Scars

1 peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

I wrote last week about the voodoo soul doctors of Togo making marks on their subjects faces when they come for healing or help. The mark made from a knife is usually about a 3/4" cut on the cheek, or above the heart. It is pretty grotesque to see some of the faces in Togoville, where the scars of "voodoo healing and power" are abundant. The people who practice voodoo believe that the pain caused by the cuts pleases the gods and that the resulting scars are visible markers of faithfulness to the voodoo gods.

As I thought more about this false religious practice, I began to compare it to my own faith in Christ. Voodoo teaches that people must cut themselves to induce a pain that pleases the gods. Christianity says that God came and took the stripes upon his back for us. Peter says in the baove verse that we are healed by His wounds. Voodoo, like all other false religions, tries to prescribe ways to please the gods. Christianity says that we can't please God, only Christ did, and His Lordship over our lives is the prescription that he filled on the Cross and offers to us freely. It really makes you think of the deep levels of mercy and love the father has. It also gives me great sorrow as I think about the billions that are trapped in religious systems that offer no hope, but only a mighty struggle.

The lie in all false religions is that we can stay in control of our lives and some how please the judge of the world. They are man made and so they are man centered thoughts that fall flat before Jehovah.

All of us are tempted to believe that we can be good enough for God on our own merits. It is the effects of our sin nature. Ask God to show you that there is no good thing in you apart from Christ. Let us praise the true God that stooped down from Heaven to take our due punishment and offer us eternal life. Praise God!

What a God we serve.