All in Christian
In our old age we turn to our children to help us with those things requiring strong hands and feet, but when we have no home, and no children, where do we turn for help? We find our help where we have always found it... in the Lord Jesus, and Almighty God. Our provision is complete in God, and in Jesus, along with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
How do you confront sin? Do you look it in the eye and try to overpower it? Do you ignore it and go about your business, or perhaps you do what any animal does when it doesn’t want to fight... it runs. Getting as far away from evil as quickly as we can is a good strategy when it comes to temptation and sin. Confronting Satan isn’t something to be taken lightly.
Are you in a difficult place in your life? Do you find yourself like the Israelites did when they had the sea before them, and the Egyptians racing to catch them from behind? Do you see no good way out of your predicament? If this is you today then do as Moses told the people “Fear not, stand firm” and trust in God to do the miraculous.
Perhaps today Someone will ask you if you have sinned, and you will tell them that you can’t recall having committed a sin today, but think again. Were you in the presence of those who were committing a sin and said nothing, or did you give the appearance of being complicit in a sin by not opposing it or removing yourself from it? If so that is to you a sin because to whom much is given much is expected, and even by your tolerance you teach others that their sin is acceptable. We “were like one of them.”
We talk a great deal about being like Jesus, but we rarely speak of those instances when He was most like us; those moments when His humanity was most evident. Perhaps we are afraid that by doing so we might denigrate Him, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Man called Jesus was just as important to our redemption as the divinity of Christ. Crucifying either one alone would not have been sufficient.
Why is your forgiveness by God tied to your own forgiveness of others? There are certain people who have hurt us that we are inclined to dislike or hold a grudge against forever, and some, who will not change their offending behavior, or become reconciled to you. Forgiveness... it takes one person to forgive, but two to reconcile, yet the first step to any reconciliation is always forgiveness. Yes, forgiveness can be so hard!
Do you feel out of sorts in your faith? Has God placed you in a certain place, or situation, perhaps asked you to do something that you don’t understand the purpose in? When this happens we often start questioning Him, and get despondent, but suddenly, we are surrounded by His light, and for a brief instant we see Him in a way that would have been impossible anywhere else. We envy those who seem to stand in God’s light always, but sometimes He moves us into a cleft to show us more of Himself.
Do you ever feel like one of the lesser believers? When work is handed out at church do you always seem to get the mundane tasks, or the grunt work? If so then rejoice and don’t lose heart! Faith is not like everyday worldly life... in faith the least shall be first. You are like the camp of Dan, and although you bring up the rear there is great importance in that. These are the most humble, most unsung, and yet most dependable of all.
How complete must the destruction of our sins be when we accept Jesus as our savior, and God as our One True God? Do we throw down most of them but allow a few to linger on in our lives? When we step back from the work of faith in us do we still see some stones standing one atop another? Are there remnants of our past life there? Until we have completely torn down the sinful stones of our old life we can’t be rebuilt.
Do you live your spiritual life eating day old bread? Do you pray on Sunday, and then go for days without seeking the Lord’s presence? It is easy for us to convince ourselves that we prayed for something once, and that should be enough, or that God sees what we need and He doesn’t need to be reminded. However, He wants us to reach out to Him every day, because this is what it means to be in relationship.
Are we occasional Christians? Are we occasional in our worship of God? Do we straddle the flaming rift between heaven and earth not knowing which foot to pull up, and which way to lean? Well our God is not a sometimes God, He desires our all, gives us His all, and as the chasm between heaven and earth continues to widen we will reach a point in which we will fall into the pit unless a choice is made. Which will we choose, or will the choice be made for us?
What does our Bible look like? Is it a simple black book with words, or ornate with pictures and such? How too is the cross on which we envision Jesus; is it a simple wooden cross, or ornately designed and built; perhaps even cast in gold? How about our faith? Is it simply in the word of God, or have we massaged it, and improved upon it with additions meant to make it easier on us? In short, have we made God our own, rather than simply being His?
Anger, in and of itself it isn’t necessarily a sin, but unbridled it can lead us to the wide gate of sin, as certainly as the road to righteousness is hard, and the bridge to life is narrow. The way from anger to murder, or hating your brother is an easy walk... so we must always ask ourselves “do you do well to be angry?” Then, If our anger is justified... ask “Do I have it under control?”
When we think of sin in our life we like to attribute it to Satan, but in fact, Satan never forces us to sin... he only leads us through deception and temptation to do those things that are already common to man. The serpent didn’t force Eve to take a bite of the apple... he just lied, and tempted her, and he does the same to us. Yet much of the time we don’t need his tempting lies to fall into our sinfulness... just a small taste of our own desire!