Word Problems - a favorite reminder

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, __________, deception, malicious behavior, and _____________.
Romans 1:28-29 NLT

I think word problems started back when it was called arithmetic... Do you remember when you first had to learn word problems in math? (Do they even do those anymore? I don't know.) I remember the left-brained group hated them - "Who needs words when you have numbers?" All the right-brained people loved them - "Oohhhhhhh, a puzzle! It's a game! We can fill in the blanks..."

And then a little later, we tried to learn relational language. Do you remember those? Words and numbers. Four or five in a row with two or more blanks and we were supposed to fill them in with words or numbers that were akin to what was already there. It definitely pre-dated Sesame Street's "Which of these things belong together? Which of these things are kind of the same?" Either one - either way, they were word problems...

Our text today reminded me of this. No, in my Bible, it did not have fill in the blanks - of course not. But in reading verse 29, Their lives became full of EVERY kind of wickedness... and reading what is already named (and without looking it up!), how would you fill in the blanks in relation to what is already there? Go ahead... Take a minute and think about what you might put in there. I'll wait...

Pardon? Hmm? Oh, you want a hint? Okay... the title of today's promise is a big hint.

Word Problems. Well, those are some serious sins listed there! (News flash - ALL sin is serious to the Father and His Son, the One who died to redeem us from sin.) Give up? The first blank is quarreling. The second blank is gossip. Both require words and BOTH are listed as part of 'EVERY kind of wickedness...' That's serious word problems.

Prayer:

Father,
          We know we have serious word problems when we have a serious lack of YOUR Word. When we open Your Word, Father, reveal it to us. Let us not follow the things of the flesh, but rather, follow after Your Spirit and Your Word that give us life. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen