I phoned a friend of mine who had been suffering a little for some time, and nearly fell off my chair when I heard his excitement. He told me how the Lord had blessed him with work and how his trucks were running to and fro the whole day long. He thanked God for that, and also could not stop telling me about his new girlfriend. He had moved in with her just the previous day. What’s that? Yes, they are so happy together. Why should they keep two households running? It’s much less expensive to combine the two.
We trick ourselves. We are so used to “everyone does it”, that we no longer see the sin in our actions. With some nice trickery and some gymnastic thinking I ask God on the one hand to help me, but on the other hand I’m living in sin. How do we make that work? It seems to me it’s time to go back to the rock. Yes, it’s time to go and sit on a rock and make sure that we are not blinded by the wrong things that happen just like that in our lives. Without us realising it, sin slips back into our lives. We become so used to it that it doesn’t even bother us that wrong has become right. Let’s be clear with one another: God doesn’t like it. This is the reason why He sent Jesus to earth – to knock sin down. Yes, to give His life so that we can and will get rid of the sin in our lives to stand clean before God: 4 … for sin is a major disruption of God's order. I am sure Jesus is very hurt when He sees us befriending sin and living close to sin. I know it is probably not theologically correct to say that Jesus is crucified over and over again as we continue doing the wrong things. But aren’t we then denying His life-saving work on the cross? Aren’t we undoing His death on the cross by continuing to do wrong? God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit do not like seeing us doing this. While we are playing around with sin, what is the Holy Spirit who lives in us supposed to do? Look the other way? What are we doing? And minutes later we are praising His name for everything He gives us? Maybe you don’t want to continue reading now, because this simply sounds too much. But sometimes we just have to face the music. This isn’t a scolding session. No, in a way we are simply being reminded of the very simple message: 4 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. This is a very simple message: if you break God’s rules, you choose to deny God’s will and then you are doing wrong. Finish and klaar. What now? 6No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. The biggest tip here is to look closely at Jesus so that we can have an intimate relationship with Him. Only when we have an intimate relationship with Jesus, we will start realising when we are doing wrong. Then we’ll feel uncomfortable when we do wrong. Then we’ll feel bad when we know that we’re busy with things that Jesus doesn’t like at all. Friends, please see this message as a stop sign, a chance to get away from the race of life, to go and sit on a rock and look at God’s rules again, comparing them to you own life. The Spirit will help you and show you where you are getting too close to the wrong thing. With everything in you build an intimate relationship with God. Make time to spend time with God. Reflection Where are you getting too close to sin? Scripture: 1 John 3:4-10 Shalom! Gerjo Ben Comments are closed.
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Ana & Andre Schoonbee God uses us to motivate and encourage the body. Authors
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