Category Archives: Sin

March 20 – Warning! Warning!

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Deuteronomy 28&29

When I read God’s curse on His people should they disobey Him, I find it hard to think of an aspect of life that wouldn’t be effected. The curse would touch them in the city and the country, their food, their children, their livestock, their minds, bodies, health, marriages, their ability to win wars, whether they are coming in or going out. I could go on. Read it for yourself in Deuteronomy. I’m just glad I wasn’t alive back then.

But wait. Did God get that specific with the Jews for their benefit only? Or is He speaking to me today?

Doesn’t my own disobedience hit me where I live? Doesn’t it effect my mind, my soul, my joy, my relationships, perhaps my health, and my ability to fight my own wars against Satan?

And isn’t our country – our entire world- feeling the effects of disobedience through hate, and disease, and unrest, in violence, and persecution?

It should come as no surprise that the effects of sin are devastating. It’s not like we weren’t warned.

March 19 – Blurred Lines

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Deuteronomy 24-27

Moses told the Israelites that when they entered the Promised Land they were to get large stones, coat them in lime, then write the law distinctly on the rocks. Then they were to build an altar.

I don’t know how many times the Law, or part of it, are repeated in Scripture. I don’t know how many times Moses himself reminded the people about the laws God had given him for the Jews to obey.

But reading the Old Testament certainly emphasizes the importance God places on obedience. And God’s Laws are black and white.

Sadly, we live in a grey world. People have mistaken God’s grace as a softening of the rules He laid out to Moses there on the mountain. In fact, the opposite is true.

Jesus fulfilled the Law, and offers forgiveness for us because we are unable to keep the Law. But beyond that, Jesus said we sin if we even think about it. Who can measure up to that standard?

Moses told the people to write the law distinctly, clearly so there would be no question. God, as He inspired men to write His Words in Scripture did the same.

There need be no question concerning sin. The lines are drawn. And they are anything but blurred.

March 18 – Integrity

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Deuteronomy 21-23

Reading these chapters in Deuteronomy today had me thinking about integrity. God’s laws for His people seem to sit under that umbrella.

I asked Siri for a definition of the word “integrity” and she gave me this: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, moral rightness.

God spelled out His moral principles in the pages of Scripture. Rather than skimming over the parts that have to do with finding my neighbors cow wandering around because my neighbors don’t even own a cow, I asked myself what is the moral principle God wants me to know?

I’m not building a house so worrying about a parapet doesn’t apply to me, right? I don’t have a vineyard or standing grain, so can I just skip over those laws? Or are there  moral principles in these examples that do apply to me?

I hope you’ll read these chapters today and ask God to speak to you about your own integrity. Are you living according to God’s moral principles?

He’ll let you know if you ask Him.

March 10 – Protecting What Is Mine

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Numbers 35&36

I find it interesting that the last two chapters of Numbers deal with cities of refuge, and what to do with the five daughters of Zelophehad concerning their inheritance. Both subjects have to do with protection. One, the protection of a person who accidentally kills another, from the dead man’s avenger. The other, the protection of the land.

In the first instance, a person was protected from the avenger as long as he stayed inside the city of refuge. One step outside those gates, and the avenger was free to kill the manslayer.

Satan is like that avenger, eager to destroy me if I step away from my Savior’s protection. And every time I neglect time in God’s Word and prayer, when I sin and refuse to repent, when I don’t obey Him by worshiping and serving with a fellowship of believers, when I try to live with one foot in the world, I expose myself to Satan’s arrows.

The second is about protecting the land, the inheritance given by God. I can see that as my own, personal Promised Land of fellowship with God. It seems that relatives of the daughters of Zelophehad were a bit jealous of the possibility that, should the girls marry men from outside  of Joseph’s family, another tribe of Israel would get the rights to the land God had given them. They wanted to make sure what was their’s stayed with them.

Makes me wonder how jealous I am that something or someone could take what God has given me: love, peace, joy, fellowship with Him, holiness. The same things that make me vulnerable to my manslayer, Satan, can steal the blessings that are mine as God’s child.

So God is asking me today to protect what is mine through the blood of His precious Son. I need to control my thoughts, I need to resist temptation, I need to read and meditate on His Word, to pray, to worship Him and praise Him and love Him like He deserves. I need to walk with Him in an intentional way, and to cling to Him as my Protector, my City of Refuge.

 

 

March 9 – Clear The Land

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Numbers 33&34

Be honest. Do you have a secret sin you are holding on to? An ungodly TV show that makes you laugh? An internet site that you find interesting although it dishonors God? Someone you refuse to forgive? Drinking alcohol to excess even if its just within your home? Anger? Jealousy? An obsession with a loved one?

When we become Christians, God demands that we confess our sins – all of them – and repent. That means we lay it all out there, drop those sins at Jesus’ feet, and walk away clean.

God told Israel that, when they went into the Promised Land to take it for themselves, they needed to drive out the inhabitants. He warned them not to let anyone stay because if they did, those who remained would end up being “pricks in (their) eyes and thorns in (their) sides.” He said those people would trouble the Jews in the land God had promised to them.

That same God is saying to us today to get rid of all sin. All of it. If you insist on holding on to something – even if you think no one on the earth knows what you are doing – it will end up biting you.

God doesn’t demand we be holy to prevent us from enjoying this life, our own Promised Land of fellowship with Him. He demands holiness of us so that we can enjoy life to the fullest!

No thorns in our sides to take away our joy. No pricks in our eyes to distract us and cause us pain.

There is no sin I can think of worth holding on to if it prevents me from receiving all God intends for me in this life while I wait to join Him in the next.

March 8 – But I Like It Here

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Numbers 31-32

What is our responsibility to each other as members of God’s family? The sons of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh were comfortable living east of the Jordan River. They knew the land God had promised Abraham was to the west. But they liked it where they were.

Moses agreed to letting them stay there on one condition: Help your brothers take the Promised Land.

Just because they weren’t going to make their home there, it didn’t give them a free pass out of the battle.

So the question is, what is your responsibility in the welfare of your church fellowship and in the global Church? You may be comfortable in your relationship with the Savior, secure in your place in heaven. But does that mean you can put your feet up and let others fight the battles?

There is more ground to gain, more souls needing salvation, more sins to defeat. Moses told the two and a half tribes if they didn’t help win the war, “you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.”

Dear one, not putting on the armor of God and engaging in the war against Satan is sin. Not telling your neighbor about Christ is sin. Not inviting people to church, supporting missions, or praying for the lost, are sins.

What is our responsibility? To join forces with other Christians and get the job done. We need to be supporting, encouraging, praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ as we all do our part to further God’s Kingdom one soul at a time.

March 5 – In Your Face

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Numbers 23-25

The children of Israel were being neighborly with the Moabites. Nothing wrong with a friendly game of corn hole in the back yard. But when the Moabites invited their new friends to church, the Jews went. Before long, Jewish people were worshiping the false gods of Moab.

You can imagine God’s response to this. “Kill anyone who is worshiping Baal,” He commanded.

Now this is how the Jewish man, Zimri, reacted to what God said: He paraded his Midianite girlfriend, Cozbi, right down to the doorway of the tent of meeting, right down to Moses and the priest, Phinehas. Other people in the congregation were weeping over God’s judgement. Not so Zimri.

“Take that, Moses,” he seems to be saying. “Here’s what I think about your rules and your God. I’ve got rights. I’ll sleep with whoever I want, worship whoever I want, and you can’t do anything to stop me.”

I kind of feel like Moses here. It seems sin is thrown in my face at an increasing rate these days. I can’t watch TV without seeing same sex marriages, men who mutilate their bodies so they can pretend to be women, blatant sex outside of marriage.  Every day I hear more incidents of racial hatred, terrorism, and abortion. And it’s like they are saying, “Take that, Christian. What are you going to do about it?”

Phinehas cleaned house there in Numbers 25. Maybe its time the church cleaned house, too. Not by killing sinners, of course. But by not calling people living sinful lives “Christian.” Maybe by calling sin sin, and not apologizing for doing so.

Scripture says that when Phinehas obeyed God, the plague on Israel was checked. For those of us Christians who think there’s nothing we can do to stop the plague of immorality that is destroying our world, maybe we should try obedience, too.

Is there a stand God is asking you to take?

March 4 – One Victory Isn’t The War

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Numbers 21&22

I didn’t realize that there were occasions during their forty year journey to the Promised Land when the Jews lived in cities. (21:25) It must have felt good to sleep in beds, have a roof over their heads, and a place to cook their food, after so long living in tents in the wilderness. I wonder how hard it would have been to pack up again and continue their journey when God moved.

I wonder if some of them just didn’t move with Him. The Israelites had fought and defeated the inhabitants of those cities. What would be the harm in staying?

As I think about that this morning I am reminded of times in my life when I have defeated my enemy, Satan. Times when I’ve overcome a temptation, or repented of and walked away from a sin I’ve been committing. Victory feels great, and my relationship with God is sweet during those times.

But before long, God reveals another sin He wants us to conquer. Another battle to win. He encourages me to take another step on our journey toward His best for me.

If I choose to stay in my present “city” my relationship with Him can remain sweet and comfortable, I guess. But what would I be missing? How much more sweet and precious can my relationship with my Savior be?

I don’t want to be satisfied with winning a battle or two. I want to win the whole war. I want everything God offers in this life and the next.

And that means I move when He moves. No matter how comfortable I might be at the moment, I press on. Because if what I have now is amazing…

March 2 – Can’t Win For Losing

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Numbers 16&17; Psalm 90

Some of the Levites were jealous. Who did Moses think he was, anyway? We’re good men, too, they told themselves. “All the congregation is holy.” (16:3)

So in their rebellion, they decided to do the work of the priests, to offer the incense in the censors made holy by God’s Presence. Long story short… the earth opened up and swallowed them whole.

Now that’s not what spoke to me today. It’s what happened the next day. The Jews got together, went to Moses, and said, “Now look what you’ve done.” Moses can’t get a break.

And sometimes, neither can we 21st Century Christians. The world is paying for their own rebellion against God. Wars, disease, murders, prejudice, unrest, fear, need I go on?

Yet who are called haters? Christians. Who are considered intolerant and judgmental? We who stand for the truth of Scripture.Who’s fault is it that some poor guy feels repressed in his male body? You get the picture.

In the chapters we read today, God continues to demonstrate His power, His right to be worshiped and obeyed. I’m not so sure He won’t open up the earth and swallow us whole. It’s not like He hasn’t done it before.

Psalm 90 addresses this, then asks God to teach us to number our days that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. I like that idea.

May God’s majesty be seen by our children. May His favor be upon us as He confirms the faithful work of Christians as we obey Him. May we continue to be a light in this dark world of sin. May we express His joy in the midst of trouble.

And may we continue to pray for a world that so desperately needs Him.

Feb 29 – Tough Questions From Five-Year-Olds

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I was talking to a couple of mothers of young children recently. The mother of a kindergartener said her son came home and asked, can boys marry boys? He told his mom, “Johnny’s dad wears dresses.”

The mother of a four-year-old said he asked her who he should marry. Could he marry his cousin?

When is it appropriate to talk to your kids about life in the twenty-first century? I pray for all the parents out there. Your child will grow up in a world where homosexual marriages are as common as divorce. (I say that because when I was growing up you rarely heard about people getting a divorce, especially among Christians. Today, you hear it all the time.)

I’m not going to tell you how to raise your children. But I would suggest you sit down today with your spouse and decide what you are going to say to your kids when they come to you with those hard questions. Get out your Bibles. Read what God has to say about the issues. Prepare in advance to hear those hard questions. Because they will come.

I would encourage you to not meet those questions with horror. And always, always make prayer a part of any of those conversations. You might even ask your five-year-old to pray that God will guard his heart, that God will give him the ability to know the truth according to Scripture and honor God with his own choices. Help your children to separate the sin from the sinner, so they can demonstrate God’s love to people who are different without accepting their choices.

Get ready, parents. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. But God is able to give you the words to encourage  your children, to answer them in a way that will honor God.

I’m praying for you. You’ve got an enormous responsibility there in your home.

I’m praying for your children. I’m praying that God will raise up children who will continue to live for Him, regardless of where the world is heading.

Dear God, I do pray for parents today. Our world is spinning out of control, and unless we anchor our kids, they will get caught up in its craziness. Give parents wisdom, clarity concerning your Word. Help them to raise loving children who aren’t swayed by popular opinion. Walk with us in an observable way today, and may Jesus be seen in us no matter our age.