Psalm 36:1-4 "I have a message from God in my heart
concerning the sinfulness of the
wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.
The words of their
mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful
course and do not
reject what is wrong."
We can only imagine
what it would be like if Eve wasn't deceived into biting the apple and Adam
followed suit. The verse above says that there is no fear of God in the sinful -
they (we) do not hold God in holy reverence and awe of Who He is. Instead, they
(we) flatter themselves too much (aka. Pride) and that blinds them (us) so that
they (we) cannot even see that they (we) are sinning, let alone hate their (our)
sin.
40 days from today, we honor the death of Jesus. That sounds so wrong on so many different angles, unless you're a Christian and you know the rest of the story. Jesus honored His Father. He did what His Father told Him to do and said what His Father wanted Him to say. In Jesus, there was NO sin. He held His Father in reverence and knew His place as Son to the Father.
If I sit here and think
about how many times I've puffed myself up in pride of my accomplishments or
even sometimes even 'glorifying' myself of my past deeds - like I was one bad
dude (or dudette).... if I thought about that for long, I'd me face down in
humility before my God and my Father. Our accomplishments - our possessions -
even the giftings that He has graciously given us mean little to God unless they
are given over to Him.
But, really, what IS sin? There's kind of a simple answer in the Christian's BIG BOOK. James 4:17 'If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." For me to pick up a drink, it is sin - but for my husband it's not. Some can go witness in certain places and some cannot. The Lord deals with each of us separately in different areas. But it all boils down to this one verse. If I know that the Lord is telling me to do something, and I don't do it - I'll have to repent for it later. On the flip side, if He tells me NOT to do something and I do it anyway, I'll still have to repent. In each of these instances, there also could be consequences that we may have to deal with.
Psalms 5:4-6 "For You [are] not a God who takes pleasure
in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in
Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak
falsehood; The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful
man."
Proverbs 8:13 "To fear
the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and
arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech."
God doesn't hate the sinner - He hates the sin. Sin
separated us from Him. Sin made us an abomination to God. Sin marked us for
death. Sin - whatever it is - may feel good for the moment, but it grabs ahold
of us and pulls us farther and farther down until we are no longer in control...
But for the Grace of God...
Today, let's really let James 4:17 sink into our
hearts.... let's allow the fear of the Lord to do it's work in
us.
This song is a reality check song... there are many, many
people out there that truly identify with it. I did. I used to play it over and
over. Many people think there is no way out. Here their hearts and your
own....
Falling Into The Black - Skillet
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