Day 2282 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


1 John 3:6 NIV

Yesterday we talked about putting our old lives to death and living for something better. That's the opportunity that Christ gave us through the cross. And it's the opportunity that all of us seriously need to take full advantage of! There's no shame in admitting that our lives before Christ were less than stellar. But there is shame in choosing to continue to live under the control of sin and the darkness that it brings. The Gospel is meant to spark change!

As Christians, sin doesn't have a place in our lives. Now none of us will ever be perfect. But it's our duty to take notice of our sins and mistakes and actively work to do better. We can't do as the world does and pretend that sin isn't all that bad. We can't allow ourselves to see it as anything other than the deadly disease that it truly is. If we let up in this fight it will consume us. But as we've discussed here lately, God didn't create us to be controlled by the wicked ways of a fallen society. He created us to follow Him and fight to live better lives.

So much of today's religion looks no different than the world around it. That's just not good enough for us as Christians. Our faith in Christ should be so clearly noticeable through our words and actions that people don't even have to ask what we believe. We should be different. We should look different. We should speak, act, think, and live different. If we look no different than the world then we should ask ourselves just how much of a priority our faith really is to us.

Christ took our sins upon Himself and carried them all the way to the grave so that we could leave them behind. We can't go right back to the sins that we cried out to be forgiven! That's like putting your hand on a hot burner, getting burned, and then doing it again just to make sure it really hurt. Just doesn't make any sense. He didn't die so that we could keep on doing whatever our broken nature wants to do. He endured all that to help us see just what sin really causes. And friends, we don't want any part of it!

Look, if we're going to call ourselves Christians then our lives better reflect it. If we truly want to live a life of faith then we have to address the sin in our lives and strive to leave it behind. Continuing to allow sin some control over us isn't good enough. We have to do better. We should realize that there is a way of life that is so much better that we should give every ounce of ourselves to chase it down. As we talked about yesterday, a part of us has to die if we truly want to live for Christ. Otherwise, we're just living in sin and trying to tell ourselves otherwise.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1996 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Isaiah 44:22 NIV Redemption: To compensate for the faults or bad aspects of something; to gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment; or to fulfill or carry out a pledge or promise. Our God is so big that He fits every definition of the word! We've been talking about how we don't have to be lost in doing things our own way forever and how He will welcome us back whenever we finally realize we need Him more than anything else. Redemption is why. All of our mistakes, all our weaknesses, all our excuses have been washed away. There is literally nothing left between us and God except for us. We are all that remains in the way of the healing and forgiveness that we need. Seriously, all that stands in our way of the peaceful and joyous freedom we're looking for is our choice to turn back to Him. That's it! I think that one of the biggest hurdles we face in making that choice is that it truly seems impossible. Whether we openly admit them or not, we all kno
Read more

Day 2317 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Proverbs 16:18 NIV Most, if not all of us have this innate problem that we've developed. Maybe it's a result of living in a world that has nearly no concept of wrong. Maybe it's just a product of our deceitful minds wanting to do whatever we want without having to weigh the consequences. Whatever the reason, we've somehow gotten it in our minds that we're incapable of making mistakes. We've become conceited to the point that we actually believe that we never get anything wrong. And while that may make us feel good, there's no avoiding the truth that tells us otherwise! Each of us make the wrong choices. We jump to conclusions. We take things out of context. We rush through things. We assume that we know what someone else is talking about without making sure. We answer before we hear the full question. We hear things that someone else doesn't necessarily say. We let things slip out of our mouths that we may not really mean. We give in to selfishness witho
Read more

Welcome to The Forge!

Image
Welcome to The Forge! This page is all about God, our faith in Him, and finding our way back to the truths and principles found in His Word. As I'm sure many of you have noticed, the world is losing its mind. Sin is celebrated. Wrongs are viewed as right. What's right is out the window and seldom considered. Popularity is the driving force behind many actions. Being politically correct is the norm and anything else is just not acceptable.  Well, none of that nonsense flies in The Forge. We are stronger t han the pressures of the world around us. We are tougher than the pull of sin. We are called to rise above the fog of this hate-fueled judgment that the world is covered in. God didn't create us as timid little beings that need to be led around by our noses. He designed us to do better than simply go with the flow. No, He made us much different than that. He made us to be leaders, He created us to go against the grain, live outside the lines, and stand tall and hold firm to
Read more