“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.’…So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” – Gensis 2:16-17 & 3:6

As many of you know, I love tinkering with old cars in my shop. When I’m working on my cars, one of the most important but most difficult things to do is diagnostics. You have to figure out exactly what is wrong before you can start to fix it. I don’t know how many times I have bought a new part and spent hours installing it, only to find out all that work has not fixed the problem. Spending proper time on diagnostics can save you countless hour of frustration.

Anyone can look around at our world and tell that something went wrong somewhere along the way. There is so much evil, pain, hatred, death, and suffering. Something is broken. But the big question is, what went wrong? The answer to that question is going to determine how you try to fix the problem. If you don’t properly diagnose the problem, then all the solutions you try to throw at it will just end in frustration. Within the first three chapters of the Bible, we are clearly taught the problem with our world; the problem is sin. There is only one solution to sin. There is only one way fix the problem, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Until people surrender their lives to him for the forgiveness of sin and begin a brand-new life in relationship with God, the problem will never be solved. With that being said, I want to ask you a question: What other solutions are you continuing to throw at the problem, hoping they will stick? Have you been convinced of the lie that other things are going to fix the problems in our world? Is your life full of a lot of failed attempts, or are you sharing the Gospel and living the Gospel every day? The problem has already been diagnosed, so go out there and get to work.

Heavenly Father, thank You for doing the hard work of diagnostics for us. Teach us to trust the solution that You have given us. Empower us to get out there and do the work that needs to be done in order to make a real, lasting difference in the lives around us.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Shane Cannon