Pastor's Pen: What's wrong with the world?

To the question in the '˜Times' 'What's wrong with the world?' English author, theologian and poet G. K. Chesterton wrote, 'Dear Sir, I am.'. That is precisely the right answer. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
Rev Bobby Allen.Rev Bobby Allen.
Rev Bobby Allen.

When you are confronted by the fierce storms of everyday life you quickly discover the reality of human nature, that sin exists in the hearts of all men.

It is the “I am” of every person who has ever lived since Adam and Eve up to this very day and to the end of time that is the problem.

Jesus, in Mark 7:21, said: “Out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.”

The whole of humanity can say honestly with G. K. Chesterton, “I am”.

But, there is another “I am” in Exodus 3:14. God sent Moses to Pharaoh to rescue the people of Israel from Egypt. Moses asked God: “Whom shall I say sent me, what is his name?”. God’s reply was: “I am who I am, I am has sent me to you”.

In John 8:58 Jesus said: “Before Abraham was, I am”. Jesus uses the “I am” seven times: “I am the bread of life,” “I am the good shepherd”, “I am the light of the world”, and so on.

In John 14 Jesus told the disciples: “I am the way, the truth and the life no-one comes to the Father except through me”.

Jesus is the pure sinless son of God. He is the only “I am” who can help us. He paid the price for our sins. He died that we might be forgiven. He is the only way to the Father and heaven.

We need to believe in him as he is the truth.

So in Christ the great “I am” comes to live within us by the spirit and we can say with the apostle Paul, Galatians 2:20 - “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” And living in us he gives us new desires for holiness, for God, for heaven.

It is not that we cannot sin again, we can. But we do not want to. The whole tenet of our life has changed. Everything is different now, because we ourselves are different.

So what’s wrong with the world? It is full of people like me but without my Saviour.

Do you believe that?

Written by Rev Bobby Allen