Thursday, October 12th, 2017

As the Harvey Weinstein allegations continue to unfold, and more and more accusers come out of the shadows, outrage and disgust are now the two most prevalent emotions directed towards Weinstein. People who commit such grievous crimes often become billboards for that sin, their names synonymous with the wrong they have done and symbolic of others who commit the same. In effect, the person becomes their sin in the eyes of the public.

I was speaking with a friend yesterday who is a police officer. When he was new to the badge, he was motivated by the idea of locking up the bad guys, seeing his job as being the good versus the evil. Over time though, God spoke to him in a powerful way. He worked in my friend's heart to show him that these criminals he was arresting, even though they had done unthinkable evil, were still people. Behind the crime they had committed and were now labeled with was a person, another child of God. In the twenty or so minute drive back to jail, when it was just the officer and the criminal, my friend recognized how vulnerable, scared, and remorseful many criminals can be. He saw the humanity in them. Jesus spoke to my friend and helped him to differentiate the crime from the person. Now, he makes powerful usage of those twenty minutes to introduce Jesus into his passenger's life, knowing that those 20 minutes might be the last opportunity for that person to hear about Jesus.

In Romans it says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Though our judicial system judges our sin differently on earth, we all have sinned. But Jesus sees us as the people we are, as His children, not as the sin we have done. He forgives us all when we surrender our lives to Him, no matter what we have done. For us, the hardest part of forgiveness is separating the behavior from the person. But by following Jesus, we can see even the worst sinners as He sees them: lost children of God. Today, pray for those who have sinned against you personally as well as those who have sinned against us as a society. Renew your commitment to search for the lost in Jesus' name.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" -- Romans 3:23 ESV