Sin is ultimately against God. It is any failure to conform to the law of God in either action or attitude

Suffering feels like our biggest problem and avoiding it like our greatest need—but we know that there is something more. Sin is actually our biggest problem, and rescue from it is our greatest need.

Sin is not rational. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't look into the future. It doesn't consider consequences, especially if they are not immediate. All it knows is "I WANT—I WANT MORE.

Therefore, we cannot rightly say, "My God is not a God of judgment and anger; my God is a God of love." Such thinking makes it almost impossible to grow in the fear of the Lord. It suggests that sin only saddens God rather than offends him. Both justice and love are expressions of his holiness, and we must know both to learn the fear of the Lord.

If we look only at God's love, we will not need him, and there will be no urgency in the message of the cross. If we focus narrowly on God's justice, we will want to avoid him, and we will live in terror-fear, always feeling guilty and waiting for punishment.

Those who persevere in sin are those who are held in abhorrence by God, but those who abandon the ways of sin are loved by the Lord.

Most of us believe that we possess some aspect of eternity that will insure some kind of survival beyond death. The only problem with those strategies is they forget that only God is eternal. We are finite.

So then, let "Deserved" be written on the door of hell, but on the door of Heaven and life, "The free gift" (68).

What we call Original Sin in Genesis perhaps could, in a sense, be better called Original Shame, because Adam and Eve describe themselves as feeling naked. Some of the first words of God to these newly created people are, "Who told you that you were naked?" (Genesis 3:11). Next, in a lovely maternal image, God as seamstress sews leather garments for them (3:21). The first thing God does after creation itself is cover the shame of these new creatures.

We have always made it hard for God to give away God for free.

Thus we are strongly warned against such negativity in every way, and such things are called "sin" or even the state of "hell," which is not really a geographical place but a very real state of consciousness. All rewards and punishments must primarily be seen as first of all now—and inherent in good and bad behavior.

While life on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two: heaven or hell. Your relationship to God on earth will determine your relationship to him in eternity. If you learn to love and trust God's Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him. On the other hand, if you reject his love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart from God forever.