I recently recorded a devotion on the church's Facebook page and the subject of that devotion was how should a Christian respond when we see someone in sin.  It has me thinking today about how we typically respond and how we should respond.  In my life I've seen people from all walks of life fall into some moral failure or caught in some scandal.  I've seen politicians, pastors, doctors, lawyers, family and friends all fall into sin. I've heard so many times from people older than me that America used to be a forgiving country.  If a person messes up we give them another chance to redeem themselves.  Now a days I don't see any of that.  I see people calling for people's jobs, slandering them on the internet and social media and leaving no room for the restorative work of the Holy Spirit.  

     I want to make three points in regards to how we handle someone who had been caught in Satans snare.  The first two will deal with our response to Christians in sin.  The last one will deal with how to deal with a nonbeliever who has fallen.  So what do we do with a Christian brother or sister who is being attacked by Satan?  The first thing we need to do is is restore them.  We need to be careful, we need to come proud and haughty and arrogant, but will loving kindness and with mercy and compassion.  That's how we restore a brother or sister in trouble.  Our society is so quick to judge and condem people and leave them out to dry and banish them, there is no room for forgiveness.  We live in a country where if you mess up you are forever defined by your action and no amount of apologies can ever restore them.  We need to remind Christians that Jesus died once for all sin and that our sins are paid for and when we repent He no longer remembers then.  Scripture says that in Christ Jesus there is no more condemnation.  If anybody in the world should be known for being people of second, third, fourth chances it is folllowers of Christ because He forgave us as well.  Which brings me to my second point.  We need to not celebrate or think to highly of ourselves when we see people "fall from Grace". Even if the people who fall are people we don't like or agree with.  We need to remember and keep in mind that we could be in that very same predicament, we too could sin and fall into satans trap.  We need to remember all the times we have messed up and grace was shown to us.  Satan is no respecter of persons, we need to know it could just as easily be us who needs forgiveness and grace.

     Now what about people who aren't Christians, how do we respond to them when they are faced with some sort of life Crisis?  This isn't a place for judgment, this is a place where we need to be bearers of good news.  This is a perfect opportunity to share the Gospel, to share with someone that no matter what they have done there is forgiveness for them at the Cross.  Now this means we as Christians need to be ready at any time to share the faith we have, and be ready to share it with anyone, even our enemies.  This is the perfect place to show them the mercy and compassion of Christ and this may be a great time to share with them what God has saved you from.  We need to be ready to be about kingdom work, we need to be ready to preach to the Gospel to everyone and bring people out of darkness and condemnation into light and forgiveness and to show them the horror and beauty of the cross!