Sin- a big deal

 Sins that once bothered you- won’t affect you anymore. It doesn’t just happen in a day, it happens over a long period of time. I mean, look what happens throughout the world. What used to be appalling starts to become the norm- Abortions, couples living together out of wedlock, teen pregnancy, immodesty, bad morals.

The first example that came to mind was bikinis. I know, they are popular today, even for Christians. But your choices are seen by the non-believing world. 

In the 1890’s, ladies swimwear had weights sewn into the bottoms to prevent the suit from riding up and their legs showing. Then as time moves on, in 1907, Australian swimmer and performer Annette Kellerman(to the left) was arrested on a Boston beach for wearing a formfitting one piece. Then in the 1940’s, midriffs were exposed and swimsuits became made of less and less material.  In 1946, Louis Reard, came up with the “smaller than the world’s smallest swimsuit” and named in the Bikini because he predicted that it would be as explosive as the U.S. military’s nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll. At first, none of the Parisian models dared to wear the design. So a nude dancer was the first woman to ever wear and model a bikini. A nude dancer was the only woman daring enough to begin the new trend, you know why? Cause she was a nude dancer. From there- women in bikinis were shown on the covers of Playboy and Sports Illustrated. Today, no one has a problem with everyone wearing them. Of course it is legalistic to say that no woman who respects herself should wear such a swimsuit. Of course time has changed our view of what is acceptable in woman’s dress, but have we evaluated what we think is right and why our culture has decided that these things are right?

Don’t base your judgment on someone else’s judgment. You have to decide what is right and wrong for you according to God’s Word. My point is- have we really sat down and thought through why something is and is not okay? Or have we desensitized ourselves to something that is blatantly wrong?

God’s people have done it all through scripture, so this isn’t anything surprising. But in Leviticus, when God gave the law to His people, the theme behind it was “Be holy, just as I am holy”. We’ve seem to have strayed a long distance from that statement. If I reminded myself of that statement every day and multiple times a day, it would change me. How haunting is that statement? Be holy, just as God is holy. The man who is without fault and that is how we are supposed to be. We mess up, because we are not perfect, but we are called to live to the highest standard!

 In 2 Kings 22-23, the book of the law was rediscovered in the time of King Josiah. God’s people LOST His Word’s to them. Why? Because over time God’s people slowly became less and less interested in His words.

I pray that God gives me a sensitivity to sin, that I would be evaluating my choices and actions and making sure that His opinion of me is the only one that would affect me. Just as David said in Psalm 51:

1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.

The whole chapter is David pouring out his heart and feeling the guilt of his sin. And he felt that way, because he was sensitive to sin. When we care more about God’s commandments and pleasing him with our lives, then we will understand what He thinks is acceptable and worthy of bringing Him praise.

How empty would your life be without God? What purpose is there other than pleasing Him?

I was going to write a different article about pleasing God, but it fits in pretty well with what I just talked about.

Newsflash people: Praying "the prayer" isn’t a get out of hell free card. When you decide to follow God and love Him, your life changes. You become sensitive to sin. How can you love someone and NOT show them? If you don’t show them, what are the chances that they really matter to you? Very slim. That sounds like a pretty miserable marriage going on.

Love is about seeing what someone else needs and putting your own selfish desires aside. So, if that is the case, why have we made it seem like you can just “pray the prayer of salvation” and then you will magically end up in heaven after living a life that has nothing to do with pleasing a real God. If you live your life like God doesn’t exist, then I’d say that’s exactly what you believe. I’m thinking a lot of people are going to end up in Hell when they’ve gone through their whole life thinking they were in the safe-zone of Christianity.

You’re saved by God’s grace. Why live in sin any longer? That is what God freed you from! Romans 6:1-4 says it perfectly:

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

How you live your life reflects your true beliefs. So -how are you living?