Category: repentance

  • God examines our hearts

    young boy wading in a lake, Pant legs rolled up and no shoes

    I looked up along the lakeshore and saw a three- or four-year-old boy walking out of the water. He was wet well beyond his knees and muddy nearly as far. His mother was not impressed.

    “What are you doing? Why were you in the water? Answer me! “

    “I was..” 

    “Don’t interrupt! You’re all wet and filthy! What did I tell you?” 

    Finally, the boy had an opportunity to get a word out. 

    “But mom, you said don’t get my new shoes dirty. I didn’t! They’re over by the bench. I took them off so I wouldn’t get them dirty. Just like you said, Mom.”

    I smiled and laughed as the mom sputtered some explanation about leaving the shoes on the shore not being what she had meant. She didn’t seem as amused.

    We’re often like the little boy looking to get off on some technicality. We try to achieve superficial holiness or partial obedience in our faith walk. We try to rationalize that “we’re not as bad” as someone else or that “we can’t help it.”

    We may hear a call from God to do something and then come up with excuses for why we can’t or why we must have been mistaken about hearing from God.

    The same behavior that made me laugh at the little boy and his mother isn’t nearly as funny when we do it to God. I believe God has a sense of humor and laughs, but never about sin.

    Christ is a perfect example of someone meeting all the technicalities of the law but not being right before God. He was obedient, even unto death on a cross.

    God examines our hearts. Our hearts are not pure, and our flesh isn’t willing. 

    Fortunately, believers have the Word to teach us and The Spirit to guide us. We are works in process, and God will finish what He started in us,

    King David was a man who struggled and sinned greatly. Yet, he understood the value of repentance and having a clean heart before God.

    Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Psalm 51:1-3 ESV

    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17 ESV

    David understood that God examines our hearts. Have you checked yours lately? Is it soft toward the Lord, or has it grown hard?

    Are you looking for excuses or seeking ways to follow Him better? 

    Until next time, may you bring glory to God through a humble, contrite heart.

    Be blessed

    Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

    Kevin

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  • Pondering – Thoughts on the dangers of sin

    Natural gas woodstove/fireplace

    We have a gas fireplace in our living room, similar to the one in the photo. I was sitting in my recliner very early this morning, watching the flames and thinking.

    Some of my thoughts were possibly profound, but most were of the “look at the pretty flames” variety or I wish I could sleep.

    At one point, I was thinking about sin. Nothing can burn you as quickly as sin.

    Sin is an unpopular topic in today’s world. We like to think that we are victims and somehow not responsible for our actions and want to blame others. Here are a few random examples, 

    I have a terrible temper because I have red hair.

    I am miserable with others because someone treated me unkindly.

    I took that because I needed it, and you didn’t.

    Justify and blame. It’s been that way since God confronted Adam and Eve in the Garden. Adam blamed Eve, but he was really blaming God. Eve blamed the serpent. The formula has stayed the same since then.

    Let’s look at what the Bible says about sin.

    We all do it.

    …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God  Romans 3:23

    “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. … If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:8,10

    It isn’t God’s fault.

    In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.  Job 1:22

    When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. James 1:13

    Sin is never instantaneous. It grows in us until it gives birth.

    …but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14-15

    It brings death and separation from God.

    For the wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23a

    Even believers will wrestle with it.

    I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20

    There is much more that I could say, but that is plenty to chew on for now. I confess I have sinned far too often, blamed others, and even blamed God at times. I am grateful for His faithfulness when I have been unfaithful.

    Because of sin, the world is lost in chaos. If left to its own devices, it is doomed, as is every person.

    God is perfectly holy and cannot abide sin in any form. His very nature separates Him from any form of evil.

    However, there is good news for sinners (that means everyone.)

    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

    That is the reason for the Christmas miracle. Jesus humbled himself to come as a person and pay the penalty for sin on our behalf. God hates our sin, but He loves us despite our sin.

    The Lord cleans up our mess if we only trust and submit to Jesus by faith. No other faith, religion, worldview, or philosophy promises anything like that.

    To reject His testimony and gift is to drift further into sin because God promises us redemption if we believe and He does not lie.

    When you stop to think of the Christ child in a manger, pause and reflect on why He had to come; then give him praise and glory.

    Be blessed

    Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

    Kevi

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