Tag: sin

  • Temptation Starts Small: The Scariest Thing in the Woods

    The scariest thing in the woods is not the grizzly bear or the wolf. It’s not what you might think it is at all; it’s a bird. The scariest thing in the woods is a ruffed grouse. Now wait a minute, Kevin. Grizzlies and wolves can be dangerous creatures. An angry moose or bison can do a great deal of damage to a person, and you say it’s a bird?

    How can a timid bird like a ruffed grouse, with no teeth and that never attacks people, be the scariest thing in the woods? If you’ve ever had one flush unexpectedly at your feet, you’d know.

    A sudden burst of creature with an explosive sound right in front of you or next to you is guaranteed to send your startle reflex into overdrive. You’ll think for a split second that you’re having a heart attack and either jump or stand there completely stunned.

    Then you’ll laugh at yourself for being startled (again) by a stupid grouse. It’s only for a moment, but on the fright scale it’s right up there. To anyone watching, I’m sure it’s hilarious, especially if the grouse explodes from cover between two people; it’s twice the startle.

    I’ve encountered bears and wolves in the woods many times. I’ve met moose and bison on trails. None of them frightened me. Oh, to be certain, I’ve treated them with a great deal of caution and respect but never fear. Grouse, on the other hand, have flushed near me many times, and they never fail to cause the startle reaction to fire.

    The biggest, baddest things we encounter are not the most likely to be a problem. It’s the smaller things that we don’t notice or perceive as a threat.

    Sin starts that way. It starts as an idea and works its way from there.

    Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.James 1:13-15 ESV

    A simple desire, small, relatively harmless in and of itself, leads to temptation. That’s the point where we need to be dealing with it in prayer, long before it moves from temptation to actual sin. Yes, the Lord will forgive us when we stumble, but it’s better to head off the problems sin causes.

    No one just happens to steal, give in to lust, hurt another person or commit any other sin. It’s something that found ground earlier in their thought life. A seed of desire had been planted and nurtured beforehand. Perhaps the stumble seems surprising, but the ground was already laid and waiting for the perfect moment to bear fruit.

    Let’s work to regularly wash ourselves with the Word, turn to the Lord in prayer and trust the Holy Spirit so that we don’t allow the temptation to grow.

    May we be more like Jesus every day. 

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    The biggest dangers in the woods aren’t usually the problem; it’s the small things we don’t see coming. Sin works the same way, so we need to deal with small desires in prayer before temptation grows.

    TAKEAWAY

    The biggest, baddest things you encounter are not the most likely to be a problem. Watch for the smaller things you don’t notice or perceive as a threat.

    Sin doesn’t just happen to you. It starts as a simple desire, finds ground in your thought life, and grows from temptation into sin.

    Deal with temptation in prayer long before it moves to actual sin. Regularly wash yourself with the Word, turn to the Lord in prayer and trust the Holy Spirit so the temptation doesn’t grow.

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  • The Gospel – the best news you will ever hear

    You know the silence that falls right before you open an envelope, or pick up the phone, when you have already braced for the worst. Most of the time the news matches the dread. But every now and then it does not. Every now and then you brace yourself and find out the test was clear, or the debt was settled, or the answer was yes, and for a second you just stand there rereading it, because good news that size is hard to trust on the first pass.

    That mix of disbelief and relief is about the closest thing I know, in ordinary life, to what the Bible calls the gospel.

    The word itself simply means good news. But you cannot understand why it is good until you understand the news that came before it, and that part is not pleasant. Scripture does not soften it. All of us, every last one, have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Not just the people we point to on the news. Us. Our sin is not a smudge to wipe off. It is a debt we cannot pay, and the wages of that debt are death (Romans 6:23).

    If the story stopped there, it would just be bad news, true and unbearable. But it does not stop there.

    Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). That is the gospel in its smallest form, four facts that changed everything. And Paul will not let us read past the cost of it without feeling it. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Not after we cleaned ourselves up. While we were still enemies. He paid a debt He did not owe, for people who could never repay Him.

    Here is where the gospel parts ways with every other religion and every self-improvement plan you have ever tried. It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). You do not earn your way into this. You do not balance the scales with enough good deeds to outweigh the bad. The debt was already paid. The only question left is whether you will receive the gift.

    As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12). That word receive is doing a lot of work. It is not a transaction you negotiate. It is a gift you open. Faith is simply reaching out your hand and taking what Christ already purchased at the cross.

    And what happens next is not a slight improvement. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold, new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are not patched up. You are remade. Rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14). That is not a metaphor for self-help. That is a change of citizenship, paid for in blood, sealed by an empty tomb.

    Some people can tell you the exact day they stopped bracing for bad news and finally believed the good news was real. I hope you have a day like that to point back to as well, the day you stopped trying to pay a debt you could never settle and simply received what Christ already finished.

    If you have never reached out your hand for that gift, today is a good day to start. Tell Him you know the bad news is true of you, and ask Him to make the good news true of you too. He has already done the hard part.

    If you have already received it, do not let the wonder of it go stale. Read those four facts from 1 Corinthians 15 again slowly. Let them surprise you the way they did the first day.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed,

    Kevin

    More about the good news of the gospel.