Joab had defected to
Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom. —1 Kings 2:28
“Joab withstood the greatest
test of his life, remaining absolutely loyal to David by not turning to follow
after the fascinating and ambitious Absalom. Yet toward the end of his life he
turned to follow after the weak and cowardly Adonijah. Always remain alert to
the fact that where one person has turned back is exactly where anyone may be
tempted to turn back (see 1 Corinthians 10:11-13). […] Beware of thinking that
the areas of your life where you have experienced victory in the past are now
the least likely to cause you to stumble and fall. We are apt to say, “It is
not at all likely that having been through the greatest crisis of my life I
would now turn back to the things of the world.” Do not try to predict where
the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the real danger.
[…] The Bible characters stumbled over their strong points, never their weak
ones.” “…kept by the power of God…”— that is the only safety. (1 Peter 1:5).” CHAMBERS
Does your continued pursuit of
and embracing sin bother you? I am
certain it does. If the Spirit of God is
in you, you will never be comfortable with the sin that you are accommodating in
your life. Sin is something that many pastors
don’t speak much about. They prefer to
focus on the positive aspects of the Christian life. While that may make us feel good, it is a
lopsided message. Like Joab, sinning is not something you set out to do, but it
is something that you inevitably do anyway.
We are sin-forgiven but are not sin-less in our new life. Does that mean that we should just accept the
sin in our lives as unavoidable? No! It
means that we must stop looking to ourselves for solutions to our practice of
yielding to sin and look to the Father. “…kept
by the power of God…”— that is the only safety. (1 Peter 1:5). Listen, when
we treat the sins in our lives as trivial, of no consequence, we trivialize the
Cross of Christ. We minimize the
significance of our salvation. Reading this,
you might be thinking that is right and to do it is wrong. But, when you are faced with a decision to
sin, you are not using the power of logic to combat it. You flesh is very strong. Your sin nature is waiting like some predator,
for you to pass by, unprepared. Sin is a supernatural problem that requires a
supernatural solution. The effect of sin is separation from God. (James 1:14-15) “But each one is tempted
when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives
birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
Do not be deceived. You cannot accommodate sin in your life and
embrace the Lord. Like fire and water,
they cannot co-exist. And you are going
to sin … Your sin may be obvious to others, or it may be hidden. But it is still sin. It is still contrary to the will of the
Father. And His will is that we would be
one with Him. When the disciples asked Jesus
to teach them to pray, Jesus said ask the Father to give you what you need and
to help you not to follow your old way of life, acknowledge God for who God is …
the creator and sustainer. (Luke 11:1-4). ELGIN
Charley Elgin
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