Who's A Sinner?

I fell into sin yesterday, and I was wondering this morning about that and how it's the little things that trip us up. You know the sins that don't really seem like much, but end up hurting our relationship with the Father. Jesus told us that if our eye offends us we should pluck it out, well that seems a little extreme doesn't it? Yet there it is, a command from our Lord. So what are we to do with that?

One thing that I've come to realize in Christianity is that we as a people group try to rate our sins or categorize them into various degrees of evil. Murder is at the worst end of the spectrum, while gossiping may end up on the "little sin" end of the scale. One of the things that I find really funny, is the fat Christian who points his finger at the person who drinks or smokes and condemns them as one of those really big sinners. The truth is, gluttony is just as much a sin as what they are pointing out, but lets don't talk about that, after all a person's gotta eat, right? And don't you know that we are told to fellowship with other believers, and we do that around meals. Yeah I know, just next time skip the third helping and two deserts, how about that? (And I've been guilty of this so don't stone me).

There are no degrees of sin with God period. Sin causes separation from God. It breaks the fellowship that we have with Him, and that is why it is bad. Regardless of what sin you commit, this will hinder you in your relationship with the Father. This is why He hates sin, not because He has this big list of do's and dont's, but because He knows that when we sin it keeps His best from getting to us, and He is all about doing good for us. Remember, "For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11"

And that is the point really, the relationship I have between me and God. So when I sin, and we all do, this barrier raises up which keeps me from receiving God's best for my life, and the devil knows this. He works very hard to trip us up in this area. Now before you come to the conclusion that we are just pawns in some big cosmic chess game, I'm not saying that the devil can "make" us sin. What he does is plant thoughts in our little pea brains to see if we will act on them. Take a look at James 1:14 - 15 in the Amplified Bible:

"But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions). Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death."

"Baited by his own lust and passions". Hmm, now this is interesting, we are not driven along by the devil and his minions with pitchforks prodding us to do wrong. No, it is the lust and passions within us that cause us to sin. So, while the enemy has a part to play, we can no longer just blame him for our short comings can we? I think not. You know the bait covers up a hook, and it is the hook that causes the problem, for it snares us and brings the destruction of our fellowship with God.

So what are we to do then? If it is our lust and passions that trip us up then we need to learn to control those things. But how do I do that Dave? I'm glad you asked. You have to have a working knowledge of God's Word. We can no longer take a casual approach to the Bible and it's teachings, to do so allows sin to have it's way with us. We must master those things that would try and trip us up. Now before you go any further, just because you read the Bible does not mean that you will magically never sin again. You may read in the Word that you should not do something, but just having that knowledge won't save you, you have to act on that knowledge.

Just as sin starts as a thought and then you act on that thought. God's Word is a thought which you must act on too. The key here is that we have to do the acting, either for good or for bad, it is our choice. No longer do we have the right to say that we couldn't help ourselves because that is a lie, we can..."IF" we make the decision to do so. So get a Bible reading plan and start it, then act on those things that you learn there and you will see the things that once tripped you up will begin to have less and less ability to entice you.

Now I wonder as you read this today, did you get the point I've been making this morning, or have you just been trying to decide which sin I committed yesterday? Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

How'd You Like To Be Job?

I don't know why the book of Job fascinates me so much. Maybe it's because so many people are quick to put God and the devil playing a chess match with Job in the middle. I think this one passage of Scripture has been so misquoted and it aggravates me that God gets blamed in this way. Let's look at it for a minute.

Job 1:21, "And Job said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."

This passage of Scripture gets quoted a lot at funerals, and while it has the appearance of being Godly, I really think it has been used by the enemy to confuse and bother people more than anything else. It's plain to see from the passages before this, (Job 1:12 -19) that it wasn't the Lord that had taken from Job, it was the devil. Job in his limited understanding of what was happening determined that it must have been the Lord, even though it wasn't.

Deception. That is the enemy's number one tool. He works to deceive us every chance he gets. If he can get us to thinking that God is the one doing things, or we have through some lack of effort on our part caused the calamity to happen, then he has won a small victory. He loves to take himself out of the equation when bad things happen, then sit back and watch us scramble around trying to affix the blame to someone other than where it belongs.

Notice the earlier passages (verses 13 -19) when the messengers start to come in. The first one arrives and tells how all of Job's oxen and donkeys were taken and his servants killed. While this guy is telling Job what has happened, the second messenger arrives and tells how all the sheep and servants were killed by fire from the sky. Before he can finish, a third messenger shows up and tells Job that all his camels are gone and the servants killed.

But the worst news came when the last servant arrived and told Job that a mighty wind came out of the desert and destroyed his oldest son's house killing all ten of his children. It is at this point that Job makes the statement found in verse 21. Now I've had some bad days, but I think that we can all agree that Job probably has had the worst day of anyone ever. He lost everything in the course of a few minutes time.

On a side note, did you notice that it was fire from the sky (lightning I'd imagine) and a mighty wind (a tornado) came in from the desert to destroy his son's home? Those sound an awful lot like what insurance companies call "acts of God" to me, does it to you? And if it was the devil that caused the calamity in Job's life, then shouldn't those actually be called "acts of the devil"?

The thing that I want you to see here today is found in verse 22, "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrong doing." Even though Job said that the Lord takes away, that was not considered in God's mind, charging Him with wrong doing. It says that Job did not sin by charging God with wrong doing. What does that say about us when we do? If we say that some catastrophe in our life is caused by God, then according to this Scripture we are in sin.

I know that I have foolishly charged God with things in my past, but since learning who is behind things, I have corrected that in my life. How about you, have you ever charged God with something that should have been attributed to the devil? If your answer is yes, then you should probably hop on over to 1 John 1:9 and confess your sin to Him and receive the forgiveness that is yours in Christ. You'll be glad you did.

Okay to wrap this up, there is no cosmic chess game going on, the devil is not on equal footing with God. So in the future if bad things happen understand that it isn't God that is doing them, so place the blame square on the devil's shoulders and keep moving forward with God. I like to say it like this, God is good, and the devil is bad. That pretty much covers it in my life. If something good happens, then it is from God, and if something bad happens it is from the devil.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Watch Out! Your Enemy, The Devil Is Trying To Get You!

We are admonished in 1 Peter 5:8 to stay alert for our enemy the devil, is looking for someone to eat. I like that Peter doesn't say that the enemy is eating up people, but "looking" for people to eat. He then goes on to say that we are to resist him in the faith, and not to be surprised that Christians all over are going through the same thing.

And this is not an isolated incident either. This is an all out attack on the believers in Jesus. And the devil is not even subtle in how he is going about it, no he is patiently waiting and watching for us to slip up somewhere so then he can attack and have us for lunch. One of the biggest problems that I see lately is that most Christians don't even act like the enemy is real, much less that he is working hard to devour us.

Today if you talk about the devil and what he is doing, most of the time people just roll their eyes and say, "Oh man, you're one of those wacky Christians." People just want to dismiss the fact that we have an enemy and that he is trying to steal, kill and destroy. They will chalk up bad things happening to circumstances, being in the wrong place at the wrong time or just coincidence. I think the saints in the Bible had a little bit better grip on this subject than we do.

Look at the lion in the picture I put in my blog. Do you notice how well he blends in with his surroundings? I mean you can see him there, but if you just took a casual or quick glance you might actually miss him. That is how the enemy works too. He blends in with society in such a way that you can actually miss him at work. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us how the enemy works; he steals, kills and destroys, that is what he does.

We were told by Peter to stay alert for our enemy. Staying alert does not mean take an occasional glance, it means:

1) to watch

2) give strict attention to, be cautious, active

a) to take heed lest through remission and indolence some destructive calamity suddenly overtake one.

We have to be the ones looking for the enemy, no one else can do it for us. And this is not to say that we have to be cowardly, or fearful while looking for him. After all we have the blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to counteract the works of the devil. But we have to be watching for him to be able to confront him, and not be caught

unaware.

We need to pay a little bit more attention to things in the spirit, and not get caught forgetting to pay attention to this fact that we have an enemy and that he is trying to trip us up. We are most definitely in the last days, and the return of Jesus is closer than any of us probably realize. But this does not mean that we need to go into a docile, holding pattern mentality. We need to stay alert, and be on guard for the attacks that the enemy will try on us.

While the enemy may have a bulls eye on our backs, we don't have to be his victim. Spend time in God's Word daily, pray and seek the face of God and then listen for the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit to make you aware of what is going on around you in the spiritual realm. The enemy cannot get us if we are aware of him coming. He is a coward, and chooses not to face us directly, because he knows that in a full out frontal attack on a Christian he will be withstood. But if he can trip us up and cause us to sin, then he can pounce on us once we are down.

And listen, if you've slipped up and sinned, don't stay there. Get up, turn to 1 John 1:9 which says that if you will confess your sin to God, that He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Doing that puts you right back on your feet and in right standing with God which keeps the enemy from munching on you.

Understand this too, once you have confessed your sin to God, he forgets it and will not remind you of it again. But when you hear that condemning voice in your head telling you how bad a person you really are, and how much you blew it this time, know that that is the enemy trying to trip you up again. You need to forgive yourself as well. The devil would like nothing better than once you've asked God to forgive you, for you to continue to beat yourself up about what you did. It's forgiven, now dust yourself off and go get back out there.

Our enemy the devil may be like a roaring lion, but that's all he can really do, roar. He can only eat up those who will let him. Get 'em up folks, let's go out and whip the enemy today!