Today's Devotional
December 15, 2006
Subject: When We Do Bad Things
1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The home-video game world has exploded. There are games for pretty much anybody. I've never played them myself, but I know a lot of people who have, including some people who call themselves addicts. The Christian community has even entered the fray. One such game is called "Left Behind: Eternal Forces." The company that invented the game is facing a lot of criticism from Christian and secular groups. Here is one of the criticisms from a Presbyterian minister who was dismayed by the concept in the game that you could use prayer to restore a players "spirit points" after killing the enemy.
“The idea that you could pray, and the deleterious effects of one’s foul deeds would simply be wiped away, is a horrible thing to be teaching Christian young people here at Christmas time,” he said.
How else do we get our foul deeds wiped away? I was just a little confused and I've been trying to read between the lines to see what was wrong with the concept. To me the concept seems to be perfectly in line with scripture and specifically the passage above. Our acknowledgement of sin is what restores our "spirit points" in real life. For Christians/believers, our sins were forgiven at the cross, but when we do things contrary to God's will for us, we must confess them in order to restore our fellowship.
I'm in no way endorsing a game that I know little about, but I am pushing God's word that says that we must confess our sins. We do that through talking to God, i.e. prayer and that prayer indeed cleanses us from all unrighteousness. The consequences of that sin may remain, but we're clean. That we should teach to Christians period; young and old.
