30 October 2011

The Seduction of Sin

This morning I was treated to a series of object lessons on the theme of sin.  As I spent a couple hours mowing, weeding, and trimming, the LORD continued to impress the danger sin poses to our lives.  A characteristic of sin is how seductive it is.  With a tantalizing appearance it beckons, but there is always an incredibly high cost:  separation from God.  For those who refuse to repent and trust in Christ for salvation, this separation will be eternal.

In the corner of our back yard grows a stunted, sad lemon tree.  The sparse, bumpy fruit and wrinkled leaves reveal a sick condition.  But today the tree flourished with colour!  Round, flat insects of vibrant red, orange, green, and yellow clustered on the end of each branch.  These were not bugs I was familiar with, coming from San Diego!  A quick online search revealed these insects as destructive pests called "stinkbugs."  My eyes widened as I read how they leech the sap from the blossoms and tender shoots, destroying new growth.  Had I not known this, I would have allowed the bugs to stay.  Their colours were beautiful but their effects deadly.  So it is with sin:  Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit and saw it was beautiful to behold and very appetizing.  She ate and shared with Adam, her husband.  The world has never been the same.

Our front yard has several plants adorned with the blooms of spring.  One plant in particular has gorgeous flowers of a deep red hue.  I am not familiar with the variety, but it is a type of plant which spreads as a flowering ground cover.  Though it is surrounded by soft soil, for some time the size of the plant has not increased.  Upon closer examination, I found that under the blooms the plant was matted with weeds.  The foreign clover was robbing the beautiful plant of water and restricting its growth.  Again, this is a picture of how sin and the cares of this world can choke out God's influence in our lives.  We are constantly faced with things (perhaps not even bad or wrong in themselves) which compete for our thoughts, money, time, effort, and desires.  Like the Parable of the Sower Jesus told, the cares of the world can choke out the good seed of God's Word and render it fruitless.

As I cleaned up, my wife gave me a call.  She was at the shops picking up some things when she was approached by a man selling a versatile automotive product.  After listening to his spiel, she called me for my opinion on whether she should consider such a purchase.  "Not interested," I said.  I wondered why she had listened to his pitch in the first place.  When she came home she told me the whole story.  "He was really nice, not pushy," she explained.  "And it seemed like quality stuff.  But even with 40% more for free it was $80 for two bottles."  "What?  If you knew it was that expensive why did you even bother calling me?" I asked in surprise.  "He didn't tell me that until the end."  And isn't that always the way with the temptations of the world?  Sin comes in flashy packages and seems to meet our needs.  It comes highly recommended.  But we never hear about the cost until we've been sucked in.  Just like a drug dealer knows it is in his best interest to give free dope so he can hook people, Satan knows how to lure people to their destruction.

To sum up:  sin is often attractive, subversive, deadly, and always has a hefty cost.  Praise God that He has given us His unchanging Word so we might know truth from error.  Thank God that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World who has come to break the chains of sin's captives so they might be free indeed.  Let us be sober and watchful, knowing that the enemy of our souls is as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  May we endeavour to keep our lives free from sin that we might maintain close communion with our Heavenly Father and glorify Him always!

Let Us Reason

We live in a day which encourages the exploration and practice of cultural traditions.  Native Americans continue the traditions of their ancestors through dance, songs, native dress, and rituals.  Indigenous cultures at one time were under the threat of extinction through systematic eradication or amalgamation with other beliefs.  Because of the diversity of cultures and traditions, some have sought to embrace the beliefs and practices of their forefathers.  People find identity, security, and a source of pride as they revel in their ethnic and cultural background.

While the embracing of cultural traditions can provide many positive aspects, it is not without great danger.  A danger exists when people assume that anything which is ancient or traditional is good.  From a biblical perspective, this pursuit and propagation of pagan culture is nothing short of disastrous.  The same thing can be said of religion.  If your faith rests in appeasing the gods through sacrifice or prostration, chants, your earthly heritage, meditation, the practice of family traditions, even in your denial of God's existence, you build on a foundation of sand.

When Jesus came to earth, He confronted people with His claim of being God made flesh.  He said in Matthew 28:18, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth," a claim of deity.  He walked among the religious Jews and the Romans with their pagan idols and mythology.  In revealing Himself as the Messiah, He has proved all other ways to "enlightenment" and "salvation" as fraudulent and useless - no matter how long people had pursued them.  People have long sought after power through the occult (with legitimate paranormal manifestations), but it is a cheap substitute for the power of God.  After Christ's resurrection and ascension, Paul addressed the intellectuals in Athens with this argument in Acts 17:22-34:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter."  33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them."
God overlooked for many years the ignorance of man, who groped as in the dark to find Him.  But now all men are without excuse, for God has revealed Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life through His sinless life, crucifixion, and resurrection.  God has also appointed a day in which every man will face judgment based upon the perfect standard of God's righteousness.  When people heard Paul's speech 2,000 years ago there were three basic responses:  some mocked, many procrastinated, and some believed.  For the Greeks who believed, they were compelled to leave the traditional superstitions to follow the One True God, Jesus Christ.  This was a heavy cost, but Christ's yoke is easy and His burden light.  Instead of having to bear the crushing weight of sin, God gives great joy which buoys the soul.

Are you a mocker, procrastinator, or a believer?  God has given us all the evidence we need in the Holy Bible.  Truth can bear examination.  I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ, use the faculties of reasoning God has given you to make an educated decision about Christ.  Isaiah 1:18 reads, "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  God is a God of reason, order, and infinite wisdom and intelligence.  If you seek Him you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart (Deut. 4:29).

26 October 2011

Sick of Your Life?

The world is packed with substitutes for Jesus Christ, but every one of them is useless.  Jesus forgives, frees, and gives life through repentance and faith.  All false saviours and gods lead to disillusion, enslavement, and death.  Satan works tirelessly to deceive people to think they are fine without God and can save themselves.  Or he will convince them that God does not even exist:  there is no heaven, no hell, no right or wrong, no purpose or meaning to this life, no absolute truth, no free will.

How many people have poured out their lives in pursuits of obtaining fame, wealth, and the accolades of men only to remain empty and devoid of life!  People are caught in addictions, gangs, the occult, and destructive cycles of violence out of fear, depression, and hopelessness.  Satan is a master at showing the alluring side of sin.  Commercials for beer commonly employ humour and most of them show fit, attractive, young people having fun partying.  But what you don't see is the dead people carted off the highways from drink driving, you don't smell the stench of vomit, you don't hear children crying themselves to sleep after being beaten, or feel the regret the next morning for things said or done while drunk.  Not everyone who drinks beer is irresponsible.  But that doesn't undo the pain, shame, regret, and addiction that many experience.

Partying and recreational drug use isn't the only things glamorized by the world contrary to scripture.  Fornication and adultery are seen as made safe by a thin film of rubber.  The potential damage to the soul of a human being through sex outside of marriage is greater than any virus to the body.  Movies and television portray the lie that hooking up is all about fun, conquest, and feeding desires.  What is not seen or discussed is pregnancy, the pressure a woman can feel to have an abortion she doesn't want to have when she falls pregnant, regret, embarrassment, and the fact you give a little bit of yourself away every time you have sex outside of marriage.  Porn reduces women and men to objects which exist solely to gratify lust and degrades them to a unfeeling, soulless participant who has zero value.  1 Corinthians 6:18 says, "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body."  So people run from relationship to another, have one night stands without number, hoping to satisfy the thirst for significance and love.

People kill themselves every single day.  Some do it with a bullet, a drug overdose, hang themselves, or jump off a bridge.  For others people enslaved in sin, they kill themselves a little every day as they rebel from God and swallow the lies of Satan that significance and satisfaction can be found pursuing pleasure, fun, fame, and wealth.  The wise king Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:10-11: "He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them; so what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes?"  Whatever you desire the most apart from God, that thing cannot satisfy you.  If you love money, no amount of money will satisfy you.  If you love sex, you will never get your fill.  Many have killed themselves trying.  As King Saul fell on his own sword, millions have been impaled by their own lusts.  The Bible reveals that our satisfaction and salvation is only found in knowing God and trusting in Jesus Christ.  Jeremiah 3:23 says, "Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly, in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel."  Jesus says in John 11:25-26:  "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Of course Satan lies about Christians too.  He perpetrates the moronic notion that "Christians never have any fun" and "All Christians are hypocrites."  The greatest fun a person can have is to be completely free of all shame, guilt, hate, addictions, and fear.  Christians can look Death in the face because of Christ's sacrifice and say, "You are a defeated enemy.  Christ, my King, has vanquished you.  Eternity for me has already begun."  Fun is knowing the truth, and the Truth has set us free indeed.  All the darkness, demons, and deceptions are revealed and crushed through the True Light who is Christ.  The fact remains that every person, at some level, is a hypocrite.  Satan is the greatest hypocrite of all!  If you cheat on your girlfriend and are mad when she talks to an ex, you are a hypocrite.  A hypocrite is an actor.  Every human being is born with this acting gene because of our sin nature.  We have all played the hypocrite.  It is actually Christ who frees us from being hypocritical.  No Christian I have met (myself included) has claimed sinless perfection.  I have no right to point the finger at anyone.  Christians, more than anyone, should be aware of their sins against God.  That is why we have sought salvation in a Saviour!

Are you sick of dying a little more every day on a frantic search for real life?  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  God has saved me from myself and the eternal damnation I deserve by His grace.  Time is short!   Isaiah 55:6-7 says, "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon ."  What do you have to lose?  Give God the ashes of your ruined life and He will give you beauty.  Give Him your mourning and He will give you the oil of gladness.  He will give you gladness in place of the spirit of heaviness. (Is. 61:3)  Confess your sin, repent, and trust in Jesus Christ.  It is only in Christ man's joy can be full.

If you actually read this far and would like to know more, message me! :)  God bless you!

25 October 2011

Through Christ's Eyes

I am amazed at the way God changes people, most of all when that person is me!  God has a way of transforming everything about my life:  my thoughts, reactions, desires, and pursuits.  During my late teens, I experienced what I can only describe as a very dry time spiritually.  I had such callouses on my conscience.  Or perhaps my conscience had not been made tender by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Things that never used to bother me certainly disgust me now.

Case in point:  I used to be a huge James Bond fan.  In the mid 90's when the films made a resurgence, I collected nearly all of them.  I had over 20 VHS tapes of Bond films starring Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and even George Lazenby!  When James Bond seduced a girl, it was something to laugh about.  Instead of "Boys will be boys!" it was "James will be James!"  The gadgets, cheesy and over-the-top special effects, weird villains, and amusing recurring characters were all part of the fun.  The newer movies have little similarity to the hokey style of the older films with their trademark mink gloves, vodka martinis, caviar and quail eggs, sharks, and fast-motion fighting sequences.

The other night I switched the channel on the TV to see Roger Moore in a suit talking to M acting in "The Man with the Golden Gun."  It was nostalgic to watch Bond banter back and forth with Moneypenny.  I left the room and returned when Bond was interrogating Scaramanga's lady friend.  He started talking with her, and suddenly slapped her without warning.  Then after breaking her down by force, he was given the information he wanted.  Then, of course, James was James.  Before the scene was over, I turned it off because the scene turned my stomach.  It totally disgusted me to see Bond's treatment of that woman.  As I poured a glass of water to head upstairs, it struck me that I had never been disgusted by Bond, though over the years he had given me plenty of reasons to be.  I was always able to distance myself from the characters and the people in the films.  It was only just a dumb movie, right?  Why did something bother me now that had never bothered me before?

I do not stand in judgment of people who enjoy or own Bond movies.  I am not even saying I will never watch one again.  But what I am saying is that I discovered that I have increased awareness and sensitivity where before was deadness.  A dead man cannot feel anything.  In stark contrast, a healthy man has nerves which conduct feelings of pain for the protection of the body.  I praise God that He is giving me a greater sensitivity to what is right and wrong to put before my eyes.  My definition of a "clean" movie used to be limited to the amount of cursing or nudity.  But what message does the film send concerning the treatment of women?  That never used to be on my list.  By God's grace, it is now.  That's a change only God can make.  The closer we are to Christ in relationship, we will begin to see things more as He sees them.