Playing with fire. How we have seen through the scriptures since Genesis the ripples of living with sin, any sin, and its consequences. The damning consequences. Our world today. My walk.
Earlier I was talking with Curt about what we read in His Word and what verses applied to our lives. He is reading Jeremiah and how God has told them because of their sins, He is taking down the protective barrier and allowing the enemies in to overtake their land. The consequences of their sins have led them back into slavery.
God shoots straight from the hip. There are some things in scripture that we don't understand or make sense of - and that is okay. He didn't instruct us to know all the why"s. He commands, "Beware. That’s a huge danger”, which is plain, simple, and straight forward. We are not to entertain any sin - at all.
At. All.
A good word picture would be if you have been diagnosed with a malignant cancer. Although it is in its early stages, it has been proven without a doubt that it is spreading, either at a quick or slow pace hasn't been yet determined, throughout your body. The diagnosis is that it is still small, contained, treatable, curable, but will completely consume your body if left alone. Your doctor then tells you that there will be no treatment. That it will be left alone to run its course and that it will either show signs of aggressiveness or just sit for awhile and fester before finishing you off.
That is what sin is. It is the cancer of our soul and how often do we choose to be the doctor that says, "let it alone".
We do look at sin through rose tinted glasses and think it is harmless. Thinking about the images we are able to watch on TV today. Fifty years ago you wouldn't be able to see even a married couple sharing the same bed. They were filmed in separate beds, even if it portrayed them as married with children. Today, it is nothing to see same sex couples, in the same bed, doing more than just lying there. Commercials. I can remember how scared I was at Jaws because my mind wasn't numbed to horror through seeing it every day. Or how persons are being numbed to the blatant sell of sex through all the daily images we take in.
We have taken to looking at sin from black, to gray, to invisible.
Invisible, but still there and active.
Much like natural gas which contains one of the most deadly elements - carbon monoxide. It is non-toxic, tasteless, colorless and odorless. It will overcome you and make you feel sleepy. Not alarmed, not afraid, no panic. And it will be a sleep you won't wake up from. For safety reasons Mercaptan is added to it which has a rotten egg odor. So that we will know when it is surrounding us.
How thankful I am that God has put that "rotten egg" odor to sin. The times that my hair goes up on the back of my neck, that is a warning. The sick feeling I have in the core of my being when I have participated in sin. The sadness that overcomes me when I have failed Him, not being able to shake it off and blame it on hormones.
Then we go so far as to act the "great Christian". Using "prayer requests" as an excuse to pray about the coworker that is having an affair? To be the "good neighbor" to get into someones life and share their home life with others? Or when we are a whore with the world and the virgin in church on Sundays? We are tolerating and entertaining the "little sins" thinking they won't amount to anything.
When you are in a home that has a carbon dioxide leak, you evacuate immediately. You go to a safe place. When you find you have a treatable cancer, you get it removed and out of your body. Why is it that we don't do that with sin?
Take heed from His Words, “Don’t make any deals with them or their gods. They are not to stay in the same country with you lest they get you to sin by worshiping their gods. Beware. That’s a huge danger.”
Breath the rotten egg smell and evacuate.
Get to your safe place.
Him.
Sin isn't pretty. Sin is a poison. It comes in all sizes, wrapped up as a beautiful package. Beneath the exterior - there is nothing but blackness. Solid blackness of evil. Please listen - It is THE cancer that WILL eat away at your soul until it is consumed.
There is only one gift that is what it is. He came plainly wrapped, in a manager, with a bow of a star. Upon opening, pushing back the tissue papers of our sins, His blood, death on the cross, resurrection, we take out His treasure. His only Son. His Pure, Holy, sweet smelling, gift of eternal life.
For us.
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