Crouching Sin at Your Door

Today has been quite an extraordinary day. This morning a few members from our congregation met together to pray for the nation we call home. Our nation has been going in a direction that is heading straight for destruction. Things scripture clearly tells us is sin our nation wants to support and pass laws allowing such things. Among those things are abortion and homosexual marriage. The shows on television make light of divorce, gay marriage, cohabitation, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. Our very culture tries to make the immoral normal. What we do not quite grasp is what our sin truly does to God. God sent Christ to die for the very sins we watch on television and laugh at. That is twisted and seems to me, very wrong. In thinking about this I wanted to look back, way back, back to the beginning of where all of this stems from.

Looking through scripture at the fall of other nations and people groups and seeing what happens to nations that follow this pattern of rebellion, it is not looking like a very bright future for our home land. When we look back to the garden and see the beginning of sin in the human realm (I say this because I truly believe Satan holds the depressing record of the first sin ... pride and wanting to be God, in which God immediately threw him out of the Kingdom of Heaven). We see Eve being tempted with envy. She is tempted to want something she cannot have. Then we do not really see any sin until we come to Cain and Abel. It says that Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground. Just a few verses before in Genesis 4:6-7 "The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.'" Cain was angry and his face had fallen because his offering was not accepted by God yet his brother's was. Cain's offering was from the already cursed ground and Abel's offering was from the livestock. What gets me here is the last half of verse 7 "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Sin will crouch at our door. It desires us. We have to rule over it.

When I think of the word crouch I think of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I have not seen this movie so there is no analogy using the movie just the name ... hehe. But even the title gives me this image of a tiger getting ready to attack its unsuspecting prey. A tiger is waiting in the brush near by as a deer grazes on the grass. The tiger inches closer and closer until it is close enough to attack. It pounces and has its dinner locked in its jaw. This is how I view Genesis 4:7. Sin is waiting at our door, it wants us, and it wants to rip us to pieces and eat us for dinner. Even though tigers have great precision in catching prey there are always the deer that get away. These deer are super sensitive and are watching out at every corner, knowing that it could be attacked at any point. We can be that deer that gets away. Sometimes we allow sin to seep into our lives and spread through us like cancer. But there are times that it sneaks up on us and we are its unsuspecting prey. Cain wanted his offering to be accepted by God but it wasn't. Why? Good question, my guess is that it was from the cursed ground, then again I cannot say for certain. I do know that the more Cain dwelled on it the more angry he became. The more angry he became the more the seed of hatred for his very own brother grew. That hatred grew into murder. It grew into the actual physical murder of his brother. His brothers blood cried out to God. Sin was ruling over Cain and not the other way around.

In the New Testament we see similar wording (well in English we do, I am not sure about the Greek or Hebrew... need to do some research on that) as that of Genesis 4:7.

"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as insturments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."                                                                                                                          ~ Romans 6:11-14

We have the God given ability to have master over sin. Does this blow your mind as much as it does mine? Think about it, if you are a truly born again Christian you can have master over sin. The song Whip It comes to mind right now (probably not the best song to use but I hope you get the point). We are told we can choose not to present our members to sin. There is so much goodness in this passage in Romans I could write a book about it, no worries, I am not going to write you a chapter book on this post. Maybe later though ... JUST KIDDING! Look at it again, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions." Do not let it reign in your body. Give it no leg room to move about or even wiggle.

So going back to the beginning of this post, our nation has come to a point where we not only let sin wiggle and move but we tell everyone they should join in and do it too. It is our turn. We need to challenge ourselves to follow God. Let Him take control of our lives and whip sin into submission. Do not obey the passions of sin. Remember it is waiting and is just outside crouching at your door waiting on you. There is hope, so much hope in Christ. Christ beat death. He beat sin. He is the savior of all.

A Force to be Reckoned With

You know what I find interesting? I find it very interesting that James 3:8-10 says what it does. It tells us that no human being can tame their own tongue. It tells us that out of the same mouth we bless and curse others. We tear apart our brothers and sisters with the same mouth that we praise our Lord and Savior with. I mean, am I missing something here. Does that seem awful to anyone else? Psalm 50 says "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; your own mother's son." James tells us "...no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison." Wow!!

When I think of a mouth full of deadly poison I think of a deadly venomous snake. A snake that slowly kills you from the inside and causes an unbearable amount of pain. What I don't realize normally is that our words have that same affect on those around us. We can build each other up or tear each other down. Words are far more powerful than we think. "With it we course people who are made in the likeness of God," James 3. We don't think about it like that, well ... at least I don't think about it that way. When we talk someone down or when we slander their name or when we use words to bully others, we are beating up those with the very likeness of God. Us, the very likeness of God. That brother or sister you just talked bad about or said mean things to, they are the very likeness of God. God made us in His image. He chose people, not deer, not sharks, not even fluffy bunny rabbits to be the likeness of God; NO He chose people of all things. He tells the mountains to only grow so high and they grow no higher. He tells the waters to only come up so far and they go no further. He tells man to know Him and we say we do not want to. He chose us and continues to choose us everyday. He gave us freedom of speech in the most unique of ways. He gave us the freedom of thought and the freedom of choice in what to believe. He does not force us to choose Him. He did not create us to be mindless robots, He created us to have a desire for something. That something is Him.

It says that no human being can tame the tongue, but God can. Coming to know Christ and grow in Him continually is a taming of the tongue. I do not speak the same way I did before I knew the Lord. My desires changed, my tastes for things changed, my speech changed. I fall into sin all the time. Ok, let me rephrase that. I do not "fall" into sin, I choose to sin. For example, when something frustrates me I choose to complain about it. I didn't fall into that, I choose it. People fall into holes that they didn't see, that I could see coming and simply chose not to deal with. I let sin creep into my life and I let it sit and fester. Not cool. Matter of fact, I am pretty sure that should be the definition of not cool. Anyway, that was an interesting rabbit trail. Just as a wild horse cannot tame itself, nor can we tame our own tongue. This has to be a God thing. We have to trust that God will tame our tongue and we have to make actions toward doing so. God has the ability to just zap us and say "tongue be tamed" and it could be done. He chooses to do things differently. If we were not learning from things we would expect everything to be done for us.

One thing my father has taught me very well is to work hard. This is learned behavior for me. It is something I have been taught my whole life. Just like having a tame tongue is learned behavior. God has done many things in my life to show me I need to work hard at having a tamed tongue and ask Him for His help since it is obviously not something I can do on my own. There have been times when I have said things and then later when the person found out I would have to apologize and be super embarrassed that I said such things. Even to this day I still catch myself saying things that have no business being said. "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Proverbs 25:11. Somehow I think this could be a reason for our well known phrase "think before you speak". Doesn't that just make you think more about what you say? Do you realize scripture tells us we are accountable for what we say? I think if I thought that every time before I opened my mouth, my mouth would shut shortly after opening with no words spoken. Most of the things that escape my mouth are meaningless. Many people in my life can attest to this. Yet somehow some way ... I still talk, alot matter of fact, I talk alot more than any one person should ever talk about anything. Thank You Jesus for grace and mercy!!

Our tongues are such a force to be reckoned with. God's word is a tool for refining what we say and do and a tool to get to know Him better. He wants us to know Him more. The things I often talk about have absolutely nothing to do with God. Another one of my favorite phrases is, "the things you talk about the most are the things you truly love". Wow, not sure I want to know what I talk about the most. Then again, it would show me how I view God.

Do you love God? The things you talk about most are the things you love the most. So if you are not talking about God or if you run away from people who talk about God ... you might want to re-evaluate your love for Him. Peter was asked by Christ 3 times if he loved Him. The Greek word for love the first two time sChrist asks him is the word agapao. Agapao is a spiritual love. A sincere love that is outside the sensual. The third time is the word phileo. This means to have an affection for or to like alot. So the first two times Christ is saying "do you really love me". The third time He is saying "do you like me alot"? When Peter heard Christ ask Him the third time he was grieved. It hurt him because he realized his love for Christ was not on the same level as Christ's love for him. He was not loving Christ whole heartedly. But when you read in Acts you see that Peter is the ring leader and pushing everyone toward Christ. Christ lit a fire under him and set him a blaze. Peter denied Christ three times and told Christ he loved Him three times with the same mouth. He blessed and cursed the Lord with the same mouth. He too was made in the likeness of God. God has put so many wonderful examples in scripture for us to ponder over. It really makes a person think about what their words say about their relationship with God.




So what do your words say about your relationship with God?

Cold Hard Facts

According to Webseter's Dictionary the word fact means "something that actually exists; reality; truth; a truth known by experience...". So let's explore a few facts for a moment.

Fact: God is the creator of all. (Genesis)

Fact: There is no unrighteousness in God. (Psalm 92:15) 

Fact: He has experienced all things. (Gospel-Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts too)

Personal Fact: I put God in a box.

Personal Fact: God likes to break out of boxes

The reason behind those five facts in particular shows my sin and my lack of faith in God. God has created all things, He is the creator of the heavens and earth and birds of the air and things in the sea and man and woman. He made it all. He has no unrighteousness in Him. He has experienced all things in the purest way. He is, was, and will always be God. Even if we refuse to believe He is who He says He is. 

Lately I have been reading Christian Atheist by Craig Groschell. Each chapter begins with "When you believe in God but ...". Yeah, it is not an easy read because it gives me the uneasy feeling of realizing the sin in my life. So often I choose other things over God not realizing that God was the one who put me here and gave me options. Those choices are like bricks and those bricks are building a path and that path pulls me further away from my dear sweet Lord. The very same Lord who came and died. The very same Lord who chose to live a humble life eager to share the Word to others. He has no unrighteousness in Him. In all He did He did it perfectly, sinlessly, holy. He created all things to glorify Himself. One day all things will sing praises to His name. "And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying 'To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever'" (Rev. 5:13). People in all three places will be singing God's praises at one time. How beautiful a sound?! 

We were created to bring glory to our Father in Heaven. When we blatantly rebelled against Him He sent His Son to live and die a holy and righteous life/death so that we could have another chance. Through this Christ experienced all human things (God has always been perfect and holy, do not think that I am saying this is the first time God experienced human things. He is God, He created "human things"). Yet, through all of this I still put God in a box. My misunderstanding of who God really is disables me in a most inconvenient way and drives me toward a lack of faith. But, God always breaks through the tiny little compartmentalized boxes I am so often putting Him in. If I think my financial situation is too much for me, He breaks through. If I think problems with my friends are too much for me, He breaks through. If I think this, or if I think that ... God is always busting out of the poorly pieced together boxes I put Him in all the time. He shows me more of Himself in ways I would never even expect. The main problem with all of this is me. When I am focused on me instead of focusing on Christ it is easy to put God in a box because my view of God is way off. My ignorance of who God really is stems from a lack on my part to get to know God for who He is. 

Just think about this for a minute. When you like someone or even just want to try and be their friend what do you do? You spend time with them, you try to get to know them, you ask them questions, etc. Why does our relationship with God look so much different than that? Getting to know the creator of the universe does not have to freak us out and make us shy away from it, rather, it should intrigue us and make us want it even more. Why don't we ask questions and start searching scripture to see what God says about Himself? Questions like "why was I created" or "why was the book of Numbers put in the Bible" (I am quite fond of some of the stories in Numbers, random ... I know) or even "what does it mean to be someone who follows after Christ"? All good questions to get us digging into God's word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, gory as  of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:1-2; 14. The word "Word" here is referring to Christ. Christ is the Word of God. He became flesh and lived among us. When we read scripture we are not only reading about Christ but we are reading Christ. How trippy is that? I thank God that I do not have to understand that 100%. But I do appreciate that God gave me something tangible, readable, and comprehensible. Scripture reminds me all the time that it is not about me. It is a reminder that my sole purpose is to know God and make Him known. It is a reminder of the question a sweet friend asks me "what are you doing with your life?" Granted when she asks me she is usually asking in a way that is "what are you doing" or "what are you up to. But when that question is asked it reverts me back to that purpose. Am I living out my purpose? God has given us all a common purpose but He has also given us other purposes as well. Some may be called to share the Gospel in Africa while some of us may be called to children's ministry at a local church. Where ever we are, God has called us to Himself for a specific purpose. He has given us all a gift or talent to be used to glorify Him with. 

All of that in mind, are we living lives that show the cold hard facts that God is the creator of all, that He has no unrighteousness in Him, and that He has experienced all things? Do we live our lives as if we truly believe in God, that our choices affect others and either push them closer to or further away from God? What are you doing with your life?