From United Press International, 10/1/97, comes this story: Student Dies From Fraternity Party Drinking...

Unfortunately, this is not the only story of this kind that has been reported in recent weeks. As the new school year has unfolded horror stories of this sort seem to proliferate. A related incident was recently reported at LSU where another young man in the prime of life drank himself to death at what was also suspected to have been an initiation rite for a certain college fraternity at that university.

I have two boys, one eleven and the other fifteen. I almost get sick to my stomach when I hear of bright young lives so senselessly wasted and destroyed. I imagine how I would feel if something like this happened to one of them. I feel so sorry for the parents who have to endure such tragedy. And I get angry at sin.

Oh, I know that sin is an ancient and archaic word, quite out of date for a culture that more and more finds its code of ethics in Sodom. Advertisers glamorize it. Society winks at it or in the name of tolerance embraces it. But if you want to get a good look at sin and what sin will do to you, go the basement of the fraternity house and look at the bright 18-year-old lying dead in a pool of his own vomit. Visit the parents who have to live with this tragedy for the rest of their lives. Then maybe sin won't seem like the laughing matter so much of TV and culture makes it out to be.

The Bible speaks of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Why didn't God call sin exceedingly black or wicked? Because to God there is nothing as bad as sin. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that he came to save us from the horror and the evil and the awful consequences of sin both here and throughout eternity. The color white is more brilliant when seen against a backdrop of black. And the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ show up most brightly when we see the stink and stench and destruction and death from which he can save us.

In life you have a choice. You can let sin destroy you and those around you, or you can let Jesus Christ save you from what sin has in store for you. Do yourself a favor. Do your family and friends a favor. Let God save you from the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

For the Church of Christ, Old N. Highway 169, Cherryvale, this is Stan Bryan hoping that you will let Jesus save you from sin.