House of Horror

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Psalm 51:3

Nobody came to Greg Lietz’s home for candy on Halloween. He was a nice enough guy who had purchased a small ranch-style home in Wichita, Kansas, but no children came to the door.

Greg mentioned this to a neighbor and found out why no children came. Somebody had murdered four members of a family who had previously lived in Lietz’s residence-and the crime had been committed right in the house. Six homes in Wichita share the same common denominator: they are homes where the BTK killer committed his heartless murders. BTK, standing for “Bind, Torture, Kill,” was the identifier used by the killer over the three decades that this unknown person terrorized Wichita, slaying a total of 10 people after subjecting them to extreme cruelties. His identity was discovered 5 years ago-a 60-year-old man named Dennis Rader who had been living quietly in the community all along. Rader is serving several life sentences in prison, with no possibility of parole.

Several of the residents who now live in these “houses of horror” were never told the truth about their dwellings. Such places are called “stigmatized property.” Yes-most states require that physical defects be disclosed, but the laws vary on the disclosure of what are called psychological facts about a house.

Put yourself in Greg Lietz’s shoes-would you feel happy about the place you were living? Probably not. How about translating that emotion to your own life? How many people are there who find their past too much with them? Some are haunted by something that will not let them live at peace in their own skin.

If you find yourself living in or on stigmatized property you may find you can’t do too much about it-but those who feel the sting of sin do, in fact, have a remedy.

Psalm 51 is a prayer of deep repentance for serious sin. It has been written that the Psalm was written by King David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife and then had Uriah killed. David felt a profound conviction of the sins he had committed, and as a result, he didn’t like where he was not living-separated from God. He felt alone and apart, that he and God not only were not in the same room, but they weren’t in the same universe. He says so plainly: “For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.”

The Greek word stigma refers to a mark made on the skin with a sharp instrument. Such a “brand” was often used to mark undesirables, and became known as a brand of shame. (The marks on the hands and feet of Christ made by the nails of the cross were known as the “stigmata.”) The psalmist feels his sin as something that has burned a brand of shame right through the skin and into the soul. He senses this soul shame keenly.

ALL of us live in the same house of horrors. ALL of us are stigmatized property-because we are all inherit the brand, the stigmata, the shame of a sinful nature. The psalmist writes in verse 5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

We are condemned property-corrupted souls-even before we are born. So how can there be any hope? The house that sits there will always carry with it the history of its horror-filled past. A brand on the body can’t be removed. BUT the stain of sin, the shame of sin-it can be removed. Only in Jesus Christ, who bore our sin with His own body on the cross can the stigmata be removed. Only in Christ’s wounds do we find healing. Only by faith in Christ do the “houses of horror” become “houses of the holy.” Jesus has “torn down” the condemned property and given us new dwellings. The Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Psalm 51 is a great prayer of confession and repentance-one that is great to read over and over again during the season of Lent. God takes sin seriously and gave a serious solution-His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Feeling like a “house of horror?” Finding it hard to let go of shame and guilt? Say again with the psalmist, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me…Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Ps. 51:4, 7, 10, 12)

The steadfast love of our God endures forever-even for those who confess that they are “houses of horror.” In Christ Jesus we are forgiven, restored, and filled with hope. May our gracious Lord continue to bless “His” property-your soul, with His joy and salvation.

In Jesus, Pastor Mueller

“For I resolved to know nothing while with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)