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“Your iniquities have separated you from your God.”
Isaiah 59:2
I used to work for the phone company--back in the days when cords went straight from the phone into the wall. I drove a company van all over West Los Angeles fixing, removing and installing phones.
A common problem I encountered as a telephone technician was old cords tightly twisted into hopeless knots. The twisting was often so tight that the connection was severed. To this day (some 30 years later), I have a fetish for untwisting telephone cords. Today, all I have to do is unplug and unwind.
This brings me to the problem of “iniquities.”
What is an “iniquity?” Have you ever seen one? Have you got any? These are crucial questions because, as Isaiah averred above, iniquities separate us from God.
Webster defines an iniquity as a “gross injustice” or a “wicked act.” The original Hebrew word (‘awon’) used by Isaiah is more specific. “Awon” originally referred to a twist, a bend or a crooked path. It often described something forbidden or wrong. Such things separate us from God.
The problem with iniquities is that they tie you up into spiritual knots. You get so twisted that the connection between you and God is severed. God can restore it with a new line, but if we keep twisting it up, the problem returns.
Simply stated, when you twist up a hose, water cannot flow. When you twist up a cord, electrical power cannot flow. And when we twist up our lives, God’s power is cut off. We cannot fix the severed line by ourselves, but once God fixes it with His forgiveness, we must stop twisting it up.
God gave you your life, your heart, your body and your soul. Don't twist such gifts into knots. His Word sheds light on the straight and narrow path toward heaven. Take it. Don't be diverted or perverted. With God's Word in mind and heart, walk straight and true.
There’s no substitute for straight living.
Joel Mark Solliday , B.A., M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Brooklyn Center Church of Christ in Minnesota. A Pepperdine graduate, he later worked in their Campus Life Office and at ACU as a Missionary in Residence. He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary.
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