"Spiritual Amnesia"

The message at The Crossing today was centered around the book of Romans. Our pastor, Keith Simon, told us a story about a man who was one day stricken with a case of amnesia on his way home. He didn't know who he was or where he was. Somehow he ended up in another state and adopted a new identity; he worked and lived there for 15 years while his wife thought he was dead. One day he fell and hit his head, suddenly he remembered who he was, and went home after all those years and rejoined his wife. The moral of the story is that some people fall into a rut where they get sidetracked from their faith in God. Pastor Simon described this phenomenon as "Spiritual Amnesia," where one forgets the ways of Christ due to the things happening in their life or some traumatizing experience. It is true that God has a plan for all of us, but if we suffer from "Spiritual Amnesia" we deviate from His plans. It's funny how God works through the ones around us. I didn't know I had Spiritual Amnesia until it was made apparent to me by events in my life and God's word.

We also talked about God's grace on us and his ability to forgive us. In Jude 4 it says: "For certain men whose condemnation was written about[a] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." Just because God is very forgiving doesn't mean that we should justify our sins by saying "oh its ok because God will forgive me". One should never take advantage of God's forgiveness or try to justify sin even though we all struggle.