All tagged Sins
We have no idea what the innocence of Adam and Eve was like before the fall. Oh, we can try to imagine it, but every thought we have is tainted by the flavor of sin. The knowledge of good came to them as promised by the serpent, but had evil as its dark shadow, and changed them, and us, forever. So now we work, and we suffer as we seek to recover in Christ what was lost in the Garden that day.
How many times have we almost slipped, or actually fallen in our faith? We are walking along thinking everything is going splendidly, and then whoops... our spiritual feet fly out from under us. It is so unexpected, so sudden, and often occurs without any forethought of impending danger; yet there we are, sitting on our backsides wondering how we got there, and suffering in our need for forgiveness.
Have you ever wandered from God? Have you strayed and no longer heard the voice of Jesus, or felt the pull of the Holy Spirit as it drew you back? Are you in this distant place now, or is someone you know there? Well you might feel as though you can’t return, and that your life is too far gone, but that isn’t true. The Lord sends you this message... “return to me, and I will return to you.”
Where do you go when trouble arises? Where do you seek refuge from the storm? When the world around us is being consumed by wind and flood, where is our high ground, or safe harbor? There is none like our God, and no beacon to guide us like Jesus. In Christ we are ushered to safety, in God we are safe, and made restful... even in the storms.
Have you ever run across someone who can’t wait to point out another’s faults? Does this person go to your church? Correction is good, but must be done with the right heart, and with a sense of humility. Nothing drives souls from Jesus faster than someone who uses their knowledge of the Word as a snare... a clever trap that is waiting to be sprung on someone as a means of belittling them, while raising themselves up.
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.”
Are we satisfied with our bodies and the way that we live? Do we work at improving ourselves in righteousness so that we will not be disappointed by the things we do? Are we living in joy, or is our existence sad and mournful? I ask all of this so that we can answer these questions... would we be embarrassed to ask God to take up residence with us in our bodies, and live side by side with our true thoughts? Would He be as pleased with us as He is with Jesus?
We often pray for forgiveness, and in one such prayer we ask God to forgive us from those things we have left undone. Have you ever prayed this way and wondered what those undone sins might be? Well the most powerful example of these is not witnessing in word or deed to a sinner, either unsaved, or who has wandered from the faith. Not witnessing when we are able places the blood of that soul upon us, but by obedience we save our own souls.