April 28, 2023
by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Romans 3
I watched a young mother in a waiting room just last week. She was pregnant and had a toddler, plus one in diapers in her arms. Was she busy! Yet with incredible patience, that mother hung in there.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. (Romans 3:23–24)
If you question your depravity, check your attitude toward intrusions. Having a French origin, "intrude" emerges from two terms, meaning "to thrust in." An intrusion, therefore, is someone or something that thrusts itself into our world without permission,
without an invitation, and refuses to be ignored.
Like the constant needs and demands of a child. I watched a young mother in a waiting room just last week. She was pregnant and had a toddler, plus one in diapers in her arms. Was she busy! Yet with incredible patience, that mother hung in there. Her whole world is one gigantic intrusion, I thought. I sure hope she's got a husband who understands . . . and helps her out!
I also wondered if that young mother realized that she was modeling an unforgettable display of Christ's message. Remember His words in Matthew 18:1–6? He flatly declares that receiving children is tantamount to receiving Him. Obviously, He believes
they are worth it all, no matter how many intrusions they cause.
Not all agree. A syndicated columnist based in Chicago mentioned one such person in an article. He tells of meeting a smartly dressed twenty-seven-year-old woman about to be married to a man who had a five-year-old son by a previous marriage. Her attitude
toward the boy?
"If I had $10,000 I would have the boy killed . . . . I've asked around and $10,000 is about what it costs to hire someone to kill someone else."
Thinking she might be trying to shock him with a sick joke, the columnist told her that her alleged humor was way off base.
"It's not a joke," she said. "I want him dead."
When he asked her why she was saying those things, it boiled down to intrusions. "The boy disrupts my life."
The columnist assumed that this was only a vicious fantasy. She really didn't have $10,000, did she? "No," she sighed, "I don't have the $10,000." But as she turned to leave, she added, "But I won't always not have the $10,000!"
Can you imagine the treatment she will give that bright, busy five-year-old boy?
Intrusions prove what the Bible has taught for centuries. Depravity is a universal disease . . . because sin has "thrust itself in."
How do you feel about intrusions? Like an early-morning knock at your door? Like a talkative passenger next to you on a packed-out flight? Like an injury or illness that strikes at the wrong time?
Like the piercing ring of the telephone?
Like the relentless, endless demands of small children?
Like . . . ?
Check your attitude.
Because sin "thrust itself in," God sent His Son into the world.