be anywhere near the fireworks during the show. We took every precaution we could think of to ensure a safe display of these beautiful controlled explosions.
A Decent Start
When it came time to start the show, it began with only a minor hiccup. My nephew had won the honor of pushing the first button on the remote to start the show. His firework burst from its tube and exploded high above the yard, exactly as intended.
That was supposed to be followed by a very small fountain that did not actually end up lighting because the blast from the first firework had disconnected the fountain’s fuse. While that was a minor glitch, it was nothing to worry about.
The next song (MacGyver’s intro theme music) went fairly well too; there was just a little more delay between the fireworks than I had intended. That is just the nature of fireworks, though: they are not always consistent in their timing since they’re all assembled by hand, and my own measurement skills certainly have room for improvement.
Something Isn’t Right
The third song in the show (America) is where things turned ugly. For this song, instead of pushing just one button to fire the entire song, I had it rigged up to require a different button press for each firework (I was watching a clock to get the timing right). Button #5 on the remote was used to start the first firework box (known as a “cake”); no problem.
When the time came to push button #6, I did so. Within seconds, I knew something was very wrong. While the firework I had intended to light did indeed go off, I also noticed the first two cakes in the finale were firing as well! At that point, I stood to my feet, upset and disappointed, but not at all worried.
I figured that after the finale had run its course, I would simply announce the misfire and continue with the other 3 songs. That was not to be, however.
As the finale reached its own conclusion, something went horribly wrong and fireworks began exploding on the ground, starting several small fires.
At that point, I immediately shut down the remote firing system and headed down to the fires, closely behind my sister who was already on her way as well.
Once the fireworks stopped firing, several of those in attendance were able to put out the fires and I quickly doused the remaining fireworks with water, rendering them all useless and unable to fire if an errant spark happened to reach them.
The show for which we had planned and worked so long had come to a premature and disappointing end. It was heartbreaking for both my wife and myself. The show we had hoped to provide for our guests would never be seen.
We were sad and confused, but most of all grateful to God that no one was injured and the only property lost was going to be burned up anyway.
It wasn’t until the next day that the chain of events became clearer and yet, so much more confusing.
What Actually Went Wrong?
As I began investigating the scene of the mishap the next day, I found that several things happened that should not have been possible, and other things that should have happened, but miraculously did not.
There was not a single point of failure that caused the show to go haywire, but a perfect cocktail of multiple oddities had taken place.
- Finale started too soon [“Impossible” event #1]
As mentioned above, the finale should not have started when I pressed button #6 on the remote firing board. The electric wire used to create the spark needed to ignite the finale was rigged to button #12, not #6.
Upon inspecting the wire that was hooked up to the #12 spot, there was evidence that it had indeed been triggered somehow; it did spark, setting off the finale. This trigger did not come from me, as even accidentally brushing the #12 button on the remote is not enough to trigger it. - Firework cakes malfunctioned
At least one of the first two cakes in the finale fired incorrectly, seemingly exploding within the tubes they were meant to be launched out of. This caused damage to the exterior structure of the box, allowing the tubes to be blown outside of the firework and onto the ground next to it:
This is not what a spent firework should look like! This is not unheard of, though, as anything created by man has the potential to fail. It is generally incredibly rare, but looking around the rest of the show’s fireworks, we noticed a few others had suffered similar fates:
Again, there should generally be zero damage to the outsides of the cakes other than some burn marks from the fuses.
The decision not to continue the show after the finale turned out to be the right call as well, since even some of the fireworks that hadn’t been fired yet were damaged in the melee. Continuing to light these off could have created even more dangerous misfires:
- The finale progressed too quickly
The finale was supposed to last a little over a minute and a half, but in reality it was over in about half that time. Due to the failure of the first couple of cakes, it is possible that a secondary fuse was lit prematurely, which in turn started the second half of the finale before it was meant to.
Again, this on its own would not have been the end of the world; if nothing else went wrong, the finale would just be a little more chaotic than intended and been over quickly. - The last rack of fireworks exploded [“Impossible” event #2]
The largest fireworks are launched from fiberglass or PVC tubes (mortars) that are held in place by wooden racks. Since the tubes are not sealed on the top, the entire force of the “lift charge” are directed up through the top (this first explosion is what lifts the firework shell into the sky). Very little, if any, damage is ever done to the tubes or the racks holding them.
Our mortar rack, however, as you can see in the photo below, was completely blown apart. The other side of the rack is actually laying about 20 feet away in the field. This should not happen, even in the rare case of a firework failing to launch out of the tube (again, the majority of the explosion would be directed out the top of the tube).
It is possible that a defective shell had just enough lift charge to clear the tube, but not enough to get airborne; if that happened, the shell may have fallen back onto the rack and exploded there, which may account for the black charring on the side of the failed rack.
Another potential cause could be in how the rack was fused up. Taking my cue from standard practices of others, including a video published by the manufacturer of this specific rack, I had laid the fusing over the tops of the tubes in two of the racks used. It is feasible that a shell was unable to blast through the tape I wrapped around the fusing and prevented it from getting airborne. Unfortunately, there is no way to prove this did or did not happen.
Regardless of how the rack exploded, with it no longer holding the tubes in place, the remaining shells were being launched in random directions, some even throwing the tubes quite some distance away (7 of the 30 tubes are still unaccounted for and are likely somewhere in the field).
What Satan Meant for Evil …
There is so much about this event to take in. Obviously, my wife and I were incredibly disappointed and saddened to see all of our time, effort, and planning pay off in the way that it did. More confusing, however, is the fact that we just do not understand how so many things went wrong.
I have no explanation whatsoever for how the finale started when it did. Button #12 was never pressed. The firing system was tested both before and after the show and it performed perfectly: button #6 only activated the corresponding firing wire and the same was true of #12.
I have no concrete explanation for why the last mortar rack failed.
Perhaps the devil and his angels were angered by the name of Jesus Christ being proclaimed prior to the show and had endeavored to cause harm? Maybe it was just an attempt of his to rob us all of the joy we were hoping to experience during the show?
We have even gone so far as to picture Satan’s sniveling agents taking a hammer to the rack in order to destroy it.
That may sound silly or superstitious, and perhaps it is. But we also recognize that there are indeed spiritual forces at work in the world:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12
However, the book of Job also makes it clear that even Satan needs to ask God for permission for everything he does: he is but a dog on a leash held by the Lord!
… God Meant for Good.
So ultimately, we recognize that everything that happened was ordained by God Himself. And God is orchestrating all things. He is the one who directed every wayward spark and explosion.
And that is where things get even more incredible and awesome. Looking back on this disastrous end to the show, we see God’s hand in many ways:
- No one was injured!
Given the fact that those tubes were thrown around the yard randomly, it is a miracle that shells were being launched in every direction except toward where we were sitting! There is no “logical” reason to think they wouldn’t have also been sent that way. But no, even reviewing the limited video evidence we have, absolutely nothing came close to the crowd!
Not a single person reported being hit by embers, ashes, or other debris. Not even those who were fighting the fires got burned or singed.
Also, I’m certain of God’s divine protection of my sister and I as we ran down to start putting out fires. It wasn’t until after all was said and done that I even knew that fireworks were still exploding around us while we were right next to them!
Neither of us were hit and I was not even aware of anything else going off; I thought everything had finished before I got down there. God not only protected us from the fireworks, but also kept the fear of them out of our minds. Just amazing! - The other failures don’t appear to have caused any damage.
- The fires did not spread.
The first fire I noticed was a small one directly behind the fireworks setup. It was surrounded by dead and dry brush, but the fire never spread beyond a couple foot radius.
The larger fire, which was only started because a large firework exploded directly on the ground in the field, also did not spread beyond it’s initial ignition point. And it was a large ignition point:
We are so grateful that God provided so many people who were able to help tackle the fires by filling buckets, spraying hoses, and even having the presence of mind to grab the closest water containers they could find (even Tupperware) to help! Amazing action by everyone, glory to God.
Take-Aways
We are still processing the loss of some memories of what might have been a great fireworks display. But looking back, that is really all that is lost. We still got to see some amazing fireworks at the beginning, and it seems pretty clear to us that God intervened supernaturally to keep everyone protected during the show.
It is almost like He gave the devil permission to destroy the show, but the Lord and His angels protected our families, friends, house, and other property. This whole thing could have, and should have been much worse than it was!
Then there was the event of the following day that the Lord has also used to put this all into perspective for us. The house directly across the street from us caught fire and was completely destroyed. In the matter of just minutes, that family lost everything they owned, all their memories, clothing, etc., just gone. Thankfully, no one was injured.
Please pray for the Case family, by the way.
And here we are mourning the loss of some time and fireworks that would have been destroyed intentionally anyway if things had gone to plan.
We still got to sleep in our own beds that night, our home was still standing when we awoke the next day, and life will continue for us much the same as it had previously.
Lessons Learned
Overall, we’ve been able to determine that even if we were to replicate the exact show we had planned, there is nothing we would do differently in terms of setting it up, the fusing, safety considerations, etc. So there is nothing we can think of that we could have done to prevent what happened.
But we do know that the Lord will use every event for the good of those who love Him and for His own glory. This event is no different.
For us personally, there are many things He may be trying to teach us or some way He is growing us to be more like Christ.
Perhaps we were not good stewards of the financial blessings He has provided us? Maybe we devoted too much of our time in the planning stages, neglecting Him and each other in the process? Maybe I had too much pride in myself for the show that was designed and I was seeking the praise of others? Perhaps a little bit of everything. We do not know for sure yet, but the Holy Spirit will reveal the lessons to be learned in His timing.
At the end of the day, we are striving to simply trust in the Lord. To trust that, while the show isn’t what we planned, it happened exactly as the Lord had planned. And there is great comfort in knowing that the Creator of the Universe is still in absolute control of our little corner of the world as well!
And on top of all of that, He provided us with an incredible evening of memories made with family and friends. The weather was perfect, the kids all seemed to have a blast, and everything up until the end was just … perfect.
That is all because our heavenly Father saw fit to give those blessings to us. And we love Him all the more for it. Thank you, Jesus!
Christian, Stop Saying “You can’t be a Christian if …”
To my faithful Christian brothers and sisters:
If you are tempted to start a post on social media with the phrase “You cannot be a Christian if …” then I have a serious plea for you: Please stop!
Regardless of how you finish that sentence, you run the very real risk of either painting with far too broad a brush, or being borderline heretical.
Please allow me the time to make my case from a biblical perspective before rushing to the comments below or on Twitter. I believe this has become a very serious, and very popular, issue on social media, even among my genuine brothers and sisters in Christ whom I greatly respect.
At the time of this writing, the current issue du jour on my feed seems to stem from the firestorm of rage that was ignited by the recent leaking of a Supreme Court opinion draft potentially overturning Roe v. Wade. From Leftists taking to the streets in fury, desperate to hold on to their ill-gotten “rights” to kill their own children, to apostate leaders in the evangelical community suggesting the issue of abortion is “nuanced,” Christians who value life inside and outside of a mother’s womb are rightfully (and righteously) speaking out boldly.
We should never stop calling abortion murder. And we should never give an inch on the debate; valuable, God-breathed, imago dei life begins at the moment of conception, not 15 weeks later or once the heart has begun pumping blood through the baby’s veins. This article is not a call for anyone to let loose of their biblical convictions here!
But time and time again, I am seeing post after post proclaiming “You cannot be a Christian and support abortion,” or “If you voted for pro-choice Democrats, you can’t be a Christian,” or “It is impossible to be homosexual/transgender and be a Christian.” Stop it! Yes, they can (I will get to the caveats in a bit)!
Let’s try to prove that radical statement biblically, shall we? Take a look at what the Apostle Paul tells us in a passage of Scripture often only used as a proof text to condemn the sin of homosexuality:
📘 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NASB95)
Now substitute the sin of abortion or homosexuality with any other sin that Paul rightly calls out in his letter to the church in Corinth:
“You cannot be a Christian if you’ve had sex outside of marriage.” (fornicators)
“If you put down or insult other people, you can’t be a Christian.” (revilers)
“It is impossible to desire anything that isn’t yours and still be a Christian.” – (the covetous)
“If you’ve looked at a woman and lusted for her, don’t call yourself a Christian.” – (adulterers)
A Christian can and will continue to sin long after their conversion. Sanctification is not an instant gift that the Lord grants us. Instead, He has sent His Holy Spirit to each and every believer at the moment of salvation and it is the Spirit who will guide us into what is true (John 16:13). But again, that work of the Spirit is not instantaneous.
It is possible for a Christian, especially new believers, to continue in this sin or that sin until the Holy Spirit has convicted them of that sin and completed the work of drawing them to repentance and sanctification in that area.
“But murder is a big sin!” Yes, it absolutely is! And it is made even more heinous when perpetrated against the most innocent and vulnerable of society. But it is not an unforgiveable sin.
Look at David, who was a man after God’s own heart, a true believer (according to 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22). Even so, David fell into great sin, including adultery, fornication, and murder several times (most famous: 2 Samuel 11). Would any of us dare to presume that David was not saved? No, he was a man after God’s own heart who committed horrible acts of evil.
We are to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in [us].” (Philippians 2:12-13) This work begins at the new birth of salvation and will continue until the Lord returns or calls us to Himself.
It is important that we not police another believer’s sanctification. We can, and should, call out sin when appropriate, but to declare someone unsaved because they are sinning is not biblical. We do not know their heart as God does.
Consider the thief on the cross with our Lord. Is it possible that when he repented to Jesus that all of his thinking was corrected immediately? Possible, but not likely. It would not be a stretch to assume he died on that cross still believing some very grievous things.
When we declare a Christian must or must not do/say/believe a certain way about non-essential issues or they can’t possibly be a Christian, we are creating an undue burden and heaping coals onto a brother or sister’s soul.
Bottom Line: A new Christian can and will continue to be wrong on big sin issues until the Holy Spirit has done such a work in them as to bring them to repentance for those sins.
If a new Christian is voting for the “wrong” political party, or has a severely flawed understanding of abortion, or isn’t quite ready to damn their LGBTQ friends to hell, we need to slow down. Point to Scripture and lead them into a true understanding of God’s word.
The Spirit of Christ will convict them as He sees fit.
There are obvious exceptions and caveats!
All of this is not to say that a person who persists in sin, without any repentance in their heart, is truly saved. A Christian may sin and even persist in a sinful lifestyle for a brief time, but when their sin has been pointed out to them either by fellow believers or the Holy Spirit Himself, the true believer has but one response: immediate and genuine repentance!
Consider Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10). He was the leader of the wickedly sinful tax collectors in Jericho, a thief and a cheat. Today, perhaps, he might be compared to a pro-abortion or LGBTQ+ advocate. When Christ called him, Zaccheus did not simply descend that tree and hang out with Jesus. He repented!
📘 But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have extorted anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”
Luke 19:8 LSB
The same is to be expected of anyone who claims to have come to faith in Christ.
An Apology
In my previous post, I talked briefly about the broken thinking of those who support abortion. My target audience was fellow Christians who regularly engage in a battle of logic and facts with the unsaved whose minds and hearts are actively warring against their Creator.
The point of that article was that pro-abortion adherents are not going to change their minds unless the Lord first calls them to repentance and changes their hearts.
It has been brought to my attention, mostly by my amazing wife, but also by another blogger who somehow stumbled on my post within minutes of its publishing, that my tone in the article was not as gentle as it should have been. Admittedly, I began writing the article as a way to vent some of my frustration and anger regarding the issue of abortion.
Abortion is an incredibly incendiary topic because we are talking about the celebrated murder of a baby in the name of convenience. It is right to be angry about such wicked behavior, just as God is.
That being said, a Christian should always be “speaking truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) and the verbiage I used in the article did not quite meet that standard. I could have used more loving language (especially in the opening paragraph).
I referred to pro-aborts as “stupid people” in an attempt to explain that I believe their brains are not thinking rationally about the subject. In retrospect, I realize that the term was unnecessarily inflammatory and insulting, though the aim was not actually to insult.
I do apologize for my choice of words. I can not and do not, however, apologize for the article as a whole.
Battling the Pro-Abortion Mindset
Please note: A follow-up article for this post has been published. Please read that as well.
Pro-aborts are stupid people. Their brains are not functioning properly. Therefore, they do not have the benefit of logic, science, common sense, or basic truth on their side. You will not change the pro-abort’s mind using logic, science, common sense, or even basic truth.
Wherever the pro-abort’s heart goes, their mind follows. And their “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;” not even they can understand it (Jeremiah 17:9)! Right now, the pro-abort’s heart is set against God, against His sovereignty, against His creation; their minds are locked into a broken state, bound in rebellion against the Lord.
As such, “the stupid man cannot know [or] understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever” (Psalm 92:6-7).
The pro-abort is “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked“, though they have deceived themselves into believing they are rich, prosperous, and in need of nothing (Revelation 3:17).
They live their lives in spiritual darkness, incapable of thinking properly.
It is right to pray for the destruction of the wicked, to ask God to remove their wicked acts from the Earth in whatever way He deems best. But we must also pray for their souls and that their hearts be changed! Without a new heart, a new nature, the pro-abort will remain steadfast in their loyalty to self and their father, the devil.
The pro-abort is a lost sinner, incapable of practicing righteousness, and so they remain children of the devil (1John 3:8-10). The only hope of changing the course of the nation is the saving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Only He can deal with the stupidity of the pro-abort, for only He can change their hearts!
So, Christian, stop banging your head against a brick wall trying to reason with the pro-abort; that endeavor is destined to fail!
Give them the Gospel of Jesus Christ instead. Remind them that they need not be slaves to their sin. Proclaim the terrifying truth that all roads, including the road they are on, will lead them to the just and holy God of the Bible. And “it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31) This God that they hate and war against will not be mocked much longer and they will soon stand before Him naked, alone, and without excuse.
But God, being rich in mercy, offers them right now the chance to repent. The chance to humbly cry out to the Him and confess their sin. Call on the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, “for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Romans 10:13)
“Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)
They can find true forgiveness and freedom from their guilt in Christ alone. If they would but call out to the Lord in humility and repentance, He is faithful and true and will forgive them of their sins, give them a new heart with new desires and a healed mind! Only then can they change their minds on the issue of abortion.
What If [political opponent] Enters Heaven?
If you are a Christian, I have a question:
Would you be overjoyed to greet Barack Obama or Joe Biden in heaven? What about Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, or Hillary Clinton?
Do you immediately dismiss that thought as a radically hypothetical situation that could never happen? Or do you recoil at the thought of them “making it?”
Then may I suggest you do not understand the very basics of the Christian faith? You deserve to enter the kingdom no more than any of them!
There is nothing you have done (or not done) in your entire life that has earned you more favor with God than they. They are no further from godliness than you were before the Lord raised you out of darkness.
Please pray for these people. Fight their policies, absolutely. But do not lose sight of the absolute depravity you yourselves once embraced.
The Unworthy Prodigal 