Bloodguiltiness---not just a good Scrabble word any more!!!

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. (Psalm 51:14-5 NASB)

As we continue our excursion through Psalm 51, we come to another amazing set of verses in 14 and 15. There is an amazing amount of theology to pull from these verses but in the interest of space I would like to focus on two pieces... “bloodguiltiness” and “open my lips”.

I just arrived in town from my denomination's (SBC) associational mission trip to a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana. I will take a brief break from Psalm 51 next week to discuss what I learned about Christianity from this event. Nevertheless, I must make a brief but vital point about bloodguiltiness from what I learned. First of all, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, bloodguiltiness “does not necessarily signify bloodshed, but any grievous sin which, if it remains, will block God's favor to His land and people”. David was scared, rightfully, that his bloodguiltiness would cause the Holy Spirit to withdraw from him as the Spirit did to King Saul. As you may remember, King Saul went crazy after the Spirit left him unprotected, and he ended up throwing himself on his sword. Can any modern truths be positively extracted from this Old Testament story? I would suggest yes! I would like to add a very interesting set of verses from Luke 13:1-5 to the mix and relate them to my mission trip to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. The verse reads (NASB): “Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. "Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

Hurricane Katrina killed hundreds upon hundreds of people. The exact number is difficult due to many being washed away and the number of homeless, uncounted people who perished. Why did it happen? Was the bloodguiltiness so severe that God had had enough and thrashed the whole southern seaboard? Was the bloodguilt in Stockton, Missouri so heinous that God whacked us in May of 2003? I suggest to you that Jesus answers the question in our verse when He added “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”. The temptation is to say “They reaped what they sowed and God got'em for it!” Jesus redirects the conversation to who really deserves to be whacked...all of us. Sure God punishes sin. Sure God destroyed whole towns in the Old Testament for their sin. Sure there is buckets of sin in New Orleans. But, you know what? Las Vegas, arguably more sinful than any city on earth has had one less lethal tornado in the last five years than Stockton. God hates sin everywhere. While I say comfortably and confidently that God either caused or let happen both of these tragic events, I will not point a finger at New Orleans and state that they deserved it any more than I did. A helpful analogy is in order. If you kill a dog tick, what is the punishment? Nothing but a yucky hand. If you shoot the neighbor's cat, what is the penalty? A fine with community service likely will suffice. If you shoot a homeless man what do you get? Twenty five years with opportunity for early release due to overcrowding. If you shoot President Bush what is the punishment? Gas chamber or electric chair...lethal injection even if F. Lee Bailey represents you. All involve the same offense...killing. What is the difference in them? The object against whom you committed the act. God is our Creator. He owns everything including the air we breath. He gave us all we have and sent Jesus to die for our sins as a substitute penalty-taker. All sins are a direct slap at God. Who cares how often others sin? How many times have you lied? Lusted? Stolen? Used His Holy name in vain? Wanted someone else's stuff? We all deserve to be whacked. God is so patient with me alone, needless to say others, in not giving us all what we deserve! We should not point fingers, we should introspectively say “Thank You Lord that it wasn't me!” each day we have. What a Good God who instead of whacking the majority of us instead gives us the keys to the kingdom when we die! Amazing!!!

“Open my lips” is my second point of interest. Why, fellow Christian, don't we tell others about Salvation? I can boil it down to one of three options in my life. I don't believe enough. I love me too much. I don't love others enough. The second option is my stumbling block. What is yours? Sharing the Gospel is commanded and requested in the Great Commission (Matthew 28) as well as other places in the Bible. People are walking blindly into traffic...are we going to stop them? If a child was playing with a copperhead in the back yard, would we fear hurting their feelings by telling them of the danger? No way! Why the fear of witnessing then? (I am talking to both of us!) I pray that God would open my lips to stop being such a chicken. Join me! There are people playing with snakes everywhere, not just those sinful areas like New Orleans (and Stockton). Stop pointing fingers and start repenting soon!

Memory verse John 1:1

Weight Update...I lost another 5 in New Orleans. Total weight loss is 55...God is Good! See next weeks paper for a detailed story about Katrina and our trip.

God Bless!