“Daddy, is that what they call a haunted house?”
I could hear the little boy’s voice clearly from where I sat on my front porch, just feet away. He and his father were walking past my house. They couldn’t see me because… well, the little boy was right.
My house looked haunted. It’s a 120-year-old log cabin. I’d let it go in recent years, overwhelmed by health and financial problems. The roof leaked. Walls were damaged. Paint peeled. The heater needed replacement. So did the plumbing.
The yard around the cabin was a mess too. The weeds, briars and shaggy trees were so out of control, you could barely see the porch. I sat in my porch swing, shrouded by overgrowth, listening to that little boy innocently point out the most depressing part of my life.
Luke 4:18
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Colossians 3:5-10 NASB1995
“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—”
