Viva Las Vegas?

It sure has been a long week. I was fortunate this week to be able to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I was treated to sights such as a 150” Plasma TV, brain-numbing audio systems, and many more robots than VCRs and Laserdiscs. I saw homeless beggars with better grammar on their signs than my articles possess unbelievable cross-dressing celebrity impersonators, and general widespread decadence. In the town dubbed rightfully “Sin City” and near the famous Area 51 UFO base, I began to think of writing about a mix of the names of the two places. Today I will begin a multiple week study of Psalm 51. Before reading my piece, PLEASE read Psalm 51 and make it your prayer to God. Never have I written a more important series, and never have I felt more drawn to write about a topic than today.
To begin I find it valuable to list the chapter heading, despite the fact that it isn’t directly inspired, because it is so illustrative. It says in the NASB “A Contrite Sinner's Prayer for Pardon.” David, a man after God’s own heart, after being exposed by the prophet as the murderous adulterer that he was (he had stolen his general’s wife and had him killed, then tried to cover it up), he wrote with a heavy heart “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” (v1-4).
According to thefreedictionary.com the word “contrite” means “feeling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent.” David was sorry, and more. He wasn’t “Mark McGuire I am not here to talk about the past”- sorry or the “I am sorry I got caught”- sorry. He was deeply contrite. He was humbled and small before a Holy God with no excuses. If King David was on Bill O’Reilly’s news program, he would have been pressured to hire an image agent to try to touch him up before God. In antiquity, he provided no spin. We should do no less.
As much as I wish it wasn’t so, for space restraint’s sake, I will focus on one verse. Verse 4 says “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” As I walked down Las Vegas Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas, I saw sin as far as the eye could see. From one vantage point I could see three billboards with 99% naked women in one direction, a row of pimps wearing “Our Girls Have Gone Crazy” rain parkas in another and at least four strip clubs yet another way. I was surrounded by “those sinners!” Then, fighting through a thick layer of my self-righteousness tantamount to an Eskimo cutting through gelatinous whale blubber, God brought to my mind Psalm 51 and related it to my sin. Not nasty sinner’s sin, but my sin. The audacity! I am a deacon in training! I write a column in a prestigious paper! I buy Girl Scout cookies! I read my Bible nearly every day. God, through His amazing and humbling Word, made it painfully clear to me that my sin is equally an affront to a Holy God as the sin of the participants of the Adult Entertainment Expo porn convention in our same building.
Every sin that I have ever committed in public and private are a direct offense directed to Jesus Christ, who died for me painfully on a Roman cross knowing exactly who and what I am. Join me quickly in looking at the commandments. Have I allowed another god before the real God? (Baseball, TV, work ethic, greed, busy-ness?) It is against Him. Have I made an idol to worship? (Or, said “My God would never…” or God is a God of Love, not wrath, therefore making a god for myself that I am comfy with.) Have I taken His name in vain? (Like saying Gxx Dxxx, or just saying I am a Christian yet acting in a way that defames His Holy name.) Have I kept that Sabbath Holy? Have I honored my father and mother? (Answered yes to every request made of me, unless a sin, the first time asked.) Have I committed murder? (See anger in Matthew 5:22.) Have I committed adultery? (See Matthew 5:27-8 just lusting in your head is enough.) Have I stolen things? (Downloading music, stolen an answer, been lazy at work and stole payroll?) Have I lied? (Even white lies?) Have I wanted something of someone else’s? (I was at the largest electronics convention on Earth...duhhh!) Amazingly enough, Jesus died on the cross for me despite the fact that I have broken all these! The comparison isn’t with the homeless guy peeing on the sidewalk. My sin is compared to Christ’s sinlessness. Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” My sin earned a debt I couldn’t pay. I should have been chucked into hell like a watermelon rind to the campfire. Amazingly Jesus died for me as a substitute punishment for my sin. I am saved, not because of how good I am or how I compare to others. I am saved because of how amazingly Good our God is.
Sure the town of Las Vegas is nasty. Lots of sin everywhere! Lots of sin in Stockton too! Lots of sin in my life and every last bit of it is directed at God. Today is the day to repent/turn from our sins by first joining me (and King David) in understanding who they were aimed at. What a wonderful God we serve who would die for us anyway! If you have questions or stumbling blocks about Christianity, please email me right away!
Quick updates…Diet update…308.4 lbs…down from two weeks ago but up 2 pounds last week. Las Vegas has really good buffets!
Memory Verse Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23. Join me in memorizing one a week!