Seek to be Pleasing to God

I have to remember that sin is sin is sin. There are things that we don’t think about being sin that are, like lusting in your heart. When we lust after another that is not our spouse, then we have committed sin. No, it is not a sin to admire another, but lusting after them certainly is. Omitting something so as “not to offend” them is a sin in that it is a lie of omission. So being pleasing to God is so hard in this life.

“¹⁸Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.” – Hebrews 13:18 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews asks for prayer to assist in the acting “honorably in all things”. The writer knows that we are not free from sin and need help as they “desire” to do be pleasing to God.

This verse and passage is so telling and the honest approach that each of us should have. There are so many things in our life that corrupt us into sin. Whether we are consciously aware of them or not. I know that I pray for forgiveness daily for the sins I have committed and will commit. I know that I have sinned, maybe not consciously, but subconsciously for sure. I cannot get through a day without sinning in some fashion and no one can. But, I can seek to be pleasing to God. I can strive to be better.

I don’t steal and I don’t kill. These are the conscious sins that everyone can see and I do well in avoiding these sins. But, look at how I open this post and the subconscious sin that we may not be aware. Those are the ones that get me. I will commit those sins that are under the surface that hurt God the Father. He knows of them before I am aware and is hurt by them. They are not pleasing to Him, and I must ask for forgiveness for those.

The verse above is a great one to remind me and us that we are to seek honor in everything we do. We are to do those things that are pleasing to the LORD. I am tasked with bring glory to the LORD and avoiding sin does that, but confessing sin and asking for forgiveness does as well. Allowing the LORD to work in my life gives Him glory and therefore brings joy to His face.

What is your view on being pleasing to the LORD? Do you believe in the idea that if you avoid the known sin you have somehow won the battle? What if you were to seek to please the LORD by allowing Him to work in your life?

Immoral, Sin Against Self

Again, as usual, the LORD has learned me something. I ask for God’s guidance in my daily Bible Study and He is always there. Today is no different in my study of the word “immoral”.

“¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV)

As stated, my approach to Bible Study is choosing a word in the concordance of my Bible and going verse be verse as identified and allowing God to teach me. I do not go in with a specific agenda, other than the word itself and I allow God to lead me to what He would have me learn. This morning The LORD led me to learn about being immoral and sinning against my self.

When you see the title of the passage from this morning, “Flee Sexual Immorality”, you would think that it is indeed subject of learning. Where to some extent that is true, this morning, God would have me learn of being immoral and sinning against my self. You see, the verse above does speak of sexually immorality, yet it speaks of it in such a way that we are sinning against our own selves even as we sin against God.

Think of sinning in general. Steal something and you harm someone else. Kill someone and you harm someone else. Serve another god and you harm God. All of these sins are harmful to others and have perceived upside to you. Except for sexual sin and immorality. With this one, it is us who are harmed. Yes, maybe there is some pleasure and gratification in the moment, but what about after that moment. There are so many other things that happen, possible pregnancy, disease, lying, hiding and a whole host of other things that come with it. We may be sinning and may be immoral in our actions, but it is deeper in that we are acting against ourselves.

“¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV)

And just what is our self. Our self is “a temple of the Holy Spirit”. We are the place where God dwells and lives. We belong to God and in that we are to keep our bodies clean and pure. With sexual immorality, we are sinning against our self and therefore desecrating the temple of the LORD.

I personally do not want to desecrate the temple of the LORD. Where I will sin, because I am a sinner and will always be. I ask the LORD daily to guard me against conscious sin. Where, as noted above, sin is harmful to others and certainly disappointing to the LORD, it is the sexual immorality where it really stings. It stings because it is against my self and the temple of the LORD. I have to work at avoiding sin, and especially sexual immorality to not desecrate my self and more importantly the dwelling place of the LORD.

What is your view of sexual immorality? Are you seeing it just as any other sin? What if you saw it as noted here as desecration of your self and more importantly, the temple of the LORD?

Immoral

Immoral: not moral: wicked, bad – Merriam-Webster Online (Kids Definition)

I went I normally go for definitions when learning, Merriam-Webster. This morning as I was looking up the word “immoral” that I have begun to study, I found that the definition is using the a form of the word to define the word. The definition that is presented to begin with is the same as with the above in the “Kids Definition”, “not moral”. Yet, that does not really speak to what immorality is. So, I worked my way down to the “Kids Definition” to find the definition that spoke to me as someone who does not know, and the “wicked, bad” really summed it up.

“⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV)

I have looked at immorality from a more, as is noted in the above verses, sexual context. We look to sexual perversion as the driver of immoral behavior, whether it is homosexuality, or some other act outside of what the LORD meant for intimacy between a husband and wife. These are what are considered immoral acts in the Christian community. But look further into the verses above and then into the definition of immoral and find a broader context. Immoral is “wicked, bad” and in the verses, we see “idolaters, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers”. All of these, where not tied directly to immoral, are still “wicked, bad”.

I look to sin as the identifier of immoral. And in ALL sin we are conducting immoral or wicked, bad things outside what the LORD intended for us. God intended us to be perfect as He is, after all, we were created in the image of God. It was not until we sinned for the first time were we considered outside of God’s plan for us. And think about that sin, it was not of a sexual context, it was covetousness and greed and theft and deception that led to “The Fall”. We fell from grace for what the world would consider a meaningless act of eating a piece of fruit. Yet, it was that act outside of the will of God that led to our sin fall from the grace of God.

It is not always the grand things that lead to destruction. It is any thing that is outside the will of God. Even the eating of a piece of fruit can be “wicked, bad” when it was strictly forbidden by the Father. We are sinners thanks to the acts of Adam and Eve, and we will not escape immorality until we are are resurrected to be with God. Immoral is “wicked, bad” that are displayed for the world, or more accurately witnessed in us by the Father.

What is your view of immoral? Do you see it from the lens related to sexual acts and perversions? What if you were to see immoral as defined by Merriam-Webster Online for kids as simply “wicked, bad”?

Sin Leads to Perish

“¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16 (ESV)

See in the verse above, “should not perish”. Perishing is the consequence related to sin. There is no varying degrees of sin, sin is just sin. Whether you tell a little white lie, or swipe a pack of gum, or rob a bank, or engage in immoral acts. All sin is in the same bucket of working against God and for that His wrath is the result of that working against Him.

Perish: “1: to become destroyed or ruined: cease to exist 2: deteriorate, spoil” – Merriam-Webster Online

Let’s talk about that perishing for a moment. Notice the definition above from Merriam-Webster Online. The one that gets me and is most like the Biblical review is to “deteriorate, spoil” and then there is “ruined”. Yes, there is the destruction and ceasing that comes with perishing but from the Biblical review, we will be cast into the lake of fire, Hell, and will be tormented, bonded, will have our memory, will fully experience lake of satisfaction, and will be separated from God. There is not full destruction of us, only that we will be miserable for eternity. I have written about Heaven based on my study and it is going to be wonderful, beautiful, and frankly a place of immense joy and glory. As lovely as it will be, think of the exact opposite as it come to Hell.

Look back at John 3:16 above. There is a way to avoid the consequence of Hell.

James MacDonald writes, “The key word that unlocks the door to John 3:16 is believe. And believe always includes choice.”

So the choice is to perish or celebrate eternally. God gives a way to avoid the consequence of sin. Make no mistake, we are still and will always be sinners in this world, but as we believe in the salvation provided by Christ taking our sin upon Himself and dying for us, we have an escape from eternal anguish.

It is important to understand sin and the consequence of it so that we are able to make an informed choice. When we gloss over the perishing part, we are not taking into account the long term impact of our choice and only work with the now in which the evil one is working hard to deceive us as to the consequences.

MacDonald writes, “Hell will go on forever because no amount of punishment for sin can justify the choice to reject the forgiveness God so freely offers.”

“⁹The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” – 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

Even as we continue to sin in this world, God is not giving up on us. He is waiting patiently for our choosing of Him. We have until that time when we cease to exist in this world to choose to believe. But, we have to get on the ball as we do not know when that time comes. And I don’t know about you, but I do not want to perish.

What is your thoughts on the consequences of sin? Are you of the varying degrees and consequences camp? How do things change for you when with the understanding that all sin is sin and the consequence of that sin is perishing eternally?

Sin – Why Keep Talking About It

Well, because it is always a part of our lives. It is rooted in our DNA. I am a sinner, and I cannot escape that, in this world. I am no different than each of you. We are all sinners and need to understand that as we go through this world. We cannot escape it in this world, we can pursue God who provided the way out of sin, and He is waiting on us.

Back to this sin and why we cannot escape it in this world. James MacDonald has identified 5 reasons; We are determined, diseased, deceived, desperate, and destined sinners. I know what you are thinking as I thought the same, those are pretty strong reasons and if this is so, how do I escape.

“²³For the wages of sin is death,” — Romans 6:23a (ESV)

Each of the above are terminal reasons. And even read the above verse. We are to be put to death for our sin. So there really is no escaping our sin, in this world. “Everything happening in the universe and in your heart that is sordid and sideways is because of sin” – James MacDonald. We are headed for certain death thanks to our sin.

“²⁰20The soul who sins shall die.” – Ezekiel 18:20a (ESV)

So, if we are destined to die thanks to sin, why discuss it. Shouldn’t we just discuss things that are more positive, like getting what we want from this world. Even the bible says to let tomorrow worry about itself. Well, let’s discuss that. If death has been determined and we cannot escape it, we should think about positive things. How about we think about the way to escape. Remember above how I phrased the no escape, “in this world”. There is an escape and we should discuss that.

“²³but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.” – Romans 6:23b (ESV)

Look at that, the back half of Romans 6:23 gives us the answer. Eternal life is free from God with our belief in and trust in our savior who took our sin upon Himself and died, so that we do not have to. Yes, we will die, or pass, from this world, but we will live eternally in the New Heaven and New Earth without sin. So there is an escape, through Jesus Christ.

Here is what I have thought about this morning. I am, and all of us are, a sinner. I cannot escape it in this world. I am determined, diseased, deceived, desperate, and destined a sinner. It is in my DNA thanks to my ancestors, Adam and Eve. As a sinner, I am doomed to continue to experience sin in this world, as long as I am here. The consequence of my sin is death, but I can escape that consequence through the life giving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He took my sin, yes mine, and paid for it with His death.

That is what I should think and discuss, the idea that my sin is there, and in this world I cannot shake it. I have to remember sin by talking about it and then shift to the escape from it. Jesus died for me and in the New Heaven and New Earth I will finally escape sin thanks to Him.

What are your discussions of sin? Are you working to try and avoid it for something more positive? What if you did keep talking about it to be reminded of your sin and then added in that the only escape is in the New Heaven and New Earth thanks to our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ?

Born into Sin, Pray to Overcome

“⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

— Psalm 51:5 (ESV)

This morning began a little sobering as I was reading. I am in Psalm 51 as I continue my study of the word “mother”. The passage is titled, “Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God”. And as I read the above verse, it is clear to me that asking God for a clean heart is something I have to remember.

You see, I was born a sinner and need the grace of God in my life just as David did. He understood that no matter where we are now, we came from sin and will always be sinners and need the grace of God to be cleansed. I have to remember to ask to be cleaned every day. And how do I do that, but pray for it and work to live it out every day.

My mother is a very God fearing Christian woman and therefore, I could feel that I was clean from the start of my life. Now where until I understood the difference of right and wrong, I would be accepted by God into the Kingdom of Heaven. But knowing that I would someday grow to know, I was on my way to sin and would need God’s salvation to overcome.

I did accept salvation that was given freely to me and for that all my sins have been washed away. Yet, even as they have been washed away, and will continually be washed away, I still have the responsibility to thank God for that His forgiveness and ask to be forgiven each and every day.

I am still and will always be a sinner. I was born into it. I cannot forget it. But, I was blessed with the way out of payment for my sin, death. Thanks to Jesus for accepting to pay for me. I owe Him all and yet all He wants is my love for Him and to spread the gospel that I received to all of those I interact.

I love my mother and am thankful for her love in my life. She however delivered me into sin and could not save me from the evil one. That was left to the Savior, Jesus who is my redeemer. I am still a sinner, yet through prayer and thanks for salvation and confession coupled with forgiveness of sin I have been given new life in Christ.

What is your view of sin in your life? Were you even aware that you were born into sin? What if you accepted the salvation provided by God to overcome that sin and be give the new life in Christ?