Feel the Love

In John 14:21, Jesus says – Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. This makes it clear that love-motivated obedience does result in greater revelations and experiences of God’s love. This is not a change in God’s love for you, but a change in your experience of God’s love for you. And this manifestation Jesus speaks of doesn’t mean visions and powers and such. It means you experience a more profound sweetness, intimacy, and intensity in your walk with God.  

I’m about to repeat two very famous sayings. They go together, and they have been said many times over many years by many people, and they are both true. The first one is this: If you are a Christian, there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. Hallelujah. The second one is this: If you are a Christian, there is nothing you can do to make God love you more. Amen.

If you are a Christian, there is nothing you can do to make God love you less, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you more. These are powerful and profound truths. I need to know that God loves me just the same when I fail him. Because I often fail him. And I need to know that I cannot earn more love from God. Because I often try to earn his love. 

These are truths that all Christians need. They help you combat your fear and your pride. But I think people often take these truths and misapply them to their lives. They take these truths about God’s love for his children, and think it means that it doesn’t matter what you do. But it does. And let me tell you how.

Yes, if you are a Christian, you can’t stop God from loving you. But you can stop experiencing the love of God. God is pouring out his love on you like rain. But Christians can put up an umbrella. God will continually feed you, but you can get out of the lunch line. The father never stopped loving the Prodigal Son, but until that son came back home, he didn’t experience the blessing of being with his father. You cannot change your union with Christ. But you can have an effect on your communion with Christ. 

When you’re stubborn, defiant, rebellious and willfully resisting God, there is a price to pay. You may not think it is happening, but it is. You may just shrug it all off because you feel good and things are going well. But you are settling for a lesser experience with God. Unless your god is your comfort, that is.

Yes, following Jesus will cost you. The gift of salvation is free, but the cost of discipleship is high. If you want to move forward with God, you don’t get to walk back the other way. And it can hurt when you have to lose in order to win. But the pain of changing is far less than the price of not changing. And the results are far better.

If you want to feel the love, then show the love. Start by going to God in prayer. Take responsibility and repent of your sins. Ask God to forgive you for grieving the Holy Spirit. Give thanks because you know that Jesus wants you to have a renewed experience his love. And then, act on it all by faith. And here is how. Galatians 5:13 says – For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. You have the freedom to choose. So, the next time you feel like indulging in sin, find some way to serve someone else instead of serving your flesh. Yes, it may hurt, but it will also help. And it is the way of hope. It is walking with God. And the closer your walk, the greater your experience.   

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Fighting the Ghosts

God is the potter, and Christians are his clay (Jeremiah 18:4 / 2 Corinthians 4:7). And he is shaping you into the likeness of Jesus, using all of life to do it. That’s the idea of Romans 8:28-29. But when you go against his guiding hand, God has to break you to remake you. And God may use the devil to break a believer down.

Maybe you’ve experienced this. Everything seems to upset you. You try and try, but things just go wrong, and you can’t seem to get a break. It seems like awful is amplified all over your life. It’s like you’re fighting a ghost, whose arming your enemies. 

Now sometimes, God is allowing this season to show your faithfulness as an example to others.  God may allow an attack to show his strength in your life. You’re wearing the full armor of God. You learn to have the patience of Job. You’re earning rewards in heaven. And those who would accuse you of sin are wrong. You need to stand strong in the Lord despite all the hurt feelings, lack of support, and hard circumstances. And your faith will be vindicated.

However, sometimes you aren’t just fighting your emotions, or people, or systems, or situations. Sometimes, God will allow the devil to invade your life because you have continually opened the door. You have continued in a pattern of particular sin, and God will use the devil to break and humble you. God uses the devil in a Christian’s life to accomplish his purposes. God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.

 Satan wants to use this time to further cement you into distrusting, disbelieving, and disobeying God. But God intends for this season to liberate you into a deeper trust and greater belief and joyful obedience. The deliverance you need is not just from the devil, but to Jesus. It is no good to cast the devil out when you keep inviting him back in. If you want to stop fighting the ghosts, you’ll have to stop fighting against God’s will. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Dealing with Sinful Desires

When dealing with a sinful desire, you might wish that God would take the desire from you rather than having to fight the sin within you. It seems so hard, it takes so much effort, you fail so often, and you wonder why it is even necessary. But God has designed for you to grow in grace as you lean on him to help you fight. In this way you get to know God. You get to partner with him and see how he loves you in this fight, how he is for you against your sin. And you experience his work in you more intimately. You more fully experience the power of His Word and His Spirit. You can experience God’s people praying and working together to help mold each other into the image of Christ. And you learn not to play with sin, as you discover just how dangerous and damaging it is in your life, and how your sins affect other lives. Through this process, you mature, and your desires begin to change as you long for heaven.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Trust Takes Time

We need to make a distinction between being forgiven of something and being done with something. This is a matter of justification, regeneration, and repentance. Transformation is a process. Just because someone has been forgiven of their sins by God, or forgiven of a particular sin, by others, this doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t still have a sinful problem.

The power of sin is not instantly fixed through forgiveness. By virtue of justification, the eternal penalty for sin, and being guilty in the eyes of God, that is “fixed”. But there remain consequences in this life. Sinful patterns must still be dealt with. By virtue of regeneration, Christians do have the power to overcome sinful patterns, but they must endeavor to do it. It is not automatic. It takes time, effort, and commitment. Christians should forgive, but they should not act as if their forgiveness of a person, or even God’s forgiveness of a person, means that person is fully and finally healed of their sinful pattern.

There is a difference between repentance proclaimed and repentance proven. Repentance proclaimed (a confession) begins in a moment of time. Repentance proven (a conversion) happens over the course of time. When repentance is proclaimed, we forgive. When repentance has been proven, then we forget. To do otherwise is not wise. Trust takes time.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

What is the Gospel? Part 5: What are we saved from?

Colossians 1:13-14

Looking at Romans from 1:18-3:23 we see that salvation is from the wrath of God (cf. Isaiah 53:10-12 / Galatians 3:13 / 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus Christ is the answer to sin, and His death appeases the wrath of God. Many other things presented as “gospel” do not require God to become incarnate, live a sinless life, die on a cross and rise again. Is it necessary for Christ to have been crucified? That is one good criterion for understanding if a message is about the true gospel. Some add Christ into the mix but their messages are just like they would be without Him, motivational talks, moral exhortations, feel good seminars. If you took out the biblical references or even added them it wouldn’t make any difference to the content of the teaching.

What kind of savior do we really need? The bible defines that need. We are saved from God by God. The Law had to be fulfilled by humanity. Only God could save us; only a human being should save us. God can’t die, so the Son of God entered into humanity so that He could die and pay for our sins. Until that broken Law was fulfilled by humanity we were still dead in our sins. We needed a new federal head, a second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45 / Romans 5:12-19). To redeem a people He had to be fully God, so as to give the atonement an infinite value, and He had to be fully man to perfectly satisfy the requirements of God’s Law, thus becoming an acceptable substitute for sinners (1 Timothy 2:5 – the man Christ Jesus) . It is not how many bad things you have done, not how many sins you have committed, but actually how bad sin itself really is. God’s glory was demonstrated at the cross by showing that God’s Law really did require a penalty for transgressions against it (Romans 3:25-26).

The missing ingredient in many gospels or gospel presentations is the fact that we are bound by sin, dead in sin, and slaves to sin. Salvation is from sin and to the Savior. The great problem of humanity is sin, not a lack of knowledge, not a lack of power, but a lack of purity. No amount of power and no amount of knowledge can erase that. Only the blood of Christ can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus can make me whole again. The only way we can have peace with God is if our sins are forgiven, and in Christ they are (Romans 5:1).

Some use the world’s methods of marketing to “sell” the gospel, being more concerned with numbers than with presenting the true gospel. Some water it down so there is no call for repentance from sin. This may produce large numbers of “converts,” but very few genuine believers. The message isn’t healing, helping needs or even simply that Jesus is the Messiah; it is the cross and the resurrection. We do not change it, modify it, grow it, shrink it or do anything to make it better. Our task is simply to take it the way it has been given to us and to believe in its power to affect lives. The fact that so many try to make the gospel into something else shows the nature of it as a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:18-24, 2 Corinthians 2:14-16).

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

What is the Gospel? Part 4: What is justification?

Luke 18:9-14

It is being declared righteous before God based on the merits of Christ. Often overlooked is the fact that when the Pharisee prayed he was thanking God. He was not saying how great he was by himself. He knew he was not able to do good works on his own, but felt that this infused righteousness he worked with justified him. God does indeed develop righteousness in everyone to whom He imputes righteousness, but we never achieve perfection in this life (Philippians 3:4-19). Works are the fruit, not the root of justification (Ephesians 2:10). This is the great danger, the teaching that the imparted righteousness whereby we can indeed do good works is the grounds of our justification, instead of the imputed righteousness of Christ to our account.

For some to justify means to make righteous rather than to declare righteous (cf. our sermon A Nail Pierces the Darkness). The Roman Catholic Church talks of grace and being saved by the merits of Christ alone. However, they teach that we receive the grace of God, and the merits of Christ, and are made righteous based on our participating in the sacraments of the church. Yet the Bible is clear that the gospel which saves the soul (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) does not include sacraments such as water baptism (1 Corinthians 1:17).

Also the Roman Catholic version of Communion (Eucharist) is turned into a righteous act on the part of the participant in which they maintain or continue their saving relationship with God. They believe that the real physical presence of Jesus is in the bread and wine and that it is the continuing sacrifice of Christ over and over to assist the participant in the continued removal of personal sin. The Bible is clear that this cannot be the case (Hebrews 9:24-28). The Bible clearly teaches that we receive the grace of God by faith alone, and not faith in any work, including a sacrament (John 5:24 / Romans 3:20-24 / Galatians 2:16 / Ephesians 2:8-9).

The difference is the difference between a saving faith that relies on an external atonement for sin and a misplaced faith that relies in an internal abatement of sin. We should be thankful that we have been given a measure of freedom from the power of sin in this life, but we must be careful to never equate this with our righteous standing before God.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

What is the Gospel? Part 3: Why do both Jesus’ Life and Death matter?

Matthew 3:13-15

In order for sinful human beings to have eternal life, the guilt and penalty of sin must be removed. Jesus does this not only by dying the death we justly deserve but by living the life we should have lived. If Jesus simply needed to impute the righteousness of God from His essence, there would have been no need for him to live for 33 years. However, in order to become a perfect high priest and lamb without blemish, Jesus not only had to die for us but He had to live for us. It is clear that the Scriptures speak of God’s people not only being justified by His death (Romans 3:25, 4:25, 5:9) but also as being saved by His life or obedience (Romans 5:10, 19). On the cross, God treated Jesus as if He lived your life so He could treat you as if you lived His life. That’s the Gospel.

Hebrews 4:14-15, 5:7-10 – this does not mean that Jesus was merely sinless in His essence as the second Person in the Trinity, but that He overcame temptations as a man. He revered and obeyed God. It says He was made perfect. Now if only His essence were needed for our righteousness there would be no need for Jesus to be made perfect since He already was. What this is speaking of is the same thing Jesus meant when speaking to John the Baptist. He was made perfect as a man (fulfilling all righteousness) so that He could become the source of salvation. Jesus was not lacking in any godly quality, but in the full experience of having lived a perfect human life. Jesus obeyed the Father in everything without sin (John 8:29). The lifelong perfect obedience of Jesus (Hebrews 5:8, 7:26-28) provides the basis for eternal salvation (Hebrews 2:10-18, 10:14).

Matthew 5:17 – Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. Jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves (Romans 3:20). Romans 8:3-4 – the problem is not with the Law, but that it was weakened by the flesh and therefore could not do what it intended (i.e. do this and live, Deuteronomy 8:1, etc.). Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin but without that weakness so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be met (fulfilled) in us.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

What is the Gospel? Part 2: How does God accomplish the Gospel?

2 Corinthians 5:18-21

We see the main thing here in this text, imputation (see also Isaiah 53) – both sin to Christ and righteousness to us. This is the ministry and message of reconciliation. Everybody has a sin problem (Romans 3:23) and we’re given the responsibility to proclaim the cure. That’s the main reason we are left on earth after we are born again, because fellowship with God, fellowship with each other, and triumph over sin will all be complete in heaven. There is one thing we do here that we cannot do in heaven and that is the ministry of reconciliation.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin – this means that God the Father punished Jesus as if He were the sinner, not that He was now actually a sinner. Jesus was our substitute. We see a type of this in Leviticus 16; Jesus became the “scapegoat”. The scapegoat wasn’t guilty, but the priest symbolically laid all the sins of the people on the scapegoat and sent him away. Jesus was without sin, but sin was credited to His account as if He had personally committed it, and then God punished Him, though the fact is He never committed any of it. Christ was made sin in the sense that our sins were accounted to Him. God treated Him as if He was guilty but He wasn’t. You were guilty, but God poured His wrath on the innocent Christ who was in our place as our substitute (Isaiah 53:10). The passage in Isaiah 53:6-7 is directly applied to Christ by Philip in Acts 8:32 (cf. John 1:29).

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God – this means God accredits the righteousness of Christ to our account. God rewards us as if we are the righteous, not that we are actually righteous. We see imputed righteousness also in Luke 22:37 (what was written about ME) where Jesus connects Isaiah 53 (see vs.11) with Himself (cf. Jeremiah 23:6).

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

What is the Gospel? Part 1: The Basic Facts

The gospel message is the good news of salvation, the word of truth offered to mankind by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ; most especially the message of the cross. We naturally think that the gospel starts with people, but the Bible reveals that the Gospel starts with God. Those that don’t know God place people first and believe that individual insight into our own selves is more important than God. This leads to pluralism, in other words, choose your own path and it is okay, because the frame of reference is people centered instead of God centered. This is against the Biblical Christian faith, as revealed by Jesus Christ, who said that there was only one way to be justified before God, and that was through Him (John 14:6). Peter said that Jesus was the only way men might be saved (Acts 4:12). Paul told Timothy that there was only one mediator between God and man, that being Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).

We either believe what Jesus said about Himself and the kingdom of God, and its exclusivity, or we have to invent some other way, which inevitably leads to pluralism (many paths), universalism (all people are saved), pantheism (all is God), or panentheism (everything has God in it). All these things are invalidated by the testimony of the Bible, which Jesus validated as the words of God (recall session 2, “A Biblical Foundation”). So, it is either Jesus or something else, you cannot have both, although many claim a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible.

Jesus said He was God. This is why the Jewish leaders were trying to kill Him in the first place, because He was asserting that He was the Son of God. To the Jewish mind of the day it was clear that Jesus was saying He was equal with God (John 5:18, 10:24-33). Jesus said to them that if they did not believe He was who He said He was that they would die in their sins, i.e., they were not going to heaven, but would be damned (John 8:24).

Think of it this way: all roads do indeed lead to God, but only one road leads to God justifying you, and all the other roads lead to God judging you. If you are in Christ God has already judged your sins, He punished Jesus in your place, but if not, then you will be punished for your own sins with your own soul, and you cannot pay for sins against God.

What are the basic facts of the Gospel? – 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 gives us the gospel in a nutshell – Christ died for our sins, was buried, and He rose again on the third day. We see that it was Jesus, the Messiah, who is the Christ, the Son of God, and the perfect One, who had to die for our sins. We’ll develop the significance of that as we go on from here. We also see that the resurrection is central to the gospel message (cf. Acts 17:31 / Romans 8:34-39 / 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 / 2 Timothy 2:8-11 / 1 Peter 1:3-9, etc.). Paul goes on to develop this in the rest of the chapter (cf. our sermon Where are your Easter Eggs?)

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Things that Don’t Work (Radio / Podcast)

…they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
(Colossians 2:23 – ESV)

Colossians 2:16-23 – Legalism / Mysticism / Asceticism (monasticism) – do not work. We tend to think, “If I would or could do this, then”, but spiritual maturity is not gained through the methods often employed by some in the church. However, a measure of maturity is the sense of your own sinfulness.

Legalism (vs.16-17) – No rigorous self-imposed devotion to types and shadows will make you more spiritual. It is Christ’s life being formed in you by abiding in Him. It is not done by formula or ritual. One aspect of legalism is that the doctrines of men are promoted as the laws of God.

Mysticism (vs.18-19) – It isn’t some mystical experience that will get you to grow; it is God’s life in you that is growing. These movements often appeal to elites or an elitist notion, not something for the whole body. Jesus wants us all to grow together.

Galatians 4:17 – they shut you out from the elite so that you will strive to become a member of the elite. The gnostics had a type of higher knowledge theory, and so, too, many today sell a deeper life or a higher level or whatever, so as to get others to come after them and their new improved doctrine and not after Christ (Acts 20:20-32).

Asceticism (monasticism) (vs.20-23) – Some so-called spiritual disciplines and contemplative prayer are simply self-made religion. We are not called to be monks but missionaries. Self-made religion is man reaching to God, trying to justify himself by keeping a list of rules. Christianity is God reaching down to man in love through Christ.

Spurgeon wrote of “a carnal repentance – a repentance that is of the flesh, and after the manner of the sinful nature of men. In this repentance the depravity of the heart remains the same in essence, though it takes another form of showing itself. Though the man changes, he is not savingly changed: he becomes another man, but not a new man. The same sin rules in him, but it is called by another name, and wears another dress. The stone is carved into a more sightly shape, but it is not turned into flesh. The iron is cast into another image, but it is not transformed into gold. This carnal repentance is caused by fear. Does not every thief repent of robbery when he is convicted and sent to jail? Does not every murderer repent of his crime when he stands under the fatal tree?” This kind of fear-filled living is a dark parody of the true Christian life.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Relief of Unbelief (Radio / Podcast)

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
(Hebrews 3:12 – ESV)

When temptation comes, you will either dwell on the thought, or pray, as you ought. When you dwell on a thought, the thought dwells in you. The devil’s delight is for you to look at that thing and become intoxicated with it, or fear of losing it, or despair of defeat from it. Don’t let the devil have a place inside your head. Don’t magnify his words and let them develop into your will (James 1:14-16), magnify the Word of God in those moments of evil desire.

The longer you look at the giant the bigger he becomes, the longer you pray to God the closer He becomes. When the temptation comes and what is in front of you seems too big that is when you want to draw back, to let go, to give in to unbelief and feel temporal relief, to be rid of the pressure and to find temporary peace. But it is a false peace. Until you kill that thing it will come back time and again.

Most people will just let the enemy have an outpost as long as they don’t have to battle with him. You think you cannot overcome it and it is true in your flesh you cannot, just as the Israelites couldn’t overcome the giants in the natural unless God had enabled them to be able to. God was for them, and is for you if will but draw near to God when faced with the giant temptations to draw back. They should cause you to realize that you must draw near to God or you will be consumed by the enemy (1 Peter 5:8).

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Goats, Dogs, Pigs, and Sheep (Radio / Podcast)

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
(James 4:17 – ESV)

Too often people want to know God's direction for their lives in certain areas, but they won't even look to do what He has already laid out in other areas. It seems that people want God to enter into something so that they can get out of something. They only want to do the minimum it takes to get the results they want. They submit only to the extent that it gives them pleasing possibilities. It isn’t a matter, usually, of attempting to be biblical, but struggling with it.

Now having said that, some are just not aware of what the biblical instruction or injunction is, and we cannot assume they do know what is right when they have never been doing it at all. Perhaps they just don’t know this or that thing we think is obvious, to them it isn’t. Therefore we must make them aware of the relevant biblical truth and instruction before we simply confine them to criminal status.

It is time to bring the scriptures to bear. Yes God knows your heart, and He uses His Word to reveal to you the condition of it (Hebrews 4:12).

Regarding sin in our lives; very often we cling to the worthless things that we think will deliver true satisfaction. This can be especially true with new believers who are getting used to living the new life. Of course, there are people who have been believers for some time who also struggle with this. We all do to an extent, but some of the major problems ought to be “cleaned up” sooner. It is a mindset that needs to be met with scripture, but too often we are afraid to talk about such obvious problems because we know we have problems too.

This does not change the truth that Christians should be changing, letting go of lying, cussing, stealing, and things that were normal to their old life. They may still struggle and we can struggle with them, but to think it is okay to stay in that sort of lifestyle pattern is more than just sin, it is rebellion that shows a lack of real repentance, and calls into question someone’s salvation. Again, someone who knows it is wrong, and says it is wrong, and wants to change it is different than someone who tries to justify “doing a little bad”. For example, they supposedly need to skip out on the rent in order to have the deposit for the next place and they think it is no problem.

Now it is true that your personal convictions do not bind someone else’s conscience. However, we do need to show people the clear teachings of scripture when they obviously think stealing or lying or a little racism or things like this are justifiable whenever they deem it right to do so. There are things people “hold onto” like horoscopes, for another example, things people need to be trained out of, and it might seem obvious to you, but it might not to them, especially if no one has ever confronted them with it.

Salvation is more than just a change of appetite, but it cannot be less than that. God’s sheep are led by the Good Shepherd. Goats simply go their own way and only turn when they are coerced or forced. As dogs, we return to our vomit, and as pigs, we love our mire, and even if we’re taken out and bathed, we hurry back in (2 Peter 2:22). But when God changes us from goats or dogs or pigs to sheep, so to speak, we are not as open to rebellion when led by the truth and we begin to see these disgusting things as they are. If we are still “butting back” against the truth, perhaps we still have horns.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Before the Last Exit (Radio / Podcast)

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
(1 Corinthians 10:13 – ESV)

In 1 Corinthians 10:1-10 Paul uses the children of Israel in the wilderness as an object lesson about presuming upon the grace of God. Although they had escaped the bondage of Egypt, and had known of God’s grace and had experienced it (vs.1-4), nevertheless, many were still in bondage to sin, and they were judged (vs.5).

Indeed, from that first generation only Joshua and Caleb made it to the Promised Land (Numbers 14:30-32). Paul describes the nature of their offense as the desire for evil things (vs.6 / cf. Psalm 106:14), and then he gives us some specific instances which are representative of how they were confirmed in their sin.

· Idolatry (vs.7) (cf. Exodus 32:1-6)
· Immorality (vs.8) (cf. Numbers 25:1-9)
· Incitement (vs.9) (cf. Numbers 21:5-6)
· Indictment (vs.10) (cf. Numbers 16:41-49)

Paul then tells us that these things are a warning to us (vs.11). God dispensed judgment upon them in the physical realm and this is to be our warning about spiritual judgment, which might also have temporal, physical manifestations. He warns us to always be careful, because the minute that we think we have a particular sin mastered we are in danger of that very sin actually becoming our master (vs.12).

Now in context, verse 13, therefore, is telling us that we need to take the turn offs when they appear and stop traveling down the rotten road before those ways of escape disappear. The children of Israel presumed upon God’s grace and proved their lack of true faith. You have to continue down the grace road; if you do not, you are manifesting the lack of faith.

You can’t continue down the dark path and think that there will be an escape pod just waiting whenever you feel like turning back to God. People think they can coast, and then they wonder why this verse doesn’t seem to “work” for them. The examples Paul gives are a warning against precisely that. Repentance means we are turning back onto the Holy Highway. It is time to turn off of Temptation Street; believe me, you can’t afford the toll.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Come On In! (Radio / Podcast)

Neither give place to the devil
(Ephesians 4:27)

Is all sin the same? No, when Jesus said that to even so much as look at a woman with lust is adultery, He wasn’t saying that you might as well go ahead and do it. You have to have the sin in your heart and mind before you do it in action, but to add the act adds more sin. See?

There's a difference in degree (seriousness), a difference in progression (how far the sin has gone), and a difference in consequences. All sin has been paid for and all sin is damning, but different sins have different temporal consequences.

People often miss the point about the consequences of sin. The simplistic notion that to make more of a deal over some sins than others is somehow wrong reveals ignorance instead of a more mature understanding of the heinousness of all sin, whatever its kind.

Some sins are worse than others. Yes they are. They are worse in what they do. They wreck you faster and more completely. They damage others more severely. They reach out further and make it harder for you to come back to God. Oh, His hand isn’t so short it cannot save you, but the further you are away, the more it is going to hurt you to get back, that is for sure.

How many people are leaving the door open for the devil? Many, but how many are assigning him a permanent place at the dinner table? It is a different question, and I want to give an example for us to think about.

People are trying to convince themselves that living together, as an unwed couple, is the same as any other sin. Well, it is the same in THAT it is a sin, and it is the same in that it is the same as some OTHER types of sin, but it is NOT the same as any old sin. It has much more disastrous consequences than many people realize or are willing to admit. Staying in sin is much worse than playing with sin. Yes any sin is bad, but inviting it to stay is like inviting the devil to come in through an always-open door.

There is a difference between continuing to make bad choices, falling back and repenting, etc., and having ONE choice to make but refusing to do it, like the difference between someone who is trying to overcome homosexuality and the person who won’t move out of the house from his gay lover, and the person who marches in the gay pride parade, actively promoting it. Homosexuality isn’t the issue with this missive, however, cohabitation is.

Fornication is wrong, of course. However, moving in with and then continuing to live with a sexual partner, as an unmarried couple, is outright rebellion. It is open warfare and it is different. You are leaving the door open for Satan 24/7 while in that state. At least the fornicator who is trying to repent isn’t in that state at all times, they keep making bad choices and letting the devil in. The outright rebel who only needs to make the one choice is always in their state; they always have the devil right there. They are always leaving the light on for Satan to come on in. The person who slips falls into a snare the person who sits is living in one continually and likes it.

There is a difference, a BIG difference between someone who falls into a snare and someone who dwells in the den. The person struggling with sin is leaving God’s table and eating the world’s food. The person who stays in the house of sin is having the devil over for dinner every night, with a permanent place at the table.

Whenever we sin, we are in danger of allowing the devil to get a foothold. If it continues and forms into a habit, that foothold becomes a stronghold. Those that fall into habitual sin are battling against a stronghold that the devil has gotten in their lives, and they keep fortifying it by their sin. That stronghold becomes a fortress. In our scenario, where some live as an unmarried couple, they move into the fortress itself, and they are paying the devil for the mortgage. You might as well put a sign on the front door that says, “welcome to the devil’s place”…

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Indecent Exposure (Radio / Podcast)

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
(Hebrews 4:13 – ESV)

What are you exposing yourself to? What are you allowing into your eyes, your ears, your mind, and your heart? I am not talking about unavoidable things. We all get exposed to images and ideas and iniquity that we would rather never encounter, but it is going to happen at times. I am also not talking about isolating yourself from all of culture in order to avoid these unpleasant events. No, what I am talking about are those things you allow as a regular course.

Do you spend a lot of time wondering if we are allowed to do this or that certain thing? Conversely, do you care at all? I think the answer to many of these type of questions could be solved by first asking ourselves some other important questions. What do you allow to fill your time? What is the background music in the soundtrack of your life? How much time are you allowing the things of God to be impressed upon you? The Word of God is powerful, but if your frequency is overrun with other, worldly things, then all you will hear is a clouded mix.

Many people talk of wanting to change but they say it is too hard to do. They look for some magic formula, or expect God to just bail them out of working at it. They also overlook this whole idea of slowly changing, and slowly sliding back. So some think it is too hard to change. If this is you, I want to tell you the truth. The reason it seems so hard is because your heart is so hard. Your heart has become so hardened because of what you have let in.

Ever have someone say to you that they don’t have time for this or that? Well we all know what this means. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with having no time but it is actually about not wanting to use our time in that way. What they mean, and if you want to be direct what you would say is that you won’t make time for this or that. What are you “making time” for?

The things you expose yourself to do indeed have an effect on you. Now this is true for many areas, but lets take images, for one example. If you say that they don’t have an effect on you, well, then why do you expose yourself to them? As you can see, it is not about the fact that they have an effect, that cannot be denied, it is whether or not they have a lasting effect, that is the real question, isn’t it?

Well, not completely. It is also about cumulative effect, and setting patterns of behavior for yourself as well. Since we know for sure that doing something over time is creating habits, it IS a habit, and multiplied images bring multiple chances for long term retention, then the only excuse you might have is to say that you will not be affected long term, that you can withdraw yourself from this behavior if it gets too much. But saying that in light of the other, undeniable evidence is playing games with your mind, your heart, and with God.

Even if we were to hypothetically admit that exposure creates no long-term effect, however preposterous that may be, we still have a major problem because it would still be, as long as you keep doing it, an ongoing effect. One exposure, one image may not stay with you, but it leads to a chain of events, multiple exposures, and this leads to an ongoing problem. How can you say exposure has no long-term effect when you keep exposing yourself to it?

A.W. Tozer said, “Every one of us is the sum of what we secretly admire, what we think about and what we would like to do most if we become free to do what we wanted to do.” Think about that. If money, jail time, conscience, family, friends, and God were not constraints, would you spend your time following Christ, learning of Him? Be honest, because the way you truthfully answer this question will reveal to you a lot about where you are in your walk with God. What do you want to be exposed to when you have the opportunity? What is lighting your fire, and where is the light going out?

Many want to be allowed to expose themselves to all sorts of things, anything except the Word of God, and they harden their hearts so as to not feel the sting of the Sword of the Spirit. Their consciences are seared and their minds are cleared from the transforming power of the Word and they are instead filled with all sorts of distraction, deception, and destruction. Nevertheless, they are exposed, we all are exposed before the Mighty, Living Word of God, Jesus Christ Himself, and His Word is His Sword in His hand. Christ will either be our physician or our executioner. If His Word is not the instrument of our life, it will be the instrument of our death, if not the instrument of our justification, then the instrument of our judgment.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Stress-Free Sinning? (Radio / Podcast)

But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."

(2 Timothy 2:19 – ESV)

Not every true Christian will experience the same degree of personal, practical sanctification. The thief on the cross was saved but since he died that same day he didn’t have the time that the Apostle Paul had to show forth the fruits of righteousness. We instinctively and interpretively understand that some believers will progress further into the sanctification process, they will press on to the mark in a more pronounced fashion than some others. On the other end of the spectrum, some might seem to be acting like unbelievers, while they may truly be born again.

This brings an interesting question. Why are there so many genuine Christians who persist in the same patterns of sin, apparently without pangs of conscience, and without repentance, apparently hard-hearted against the communion of Christ, the conviction of the Spirit and the commands of the Word? Why do they sin without stress, without struggle, and seemingly without significance?

Well, first off, the inward sins of the heart that perhaps do not manifest as overt, “big time” sins that everyone condemns are sins nonetheless. We all have sin; it is just that Christians are supposed to be striving toward holiness, wanting to be blameless while realizing they will never be completely sinless in this lifetime. Still, what about those who don’t even try? How do you tell the Christians from the non-believers, in that some professing believers live “worse” moral lives than some non-believers? Why would God even allow this?

We know this for sure; it is all a part of God’s plan. Jesus said it would be so, and that we won’t know until the end who the real believers were, and also that many think they are true believers but they aren’t. The answer is in our personal valuing of practical sanctification, both temporal and eternal. God is giving us opportunity.

Peter says to make your calling and election sure by growing in fruitfulness (2 Peter 1:5-10). Now when he says this he is not saying that you are making your calling and election sure to God, but to yourself, because the Lord knows those who are His, and because the second inscription on the sure foundation of God says that those who are His, those who claim the name of Christ are to depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19). We also make our calling and election sure to others we know (1 Thessalonians 1:2-4), others we meet (1 Thessalonians 1:6-9), and perhaps even to Satan and the demonic realm (2 Timothy 2:26).

Those that are doing this are being made useful and ready for every good work by cleansing themselves from sin (2 Timothy 2:20-25). Here in 2 Timothy Paul speaks about a cleansing that isn’t just something God does for us as we sit passively. This is a self-cleansing for service that goes beyond a general cleansing for sin. 1 John 1:9 would be speaking of the general cleansing from the guilt and penalty of sin, but Paul and the Bible talks of another type of cleansing. We sanctify, or set apart ourselves because He has sanctified us (Leviticus 20:7-8 / 1 Corinthians 1:30).

It is not a salvation issue but an assurance of salvation issue. It is not a “make it to heaven” issue, but a “rewards in heaven” issue. It is about fruitfulness and usefulness in this life. It is about working out from our cleansing from sin, and cleansing ourselves in God’s power so that we are separated for service. It is about being prepared for production. It is about our cooperation with God’s Spirit so that we are set apart and made useful and closer to God.

However, what many do not realize is that this voluntary, temporal cleansing has eternal consequence as well as temporal aspects. They don’t go for it because they don’t see the worth; they haven’t realized it, made it real, cashed in on this truth. There are temporal aspects, such as an assurance of salvation and communion with Christ by the Holy Spirit, and eternal aspects, as with rewards in heaven. We have not stressed the practical presence of God and rewards in heaven enough.

In sanctification, God allows us to store up treasures in heaven, and allows us to win crowns that we may cast at the Master’s feet. To some, that may not seem to be all that big a deal, as long as they make it, but believe me, and believe the Bible, it will be a great big deal on that day, and you, me, and all of us will want to have more to give than we will then. We need to see this as it really is, and stress to believers the importance of the eternal state, not just as the resting place from wrath, but the place where we make an eternal statement about how we honored the glory of the Lord with our lives. For some this isn’t enough motivation, but we must endeavor to renew our minds to this truth.

To be a servant of the Lord, a vessel of honor for Him, we must be empty, clean, and available. If we refuse to empty ourselves, clean ourselves, and make ourselves available to the Lord, we will find ourselves captive to the devil in one sense or another. When you commit a sin, you let the devil win. If someone does not have the desire or the actions to depart from iniquity at all, it is fair to ask if they really belong to Jesus or if they have just deceived themselves. The sanctified, feeling God’s love, imitate it, and the more they imitate it, the more they feel it. It is worth striving for. At best, stress-free sinning is success-free sinning.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Averse to Avowed (Radio / Podcast)

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
(Romans 1:26 – ESV)

The point of our text today is that God has given, is giving, and will give mankind over to unnatural desires. Paul mentions homosexuality as an example, but this is just the obvious manifestation of it. All sin is on the same road. God gives men over to rule themselves, and men do more than sexual perversion, they give themselves to all sorts of unnatural things.

When we don’t find our passion in the glory of God, we will be consumed with our own natural passions, and then, being jaded, we will turn ourselves over to unnatural passions. We become so bored with ourselves that we have to invent new forms of evil (1:30). A man cannot be delivered up to a greater slavery than to be given up to his own lusts.

Young man, young woman, all men, all women, make no mistake, there is a diminishing return on the evil you do and the evil you look at. Even the secular world knows of this, it is called the law of diminishing returns. This law says that we grow less sensitive to the same level of stimuli over time, and thus require ever-increasing stimuli to elicit the same response. An alcoholic may require twelve beers to match the effects that one beer has on someone who does not drink regularly. Just as we can build up a tolerance to alcohol with regular use over time, we can build up numbness to any sin with regular use over time. For that reason, when we continually give in to sin we will require more over time to arrive at the same level of satisfaction and fantasy.

You will become a slave to that thing you don’t want anyone else in authority to know about, you will become bored with it, and will need an ever increasing stimulus to feed your appetite. To everyone I say; if you are not getting better and better you are getting worse and worse. To those of you young ones, and everyone who is ensnared in their own self: You are not wiser than those before you, your friends aren’t going to be wise enough to help you, you will not be able to turn off the switch when you want to, you will not be able to stop yourself, you will go from one bad thing to another, or you will trade one bad thing for another, and think you have escaped yourself and your sin, but you will not escape the coming judgment, you are not escaping it now, you won’t be able to turn back then, you must turn back NOW!

Verse 27 in the KJV says they burned in their passions. You can think you’re smarter than me, that I am just a fool, that this is all a show. You can think in your heart that this isn’t you because you aren’t turning into a homosexual. Well let me tell you, Paul was telling them, and he is telling you, that you may not become a homosexual, but that isn’t the bigger point, the point is that you are going to get worse and worse, fall further and further away from God, if you do not give up the idolatry of yourself. You may not burn for another man, but you burn for your own plan. Now is the time to be saved, turn or burn!

This world shows you how it is, and where it is headed. Homosexuality, just like all sin eventually, has gone from being averse to being allowed, and now it is going from allowed to avowed. Isn’t this what we see in television and movies, they are becoming more promiscuous and more perverse every year. What has changed, are these things less evil, or are we more evil? What do we think this is, liberation? No, it is slavery. We are so bound we think we’re becoming free. Indeed we are, free to be ourselves, the morally depraved, sexually confused, socially chaotic children of disobedience that we are at heart, unless God gives us a new heart.

Think about it; is this you? Things you once said you would never do, now you do, you look for ways to do them, and you burn with passion for them. We think we can sin, and still be in our right minds, but we don’t see sin as sinful as it is. Every sin you commit affects your mindset towards sin itself; every little bit ruins a little bit of your mind. Look again at verses 21-22, when we sin willingly, we go against the knowledge of God, we don’t glorify Him, we are not thankful, we become a little more hard hearted, and we start down the road to being or remaining a fool. That’s why Paul says that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), because sin is exceedingly sinful. On your own you won’t win against sin.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Indecent Exposure (with audio)

USE THE PLAYER ABOVE TO LISTEN TO THIS POST

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
(Hebrews 4:13 – ESV)

What are you exposing yourself to? What are you allowing into your eyes, your ears, your mind, and your heart? I am not talking about unavoidable things. We all get exposed to images and ideas and iniquity that we would rather never encounter, but it is going to happen at times. I am also not talking about isolating yourself from all of culture in order to avoid these unpleasant events. No, what I am talking about are those things you allow as a regular course.

Do you spend a lot of time wondering if we are allowed to do this or that certain thing? Conversely, do you care at all? I think the answer to many of these type of questions could be solved by first asking ourselves some other important questions. What do you allow to fill your time? What is the background music in the soundtrack of your life? How much time are you allowing the things of God to be impressed upon you? The Word of God is powerful, but if your frequency is overrun with other, worldly things, then all you will hear is a clouded mix.

Many people talk of wanting to change but they say it is too hard to do. They look for some magic formula, or expect God to just bail them out of working at it. They also overlook this whole idea of slowly changing, and slowly sliding back. So some think it is too hard to change. If this is you, I want to tell you the truth. The reason it seems so hard is because your heart is so hard. Your heart has become so hardened because of what you have let in.

Ever have someone say to you that they don’t have time for this or that? Well we all know what this means. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with having no time but it is actually about not wanting to use our time in that way. What they mean, and if you want to be direct what you would say is that you won’t make time for this or that. What are you “making time” for?

The things you expose yourself to do indeed have an effect on you. Now this is true for many areas, but lets take images, for one example. If you say that they don’t have an effect on you, well, then why do you expose yourself to them? As you can see, it is not about the fact that they have an effect, that cannot be denied, it is whether or not they have a lasting effect, that is the real question, isn’t it?

Well, not completely. It is also about cumulative effect, and setting patterns of behavior for yourself as well. Since we know for sure that doing something over time is creating habits, it IS a habit, and multiplied images bring multiple chances for long term retention, then the only excuse you might have is to say that you will not be affected long term, that you can withdraw yourself from this behavior if it gets too much. But saying that in light of the other, undeniable evidence is playing games with your mind, your heart, and with God.

Even if we were to hypothetically admit that exposure creates no long-term effect, however preposterous that may be, we still have a major problem because it would still be, as long as you keep doing it, an ongoing effect. One exposure, one image may not stay with you, but it leads to a chain of events, multiple exposures, and this leads to an ongoing problem. How can you say exposure has no long-term effect when you keep exposing yourself to it?

A.W. Tozer said, “Every one of us is the sum of what we secretly admire, what we think about and what we would like to do most if we become free to do what we wanted to do.” Think about that. If money, jail time, conscience, family, friends, and God were not constraints, would you spend your time following Christ, learning of Him? Be honest, because the way you truthfully answer this question will reveal to you a lot about where you are in your walk with God. What do you want to be exposed to when you have the opportunity? What is lighting your fire, and where is the light going out?

Many want to be allowed to expose themselves to all sorts of things, anything except the Word of God, and they harden their hearts so as to not feel the sting of the Sword of the Spirit. Their consciences are seared and their minds are cleared from the transforming power of the Word and they are instead filled with all sorts of distraction, deception, and destruction. Nevertheless, they are exposed, we all are exposed before the Mighty, Living Word of God, Jesus Christ Himself, and His Word is His Sword in His hand. Christ will either be our physician or our executioner. If His Word is not the instrument of our life, it will be the instrument of our death, if not the instrument of our justification, then the instrument of our judgment.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Stress-Free Sinning? (with audio)

USE THE PLAYER ABOVE TO LISTEN TO THIS POST

But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."

(2 Timothy 2:19 – ESV)

Not every true Christian will experience the same degree of personal, practical sanctification. The thief on the cross was saved but since he died that same day he didn’t have the time that the Apostle Paul had to show forth the fruits of righteousness. We instinctively and interpretively understand that some believers will progress further into the sanctification process, they will press on to the mark in a more pronounced fashion than some others. On the other end of the spectrum, some might seem to be acting like unbelievers, while they may truly be born again.

This brings an interesting question. Why are there so many genuine Christians who persist in the same patterns of sin, apparently without pangs of conscience, and without repentance, apparently hard-hearted against the communion of Christ, the conviction of the Spirit and the commands of the Word? Why do they sin without stress, without struggle, and seemingly without significance?

Well, first off, the inward sins of the heart that perhaps do not manifest as overt, “big time” sins that everyone condemns are sins nonetheless. We all have sin; it is just that Christians are supposed to be striving toward holiness, wanting to be blameless while realizing they will never be completely sinless in this lifetime. Still, what about those who don’t even try? How do you tell the Christians from the non-believers, in that some professing believers live “worse” moral lives than some non-believers? Why would God even allow this?

We know this for sure; it is all a part of God’s plan. Jesus said it would be so, and that we won’t know until the end who the real believers were, and also that many think they are true believers but they aren’t. The answer is in our personal valuing of practical sanctification, both temporal and eternal. God is giving us opportunity.

Peter says to make your calling and election sure by growing in fruitfulness (2 Peter 1:5-10). Now when he says this he is not saying that you are making your calling and election sure to God, but to yourself, because the Lord knows those who are His, and because the second inscription on the sure foundation of God says that those who are His, those who claim the name of Christ are to depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19). We also make our calling and election sure to others we know (1 Thessalonians 1:2-4), others we meet (1 Thessalonians 1:6-9), and perhaps even to Satan and the demonic realm (2 Timothy 2:26).

Those that are doing this are being made useful and ready for every good work by cleansing themselves from sin (2 Timothy 2:20-25). Here in 2 Timothy Paul speaks about a cleansing that isn’t just something God does for us as we sit passively. This is a self-cleansing for service that goes beyond a general cleansing for sin. 1 John 1:9 would be speaking of the general cleansing from the guilt and penalty of sin, but Paul and the Bible talks of another type of cleansing. We sanctify, or set apart ourselves because He has sanctified us (Leviticus 20:7-8 / 1 Corinthians 1:30).

It is not a salvation issue but an assurance of salvation issue. It is not a “make it to heaven” issue, but a “rewards in heaven” issue. It is about fruitfulness and usefulness in this life. It is about working out from our cleansing from sin, and cleansing ourselves in God’s power so that we are separated for service. It is about being prepared for production. It is about our cooperation with God’s Spirit so that we are set apart and made useful and closer to God.

However, what many do not realize is that this voluntary, temporal cleansing has eternal consequence as well as temporal aspects. They don’t go for it because they don’t see the worth; they haven’t realized it, made it real, cashed in on this truth. There are temporal aspects, such as an assurance of salvation and communion with Christ by the Holy Spirit, and eternal aspects, as with rewards in heaven. We have not stressed the practical presence of God and rewards in heaven enough.

In sanctification, God allows us to store up treasures in heaven, and allows us to win crowns that we may cast at the Master’s feet. To some, that may not seem to be all that big a deal, as long as they make it, but believe me, and believe the Bible, it will be a great big deal on that day, and you, me, and all of us will want to have more to give than we will then. We need to see this as it really is, and stress to believers the importance of the eternal state, not just as the resting place from wrath, but the place where we make an eternal statement about how we honored the glory of the Lord with our lives. For some this isn’t enough motivation, but we must endeavor to renew our minds to this truth.

To be a servant of the Lord, a vessel of honor for Him, we must be empty, clean, and available. If we refuse to empty ourselves, clean ourselves, and make ourselves available to the Lord, we will find ourselves captive to the devil in one sense or another. When you commit a sin, you let the devil win. If someone does not have the desire or the actions to depart from iniquity at all, it is fair to ask if they really belong to Jesus or if they have just deceived themselves. The sanctified, feeling God’s love, imitate it, and the more they imitate it, the more they feel it. It is worth striving for. At best, stress-free sinning is success-free sinning.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Come On In! (with audio)

USE THE PLAYER ABOVE TO LISTEN TO THIS POST

Neither give place to the devil
(Ephesians 4:27)

Is all sin the same? No, when Jesus said that to even so much as look at a woman with lust is adultery, He wasn’t saying that you might as well go ahead and do it. You have to have the sin in your heart and mind before you do it in action, but to add the act adds more sin. See?

There's a difference in degree (seriousness), a difference in progression (how far the sin has gone), and a difference in consequences. All sin has been paid for and all sin is damning, but different sins have different temporal consequences.

People often miss the point about the consequences of sin. The simplistic notion that to make more of a deal over some sins than others is somehow wrong reveals ignorance instead of a more mature understanding of the heinousness of all sin, whatever its kind.

Some sins are worse than others. Yes they are. They are worse in what they do. They wreck you faster and more completely. They damage others more severely. They reach out further and make it harder for you to come back to God. Oh, His hand isn’t so short it cannot save you, but the further you are away, the more it is going to hurt you to get back, that is for sure.

How many people are leaving the door open for the devil? Many, but how many are assigning him a permanent place at the dinner table? It is a different question, and I want to give an example for us to think about.

People are trying to convince themselves that living together, as an unwed couple, is the same as any other sin. Well, it is the same in THAT it is a sin, and it is the same in that it is the same as some OTHER types of sin, but it is NOT the same as any old sin. It has much more disastrous consequences than many people realize or are willing to admit. Staying in sin is much worse than playing with sin. Yes any sin is bad, but inviting it to stay is like inviting the devil to come in through an always-open door.

There is a difference between continuing to make bad choices, falling back and repenting, etc., and having ONE choice to make but refusing to do it, like the difference between someone who is trying to overcome homosexuality and the person who won’t move out of the house from his gay lover, and the person who marches in the gay pride parade, actively promoting it. Homosexuality isn’t the issue with this missive, however, cohabitation is.

Fornication is wrong, of course. However, moving in with and then continuing to live with a sexual partner, as an unmarried couple, is outright rebellion. It is open warfare and it is different. You are leaving the door open for Satan 24/7 while in that state. At least the fornicator who is trying to repent isn’t in that state at all times, they keep making bad choices and letting the devil in. The outright rebel who only needs to make the one choice is always in their state; they always have the devil right there. They are always leaving the light on for Satan to come on in. The person who slips falls into a snare the person who sits is living in one continually and likes it.

There is a difference, a BIG difference between someone who falls into a snare and someone who dwells in the den. The person struggling with sin is leaving God’s table and eating the world’s food. The person who stays in the house of sin is having the devil over for dinner every night, with a permanent place at the table.

Whenever we sin, we are in danger of allowing the devil to get a foothold. If it continues and forms into a habit, that foothold becomes a stronghold. Those that fall into habitual sin are battling against a stronghold that the devil has gotten in their lives, and they keep fortifying it by their sin. That stronghold becomes a fortress. In our scenario, where some live as an unmarried couple, they move into the fortress itself, and they are paying the devil for the mortgage. You might as well put a sign on the front door that says, “welcome to the devil’s place”…

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©