I Hate Sin!

I hate sin!  Do we often enough think about the devastating effects of sin?  We watch sin on the TV, we read about it in the newspapers and shake our heads about it saying, "oh, that's too bad."  We overlook the little things, "well," we say, "after all it doesn't hurt anyone."  We go to the big screen and see sin glamorized, Hollywood showing absolutely no consequences for most sins.  They tend to blame it on poverty, education, politics, even Christianity, for it was Christianity that made us guilty, or feel guilty.  As a pastor's family we deal with the consequences of sin on a daily basis.  We see the demoralization of husbands as they have cheated on their wives, the rebellion of teenagers and the tears of their parents, the loneliness of wives and husbands as they live in the same house but have no intimacy.  The list is long and sordid.  Then there is the sin of my own self and family.  The sin of self righteousness as it creeps into my heart as I say, "boy, I am glad I'm not that bad."  I hate it!  Then there are the times that sin hits me straight in the face, either in my life or the lives of my family members.  I cry out with Paul,   Romans 7:21-25

 

"21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

We are all in the same sin boat.  We are floating along dipping our toes in the sin water, splashing around thinking it's not that bad.  When we see someone else put their toes in the water, and say to our self-righteous selves "oh I am glad I do not do that," all the while we have dipped our whole arm in the opposite side of the boat.  We are all sinners, and we are saved by grace and grace alone.  When we come face to face with the reality of our sin, we cannot make ourselves better.  We might try to wake up in the morning and have our quiet time saying we will really be good this time, or we will do this or that, read the Bible more, go to church more, etc....etc....... We cannot make ourselves better.  The more we try the more we will fail.  Grow close to Jesus, see Him High and lifted up, identify your self as a sinner only saved and made whole by grace.  Weep, mourn and wail, repent, and thank God for His unbelievable grace.  You are saved by grace and also you are sanctified by grace as well.  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

I cannot wait till the mortal is clothed in immortality and we no longer fight sin..........Lynn