What can you get for $2 these days?

"Confession: A Roman Catholic App" has won official church approval all the way up to the Vatican. Yet feedback over the past week has given priests cause to hit pause. More than a few Catholics believe their iPhone can now forgive their sins.

The article on the NewsOK website starts like this. "Like God, technology is everywhere. Unlike God, it can't forgive sins." Sadly, many people will fall for this marketing trickery. But isn't that just like us humans? Always seeking what seems to be the easy way out? I mean if an app on my Smartphone can listen to my confession, absolve my sins and make my heart pure and whole again...isn't it worth the $1.99 the download costs?

If you want the easy way out (and remember, who doesn't) well the way has already been put in front of you. You don't need an app on your phone; you don't even need a priest behind a mesh window in a booth. All you need to do is apply the cure for sin TO your sin and all is forgiven.

Ephesians 1:7 tells us that we have rememption through his blood and our sins are forgiven according to the riches of his grace.

Romans 6:23 lets us know that forgiveness of our sins does not come from any other source but Jesus.

Verses on Jesus being the only one who can forgive

So save your $1.99 and go to the original source of forgiveness - Calvary! It's FREE!!

Are You ALL IN?

Tonight, while traveling to the hospital to sit with my youngest son, I was listening to Family Life Today. The special guest was Pastor Chip Ingram, the author of "Living on the Edge".

Being a former poker player, Chip said something that caught my attention. Here is a paraphrase. Life is like a poker game. You are sitting at the table with all your chips in front of you. Instead of having stacks of $50, $100 or even $500 chips; you have stacks of chips labeled home, family, hobbies, finances, etc.

Just like watching a poker match live or on TV, it does not get interesting until one of the players says, "I'm all in!" That's when the crowd grows anxious. That's when the announcer's voices really show the tenseness of the moment.

Once you go "all in" you can't take back your chips. You have to wait until the cards are dealt to see how the hand will end. So it is with our walk. Many of us "play" the game of Christianity. We've won a few hands - lost a few. We might even be sitting on a pretty good stack of chips. But have we ever gone "all in"? Have we ever taken all our chips (family, finances, and fame) and pushed them into the center of God's table and told him "I'm all in"?

I encourage you today to go all in with God. As Chip so eloquently put it, we might have to lose a few to win a few. God might have to take our 'all in' offer, weed out some of the bad and replace it with good. In the end, we will win.