Sin is sin.
And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. Deuteronomy 16:12
It is important to remember where we’ve come from and how far God has brought us or we may get comfortable like the Israelites and want to turn back. You and I shall REMEMBER that we were once slaves to our sin and we must be careful to continue to not only observe His word as most of us do, but to also obey it! His commands aren’t optional to followers, for followers follow. Period. No ifs and buts or exceptions.
So often I fail. Thank God for His mercy and grace that He lifts me when I fall.
We must be more careful to acknowledge that God is still God and sin is still sin. It still destroys. We’ve become very complacent and compromising with sin in these last years, as individuals, families, churches, and as a nation. God LOVES sinners as we were all born into sin. He HATES what sin does to us. He sent His only Son to save and bring us OUT of our sin, not leave us in it.
We’ve become more tolerant of sin and instead of loving the sinner, we’ve taken it all as a package deal. If you love someone you tell them what’s destroying them. You don’t become tolerant or you become complacent and eventually cold. Then we lose our urgency and desire to pray for them to come out of that sin. We can’t force others to change but we don’t have to say it’s ok. It’s not ok in their lives or our own lives. If we are comfortable, we have no reason to change so God lets us get uncomfortable but ultimately we choose.
It may take us a while to see the consequences of compromise, but eventually we will. We are called to be light and light exposes dark. We are to be love, for God is love and it’s His first command to us. But we are to hate sin and not tolerate it, compromise with it, flirt with it, or be ok with it. It is possible to love others without loving their ways.
And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Jude 1:22-23
In other words, be merciful to those who doubt and show compassion to those who are struggling with and questioning their faith for we all do at some point. Who wins someone with harshness? We should be loving and kind as God has been to us. We should also speak truth in love when needed and without being cruel. All because we love them so much we hate to see them destroyed by what they’re tied or bound to.
God wants us LOOSED and free. Jesus died to set us free from the sin chains that once bound us. Not to get free and then continue to use grace as a license to sin or to think we’re holier than thou and so go around beating others on the head with our Bible! NO!! Remember where you came from and how it could have turned out!
We must HATE sin as God does and see it as He sees it, that it’ll destroy you and those whom He loves. If someone was getting burned, we’d SNATCH them out. We must not take sin lightly! Sometimes we need to be patient with each other when we are struggling but other times it calls for more quickness and urgency! With fear pull them out because you know what can happen! Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh… if we don’t hate it, we’ll continue to wear it.
We are NO better than them. In fact, we realize we are saved by grace and we could be them. That is why we are to hate sin, because God does! But to also love them, because God does. THANK GOD THAT JESUS CAME DOWN AND SO LOVINGLY SAVED ME, in my worst condition. Lights aren’t activated for use until it’s dark and the deeper the sin, the deeper His Grace. The darker the night, the brighter the light. They may not see it now but they’ll thank you later. It’s better than the alternative, being destroyed by sin. Hate the SIN.
Jesus said He is the vine and that we must abide in Him. We can’t do this on our own or we’ll go back to sin every single time. It’s whag the flesh will choose. Lean into God, rely on the Spirit and not the flesh because you’re not strong enough on your own, and stay close to Him. We are to be careful if we think we stand, lest we fall. We don’t judge others and we don’t fall into the pit with them. We show compassion and mercy and at other times we pull them out and do not mess around.
The fact is, lives are being destroyed daily, people are drowning and we don’t throw them a life line. Do we watch idly sit back and watch them drown, while we should be doing as our preacher says, “everything SHORT OF sin” to try and pull them out? In other words, whatever we gotta do!
God says if we love Him, then to keep His commands and there’s a period there. Sin will destroy you and it’s not a matter of if but when…Everything comes back full circle. The devil isn’t your friend and this is where sin begins. He wants you but he wants to kill and steal from you, and to eventually destroy you. That’s why we must live with an urgency to not allow or be tainted by sin.
I’ve just been thinking about the things that we watch and the things we see, and how what was once unacceptable has now become tolerated. Sin is still sin and it still has the same effect and consequences. No one is exempt. Not you. Not me. Not them. Let’s quit looking down on them and pray for them or lend a helping hand. But let’s not be ok with it. What we watch, see and observe, becomes us. I have become tolerant of lots of things that I never thought I would have.
Where is the conviction? Have we ignored it for far too long? Has the conviction slowly faded and turned to compromise? More than anything it bothers me because I know that my kids are watching me and other youngsters. Even those who aren’t young! What kind of example am I setting? Am I walking the walk or talking the talk?
I have fallen far away. I’ll be the first to admit. I don’t want my words to fall flat. There is a standard and I have fallen below that. We aren’t to only tell them, we are to show and point them to truth, not away from it! We are to BE a living testimony or a walking billboard if you will. To live out what we say that we believe and not just talk it out, or are words become like vomit and they want nothing to do with them. They can see right through us. We are only fooling ourselves. Children truly do LEARN what they live. They follow what they see. We don’t hide as well as we think we do and so we must do everything with integrity and because God sees and cares.
Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously. Deuteronomy 17:12-13
Simply put, if no urgency, reverence, or fear, there is no following or honoring God.
We must follow God. We learn to follow God by learning first to follow other God given authority. If we don’t, then we learn to be and eventually become presumptuous and think arrogantly that we do not answer to anyone. Thank God for grace and that we are no longer bound by the law but it’s arrogant to think that sin doesn’t still have consequences, even though we’re not ordered to be stoned like the old law would state.
God is the same and so is sin and so are the blessings and consequences accordingly. We learn to listen to God and we become learners and leaders. Everyone is leading someone, know it or not. Someone is watching you. We all have influence, whether it be negative or positive or whether or not we think we do or don’t matter, Because we do! What we do matters so make it positive and it’ll have a positive impact. I haven’t always done this but I sense the urgency to change it.
If we allow sin into our lives then pretty soon those under our authority will as well. What one generation tolerates, the next fully embraces. Exodus talks about the importance of being loyal to God and breaking generational curses or following after the father’s sin. Sin begets more sin and so does being presumptuous and assuming lead to more arrogance. What we feed grows, and the gens become worse and worse until someone says enough and stops with them.
Thank God for grace. May we begin leaning back in toward Him and following through…
As we learn from the Old Testament even that led to the grace that we know now, may we continue to live it and walk it out and not use it as a license to sin. Or else, there’s no longer any sacrifice left for our sin. (Hebrews 10:26) Leadership MATTERS. What you and I do and allow matters! Let’s not assume it’s ok when it’s clearly not. Let’s stop calling right wrong and wrong right. God makes a distinct difference in sin and right, between light and darkness. Be the light, His Spirit is within you. Activate the light once again and begin to rely on Him because you can’t do it on your own. Play with fire and you will eventually get burned. Gamble enough and eventually you’ll lose.
Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? Proverbs 6:27-28
We all fall into the trap sooner or later if we compromise and say it’s ok. It’s not and we must state it and stand on truth.
We are to stand on the solid rock and foundation of Jesus Christ. No if and or buts. He’s given us a solid place to stand so that we don’t fall. We aren’t to compromise with sin or pick and choose, we aren’t to stand in the sinking sand of compromise, but on His truth, and in love.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children amid Israel. Deuteronomy 17:19-20
Keep the word of the Lord before you and hide it in your heart so that you won’t sin against HIM. If you want it to go well for you and yours, or those who are under your authority, then live and walk it out! That’s how they learn. We have a grand responsibility and privilege both. We are followers and stewards of God and we will give an account for what we did and didn’t do, or allowed. God is looking for doers.
The church is filled with hearers and the world is watching us to see what we will DO. They want to see if we will fall, yet they want to see us stand because they are looking for something steady on which to lean. Fall into God and on truth stand. Never compromise wrong for right. Call it what it is. Bring the truth to light and get more urgent on the saving souls for the kingdom of light and that requires exposing the dark. That’s what it’s really all about. Are we missing it? The Lord will expose what’s dark in us when we read His word, for it mirrors us inwardly. When we hear truth. What are we listening to and watching? When we call out sincerely in truth to Him and get honest with ourselves, He not only hears but answers. He loves us too much to leave us in our sin.
It begins with me! It begins with you!
Don’t wait for anyone else to do what you should be doing.
Be doing…. Don’t delay. If you didn’t do it then, do it now. If not now, when???
As part of the saying goes, the best thing you can do is “go home and love your family”. This is where it all begins, contrary to popular belief. We want to shine out there but then go back to our den. The evidence is in here. We are His home. It’s where we think no one sees but God knows, so live as unto Him. I’ve set a horrible example at times but I must let God back in to re-begin in me the work that He first began. I must allow Him to reignite the flame that I let go dim.
Cry out “it’s me, it’s me. It begins with me… before I can lead or help anyone else they must see You in me. It’s me… Oh Lord, it’s me. MY HEART cries out. It’s me.”
Psalm 51
10 Create IN ME a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
We cannot do for anyone else what God has not done for us. We must deal and heal. We can then go on to comfort others in the same way.
If you have gone wrong, it’s not too late to turn around. You can re-begin today! Just like with salvation, if you confess try your mouth and believe in your heart, you can begin to walk it out once more. If you never have, you can begin a new life in Him.
Song of the day “Trust in God” - By Elevation Worship
This song has blessed me so much, I hope it blesses you. He wants change. If we’ve messed up, we haven’t gone too far to turn around. He can make a message of our mess and right every wrong. Amen.
