Programs

I was talking with an individual who was scheduled to enter a program the following week. He seemed to lack the conviction that he could complete it or that it would do him any good. If fact, he said he would not do this if it had not been forced on him by the courts. The main problem, he explained, was that if anyone crossed him, he could not help but to retaliate. Of course, that is what got him in trouble in the first place. I tried to encourage him that not only could he complete the program but that it could help him. Then explained his real problem.

When he was a child he was tied up and beaten by his father. He could not understand why he was treated that way and why his mother allowed it. He had a hate love relationship with them. He said he was taken away a number of times because of the beatings but always to be returned to his parents and the abuse. Once he become older and strong enough to defend himself, he became the abuser to anyone who got in his way.

We see sin every week in others and in ourselves. His sin is justified in his own mind because he was treated a certain way. But sin lucks in all of our hearts and we are always trying to find a reason for our behavior other than looking within ourselves. The only real program that works is to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Become a new creature. One who loves God and each other by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That is the program that we present each Tuesday night. That is the only hope.