A New Name

TITLE: A New Name
DATE:  August 27, 2019
TEXT: 1 Peter 2: 24-25- ESV - 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. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
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Being a drug addict, amongst other things had caused Justin Riley Brafford to spend some time in the hoosegow.  

When he was released he got on an airplane to travel to Dallas where he was going to live with his aunt.  Having been without female companionship, he probably misjudged how much the lady seated next to him was interested in him. On a 1-to-10 scale she was interested 0 and he thought it was about a 7 or an 8.

He touched her... multiple  times... she asked to be seated in another location... he followed her to the new location and approached her there. One of the male flight attendants told Brafford to “leave it alone.”

Mr. Brafford felt the flight attendant was over-reacting to the situation. In fact, he felt quite put upon. That’s why Brafford started shouting profanities at the crew members. Apparently his time behind bars had been educational, because, in the closed plane, Mr. Brafford managed to direct his stentorian foul language against the flight crew for longer than ½ hour.

After the lengthy tirade, Brafford sat down.

He did so just in time for the plane to make an emergency landing and have Brafford arrested by the FBI who promptly charged him with a felony. More specifically he is charged with interfering with a flight crew.

It is a crime which, if he is convicted can put him behind bars for 20 years.

Brafford says, he is being unfairly punished for merely acting “rudely.” His lawyer follows that tack and says his client had merely deviated “from the socially acceptable norms of airline travel."Mr. Brafford is scheduled to go to trial any day now. I don’t know what the verdict will be...  I do know that a lot of people try to minimize their wrongdoing by giving their crimes against the Lord a gentler name.

Folks have sugar coated sin to make it appear acceptable. Lying has become "stretching the truth". Cheating is bending the rules. Lusting is healthy admiration. Hatred becomes "dislike." Gossiping is only 'harmless talk." Envying is appreciating what "others have." Murder is a big mistake. Drug abuse is "an unfortunate misdirection of life." Gluttony is "lack of will power. A violent individual is "temperamental." Children who are disobedient to parents, bless their hearts, are "strong willed." The list goes on. America is following a stranger and not the Savior.

The bottom line is a rose is a rose and a sin is a sin.

What we need is not to give our transgressions a new name; we need to give them to our Savior. With a repentant attitude and a desire to do better in the future, we honor the Lord Who carried our sins to the cross. We honor and thank Him for what He has done to forgive us and save our lives.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, we ask the ability to recognize our sins, repent of them, and leave them in our past. May we do this to glorify our Lord, Whose life was given to take those sins away. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The devotion for today was inspired by various recent news articles. For further reading you may wish to go to this address: https://www.newser.com/story/278746/man-says-in-flight-tantrum-not-criminal-just-rude.html the article written by Evann Gestaldo

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html