RSS

Tag Archives: sexual immorality

Stay on top

20 Jun

Stay on top

Romans 6:10-11   For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul has been explaining of how sin entered the world through Adam in the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. He points to Adam as a type of Christ; using that example of imparted sin on all of man, to the imparted grace through Christ for all of man. Of how that grace is greater than that sin; for how it justified us to a holy God. 5:16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. He continues to explain of how we are united with Christ into that death of sin, and of how the greater joy of being baptized into the newness of eternal life. We are to understand that we are to live our lives in that knowledge of being dead to sin, but alive in Christ.

This world we live in is drowning in the cesspool of sin. Idolatry & sexual immorality abound before us every day. Satan seeks to take our eyes off God and live for only the temporal pleasures he can provide. He wants us to live for the moment and never worry for eternity. What if we are captured in that moment of sin when our life clock stops? What if we fall back into that sin and run from God wanting to bank on Grace? Was our hearts ever really changed if we continue to live in sin? Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? I remember telling my parents for years that I wanted to have my fun for a time and then I would get right with God. Only by God’s am I able to be here today, to share a life full of sin, to a life full of forgiveness. I now seek to live my life to the best of my ability in showing others of His grace I was given.

I had a great talk with a customer yesterday, and the topic was about living your life as an example. Of how people are always watching you even when you don’t realize. I told her of how I believe many times our lives are the only Bible some ever read. All of the sin in my life; many great sins, are forgiven by that Grace I have been extended. All of my testimony can be used to reach someone that God has placed in my path with the same battles. I can through Him, show them the eternal forgiveness and escape from that snare that sin has on them. Live your life as an example of what Christ did for you. Live your life differently that those around you. Walk on the water through Christ;  don’t be dragged down into Satan’s cesspool.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 20, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Holy Mirror

09 Jun

Holy Mirror

Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

In the midst of all the letters to the seven churches, Christ is proving that He knows the heart. Here He is speaking to the church at Thyatira, where a seductress is leading the church and leading the men of the church into sexual sin with her. She has been called to repent, but turned her back on God. 21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Christ is pronouncing the judgement due for the un-repented hearts that live in this great sin. What must be seen in all of these pronouncements to the churches, is that only God knows our true hearts, which drives our motives and actions in all that we do; Pslam 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. There should be a reverent fear in us with the understanding that there are no secrets with God. These letters to the seven churches reveal the evidences of that Sovereignty, and with it should come holy fear.

When you look at your life in the mirror, what evidence do you see of Christ? These letters to the churches are a mirror to the churches of their good, bad, false, and true traits only known by God. This is a holy mirror that will reveal all is known of their hearts. When you look at your life as a student; what was the assignment of the teacher? Christ called you to be a disciple, to spread the hope found in him to all that would hear. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. These were Christ’s last words as he ascended into heaven; when he returns he will ask (and already know), how did you do with the assignment. What evidences are in your life of the price He paid for your life?

Only two of the seven churches received no condemnation; Smyrna and Philadelphia. They exhibited grace and endured persecution all while keeping His Word and and honoring His name. They lived lives focused on eternity, and the promises found in the price He had paid for that eternity for them. They endured the trials of life for their short time here; they sought to keep true to the faith in the face of evil and persecution. As the faithful in Smyrna were told, they understood the promise to those that lived their lives faithfully to Him. They understood that this life was temporary, but what awaited them was eternal paradise after this one. Revelation 2:11b :He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. A life that truly grasps this temporal, and the coming eternal, is a life that will reflect Christ. If you understand the price that was paid with a Holy sacrifice, you will do all that you can to live your life to honor that sacrifice. Anything less is found in these letters to the seven churches.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 9, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Simplicity

21 May

Simplicity

1 Corinthians 1:17-18     For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Paul had set up the church at Corinth on his first missionary journey there. He had left the church under the charge of Aquila and Priscilla, and the young church had struggled in many ways in the midst of pagan society that surrounded it. There were huge sexual immorality issues, and the church had become divided among it’s members on who they claimed to be following. Paul was responding to two letters sent to him; much of this points to the instructions of how to conduct themselves as Christians, and as a church; to follow Christ and not an individual.  Paul had his hands full in how far this church had slipped away from God. The city of Corinth was a city full of great sin, and that sin had worked its way into the church.

In history it is known that the Jews sought a sign for their coming Messiah, and that the Greeks sought after wisdom to reach their God. Both failed in their attempts. Even those Jews that appeared to be the most religious, were the ones who murdered their King. There are those today that seek their relationship on a level of intellect, a level of  “book smart”, yet not the level of “heart smart”. A knowledge of Christ may be found in the pursuit of him, but a relationship with Him is found the understanding of grace. You can never cultivate your salvation by filling your head with the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the world elevates the achievements of oneself, righteousness found in the knowledge gained to some degree. God has chosen the simplicity of the Gospel to dispel oneself supposed achievements by worldly standards. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Do you get how simple the Good News of God’s grace in Jesus Christ is? Do you feel the need to complicate it by adding your good works to it? Do you believe that their must be some higher goal to achieve, some higher price to pay? That is the way the world teaches; it simply cannot be this easy, can it? John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God loves you; he sent his son to die for you to pay for your sins; it only takes a humble, repentant heart that realizes and accepts that free gift. You can never earn your way, in any way. Only a humble, repentant heart finds the true way. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Quit trying to complicate it; rest eternally in the simplicity of it.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 21, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

R12 Christian

30 Apr

R12 Christian

Romans 12:1-2     I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)

The apostle Paul had just pointed us to the understanding of how our entire lives flow through God’s mercy; Romans 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. When we come to grasp the power of God and his sovereignty, we should become naturally bent towards a heart of worship to him. We should be moved with that small grasp of understanding to a life transformed by it. Paul is showing us that how we live our lives is a direct reflection of our worship to Him. I do like the ESV (English Standard Version) of this scripture, for it makes that clear in Romans 12:1.

Paul stresses this point in 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? He is addressing the topic of sexual immorality, a battle that in most of our lives we have faced at some time, inwardly or outwardly. Paul is pointing to the evidence as Christians that we are sinning with the Spirit of Christ that is living inside of us. Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Can you imagine the Spirit inside of you in pain when you go against God; when you fall into sin for that small pleasure for a short time? He might say, “Oh, why are you doing that? Do you not see what I have planned for you?” It pains God to see the power that sin has over our lives; so much so that He gave his Son to rescue us from it.

The closer you draw to God with a true heart that desires him, and the things of him, the more you will begin to live your life in worship to Him. You will begin to feel His Spirit at work more and more in you; convicting you of your sin when you fall, and drawing you away from it when you are tempted. 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. That is the renewal of your mind spoken of in Romans 12:2. You will begin to think differently the more you seek God. You will begin to discern those temptations and hopefully avoid them. You will begin to seek the pleasure that living a life for the One who gives you life an act of worship to Him. That circle of life in those acts of worship lead to becoming the disciple you are ultimately called to be.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 30, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Out – Over – Move on

18 Jan

Out – Over – Move on

Acts 15:37-39   Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. 39 Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus;

There had become a huge conflict in the early Christian church regarding the circumcision of the new Gentile believers. A meeting had been called in Jerusalem with all the apostles and the Jewish counsel. They had agreed somewhat that circumcision was not a requirement of the faith; 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Paul and Barnabas were to set off to deliver the news and encourage the early churches. An argument over John Mark who had earlier deserted them caused Paul and Barnabas to go their separate ways. The ministry doubled, and Paul was even reconciled to John Mark later in his life (2 Timothy 4:11).

If you stay in church long enough, you will have conflict in church. It is going to happen, it is going to divide, it can weaken testimonies and ministries. It can be a test of your faith; it can be a test of where your heart lies. If you take your eyes off the Person, you will surely be disappointed in where you place your hope. Satan loves dissension; Satan smiled at the argument of Paul and Barnabas; God doubled the ground covered by separating the two great men of faith. Barnabas headed to Cyprus; Paul headed to Syria, and then on to Cilicia. God was at work in all those men and He had a plan that included separating them to grow their ministries. Barnabas had chosen not to take their argument to the Jewish counsel, but to keep his eyes on his ministry and faithfully serve the Lord.

We are told throughout the Bible that when we fight we must forgive and make up. What if we are only forgiven the amount we are able to forgive? The Bible speaks directly to how we view one another, and that view may be held in how we forgive. Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. We are told not to even go to sleep with without resolving conflict; get it out, get it over, move on. Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. Putting conflict in the past is part of moving on with the ministry God has placed on your heart. God may be doubling the ground covered as a result; just like the days of Paul and Barnabas.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on January 18, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

BC – AC

01 Jul

BC – AC

Ephesians 4:22-24 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

I ended up in Ephesians 4 this morning, and so much of it speaks of the new person and our change once we accept Christ. There is a true “BC” – Before Christ. There is also an “AC” After Christ in your life’s timeline. There is that point in history when your life changes forever, and the pursuit and the lens which you see this life is forever altered. As Dr. Ed Gravely puts it so well, you begin to see life through the “lens of the gospel”. We begin to feel conviction of the old habits that are still there. The Spirit begins to show us where our faults lie, and gives us the power through God’s grace to help us change our ways. This process is called Sanctification.

Sanctification is a process, not immediate, but continual throughout your life. 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. It is the  work of God in your life to mold you into a better person, a person closer to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Sanctification is spoken of twice in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. This was always a huge struggle for me and in today’s society it is a large struggle for many. But Sanctification is not only in related to sex, but our speech, actions, and thoughts on a daily basis. When God begins to stir in your soul, it is His way of working through the sin in your life, through the conviction of that sin. The Spirit is strong enough to change you like you can’t, if you let Him.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 1, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,