by David Brenneman
Hebrews 10:26-31 NASB
One of my life's things has been to observe people. When not speaking it's often best to be listening. We who are in Christ ought to indeed live lives as ascribed by the writers of the Bible as holy, that is, set apart.
An observation of my life and others is that we indeed look for loopholes with God's Word. Finding out if there some 'hack' to still dabble in things that the Bible expressly calls sin or sinful behavior. We read in John chapter 1 of how people loved the darkness rather than the Light.
We often want the best of both worlds. We want to enjoy as much sin as we can and yet put on Christ when it becomes necessary or needed.
We would rather keep on hearing without hearing and seeing without seeing as the Lord Jesus Christ accused the Jews of doing. Ignorance isn't bliss.
We find excuses and rational reasons to...face it...enjoy what Biblically are sinful activities. We find reasons to rage at people whom Christ died for as well as us. We find reasons to justify our being judgemental of people whom Christ died for as well as us. We find it easy to condemn others in the name of fun or entertainment.
We see no, and you will find no, chapter or book in the Bible that says any of that is acceptable to God.
There's no acceptable idolatry.
There's no acceptable adultery.
There's no acceptable ruthless judging of others.
There's no acceptable sins to a Holy God.
Set apart means something to Him.
Holiness means something to Jesus.
Do you not realize or know that EVERY careless word you have spoken or have thought will be asked about by Jesus?
Do you not realize or know that the truth of your thoughts and intentions will be asked about by Jesus?
Do you not realize that your daily activity has the souls of people in the balance? That the choices you make impact lives? Sometimes greatly sometimes infinitesimal. But we do impact the lives of people by what we display in our lives more than by what we say.
It's extremely saddening to me to hear of how my words or actions did wrong in someone's life.
It's extremely difficult to see people who are supposed to be Christians looking no different than the world.
It's excruciating to me to see people who were once so strong in the Lord living a life so far removed from what they used to live. It honestly makes me want to cry.
In my being His workmanship Jesus has taught me to remove many things from my heart and mind. Things that I had been justifying that He said was sin.
A most notable was my attachment to things that I had justified putting higher than my relationship with Jesus. Of course I didn't see it that way at first but His evidence to me from me was overwhelming. I hadn't realized how infected I had been until my Great Physician showed me my chart while on my back in His hospital.
You too must come to terms with you.
You must look at what you too have been justifying and making rational excuses for in your life. Things like idolatry enraged the Lord Jesus Christ so much that whole books were written about it, thousands of years were spent addressing it with Israel and Judah. Yet we often dismiss it as some old part of the Bible that doesn't happen today. Guess what? Several thousand years ago when you read of those real accounts in the Bible, they too didn't believe it was true of them either. Read the book of Jeremiah, read Lamentations, read Ezekiel.
People loved the darkness rather than the Light.
Look at your choices because those will show you who you worship.
Matthew 16:25-26 NASB "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?"
Is you being happy on your terms going to be a good thing for you when you explain your life to Jesus?
Are your choices shaping you to be like Christ or are they keeping you separated from Him?
We read "choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord". Can you look at your house, clothing, music and television choices, your hobbies, your interests, and say without a doubt that you have chosen to serve the Lord? Have you justified your choices in order to live for you rather than for Jesus?
Think about it. Jesus has been putting me on my back many times to get me to realize how much I have not chosen His ways and have embraced my own.
Your challenge today is to get real, pray that you would have eyes that see, ears that hear, that you too would turn and be healed.
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