Lent 2023 day 27

 Trespasses

Listening to the radio at some point yesterday I heard part of a church service which was using the traditional version of The Lord's Prayer and I was suddenly struck by the word 'trespass'.  I realised that it is usually a word we use when we are talking about land and crossing boundaries. I wondered if that had anything to do with the meaning we commonly translate as 'sin'.

When we sin we are walking into forbidden territory. We pass signs that say 'do not enter' and clear warnings ' trespassers will be prosecuted'.  If we ignore these and cross into lands that don't belong to us or over which we do not have permission to travel we are breaking the law.  The word actually means to go beyond.  I find that really helpful to know. When I sin I am going beyond the place God says it is good and safe for me to be.  I cross from a place of safety into somewhere dangerous.  Like playing on the railway lines sin might be exhilarating but its not safe. It can kill us.  Be it greed or pride or laziness or theft, addiction, jealousy or hatred - it all crosses a line and falls outside Gods permitted territory.

this made me laugh out loud
Thankfully in addition to the warning signs God puts up in His word, through the teaching of His church and the testimony of His people,  He also polices the boundaries with His Spirit.  The Holy Spirit shouts at us as we approach out-of-bounds areas and sounds alarms when we stray into unsafe places.  Of course we can choose to ignore Him and keep going.  But we do so at our own peril.   God keeps His eye on us as we dabble in sins large and small and keeps telling us to turn round and come back over to safety.  If we are so distracted and beguiled by forbidden fruit He will send the Good Shepherd to find us but sadly we may have become hard of hearing or downright dismissive of His voice.  So much better to stay in the garden than to need to be rescued from playing on the motorway.  

So today Lord, forgive us when we trespass into places we arent supposed to go, in thought and word and deed.  And help us to forgive those who by accident or design walk across our boundaries and trample our gardens or pick the fruit we have been cultivating for Jesus

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