sin – Page 4

What happens when we can no longer trust the mass transportation drivers who carry us?

Posted on April 2, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Yesterday while on break I was speaking with the teacher with whom I share a classroom, about the Germanwings co-pilot who drove the passenger airliner into the ground. I have been mulling the sea-change his act ushers in.

We have seen hijackers, terrorists, and suicide bombers rush in to kill and destroy. That is horrific. Yet now, the stealthiness of one who is inside, trained to protect lives because they are precious, also killing and destroying, is even more heinous because of the trust that is broken. The very people into whose hands I place my life and assume they will regard it as worthy of protection, have become the ones who treat it as least and worthless. Being trapped on a rapidly moving mass transport and totally helpless to protect myself, get to safety, or help any other person, doesn’t bear thinking about.

I thought of the self-centeredness of the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, wanting to take his own precious life that God gave him, but also 150 others’. I thought about the Costa Concordia, the largest cruise ship ever wrecked, (in 2012) and its Captain Francesco Schettino’s inattention and series of ridiculously amateur decisions and as a result stoving in his ship on a rock. As the vessel was sinking, the captain abandoned ship, leaving 4200 passengers and crew to their fates. He did not assist in the evacuation or the rescue in any way. The confusion caused by a 6-hour evacuation resulted in 32 deaths and trauma for the rest. Vanity Fair has an excellent article on the event.

“We’ve abandoned ship,” Schettino told him.
De Falco was startled. “You’ve abandoned ship?” he asked.
Schettino, no doubt sensing De Falco’s dismay, said, “I did not abandon the ship … we were thrown into the water.”
When De Falco put down the phone, he stared at the officers beside him in amazement. This violated every tenet of maritime tradition, not to mention Italian law. “The captain had abandoned ship with hundreds of people on board, people who trusted him,” says De Falco’s boss, Cosma Scaramella. “This is an extremely serious thing, not just because it’s a crime.” For a moment he struggles to find a word. “This,” he goes on, “is an infamy. To abandon women and children, it’s like a doctor who abandons his patients.”

Costa Concordia nestled on a rock, site of cowardice, bravery, and death

I thought about the Santiago de Compostela rail disaster in 2013 and the conductor driving the train at twice the posted speed, resulting in Spain’s worst rail disaster in 40 years, the deaths of 79 people and injuring scores of others. The driver had previously boasted of how fast “his” trains would go. The driver was later charged with homicide by professional recklessness and numerous counts of causing injury by professional recklessness.

Derailed cars at the site of a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela

Like the Dutch pilot who ‘predicted’ Germanwings crash in article about returning to a locked cockpit door weeks before disaster, saying, “I seriously sometimes wonder who’s sitting next to me in the cockpit. How can I be sure that I can trust him? Perhaps something terrible has just happened in his life and he’s unable to overcome it” I was also thinking about who I can trust with my life. There is a funny scene in Woody Allen’s 1977 movie Annie Hall that I never forgot. It shows Allen, Christopher Walken and then Diane Keaton in a car after Walken’s confession. It’s 1:27 minutes long.

I was thinking all these things and discussing them yesterday, deciding to write about it. But Tim Challies beat me to it.

And I’m glad he did. He wrote a piece called The Way The World Works and he discusses the things I’d been pondering: putting ourselves in the hands of others for our safety and our lives, life is precious, the broken trust. Challies did a very good job – much better than I would have done of course – and I commend the piece to you. Here is a taste:

And it is not just our own life that we regard as precious, but all life. Just as we make decisions to protect our own lives, we make decisions to protect others’. We tighten our children’s seatbelts. We put the knives up high. We pay the salaries of police officers. We stop and help when we spot even a stranger in distress.

Life is the most precious thing. The world only works when we maintain this tacit agreement that life is precious, that I will do all I can to preserve both mine and yours, that you will do all you can to protect both yours and mine. Both civilization and civility stand or fall on this simple agreement.

The alternative is unthinkable. The alternative is cars swerving to meet oncoming traffic, bicycles drifting out of the bike lane, toddlers roaming at will, hospitals empty and unstaffed. The alternative might even be a pilot setting his aircraft so that it gradually coasts straight into the ground.

The world reacted with horror—justified horror—when they learned that Andreas Lubitz had deliberately crashed Germanwings flight 9525, taking his own life and the lives of the other 149 passengers and crew members. The reason for our shock is that he violated the agreement. He chose to take life instead of preserve life.

Life is precious. We are made in His image. He formed us in the womb. God is intimately involved with us. Reckless, wanton abandonment of even the most basic precepts of our neighborly co-existence with one another, that we agree life is precious, is just so sad.

“You created every part of me; you knit me together in my mother‛s womb. When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother‛s womb, when I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there – you saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began. Psalm 139:13-16

gomorrah, judgment, sin, sodom

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah really happened

Posted on March 14, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I am studying right now and found this commentary on Jude 1:4-7 by Edward C. Pentecost. He is discussing the fate of the false teachers, who are designated for certain condemnation and destruction; and the example the ungodly serve to us in these days.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

E. Pentecost:

III. Warnings concerning the Peril of Apostasy (vv. 5–16).

Jude first warned his readers of the peril of apostasy by citing three examples from the past of apostates who were destroyed (vv. 5–7), and then by describing the upcoming judgment on present apostates (vv. 8–16).

A. Examples of apostates in the past (vv. 5–7).

1. EGYPT (v. 5)

Egypt is mentioned as a reminder of the fact that most Israelites who left Egypt were not faithful. An entire generation perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief (cf. Heb. 3:16–19).

2. angels (v. 6)

Among the angels were those who had remained in their first abode and had been obedient to God. But others rebelled and left their first positions of authority and are now in darkness, bound … for judgment on the Great Day.

3. SODOM AND GOMORRAH (v. 7)

V. 7. Jude’s third illustration, of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns, serves as a dreadful example of what happens to those who turn from God to follow their own lustful natures. The fate of the unbelievers in those two cities (Gen. 19:1–29) foreshadows the fate of those who deny God’s truth and ignore His warnings. The punishment by fire on the perverse inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah illustrates the eternal fire of hell, which will be experienced by false teachers.

(Source: Pentecost, E. C. (1985). Jude. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 920). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)

Treasury of Scripture:

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

These things are written to remind us of what happens to the ungodly, they serve as an example.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin, 1852.

if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; (2 Peter 2:6)

I am pondering the rapid acceleration of individual, national, and global apostasy. It is a great and terrible thing to love the living God. It is a great and terrible thing to hate the living God. Our God is great in mercy and in wrath.

gay marriage, homosexual, love, sin

"Dear Homosexual: Why We’ll Never Bake Your Fake ‘Wedding’ Cake"

Posted on March 10, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

J.Matt Barber wrote an opinion piece that was published in the CNS News site yesterday. Within 32 hours it had garnered 5,777 comments. Not views. Comments. And most of those are negative. Very few ‘hear, hears’ and lots of “you’re a pig” kind of comments.

What topic in today’s culture will bring this much negative response? Proclaiming homosexuality as a sin. Which Barber did, and very biblically and compassionately too. It is reprinted here with permission from the author.

Why We’ll Never Bake Your Fake ‘Wedding’ Cake
J. Matt Barber March 9, 2015

Dear homosexual,

We are your fellow sinners and no better than you. We know this. We are saved from eternal torment, self-wrought, by the grace of Christ alone. If you are an unrepentant, “out and proud” homosexual practitioner, then you are not. It is our deepest prayer that you, too, will accept the free gift of eternal salvation, repent and “go and sin no more.”

The alternative is a living hell.

Let us be direct. According to the unequivocal moral precepts of biblical Christianity, explicit throughout both the Old and New Testaments, your homosexual behavior is sin. Sin is evil. Homosexual behavior is the central, defining characteristic of your counterfeit “gay marriage.” Therefore, “gay marriage” is evil. Christians are obligated to avoid sin – to “do no evil.” “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality. …” (1 Corinthians 6:9).

It really is that simple. This is why, as faithful Christians (apostate “Christians” notwithstanding), we will never have anything whatsoever to do with your pagan, sin-based “same-sex wedding” rituals.

We will not bake your fake wedding cake.

We will not arrange your fake wedding flowers.

We will not take your fake wedding pictures.

We will not host your fake wedding reception.

We will not do these things because to do these things is to disobey God. It is to aid you in your sin, to cause you to stumble, which, in and of itself, is to layer sin upon sin. “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble” (Luke 17:2).

While we all fall short of His glory, the history of God’s people has shown that no unjust law presuming to force us to do otherwise, will ever make us disobey God in this or any other regard. We realize that forcing others to affirm that which offends God makes you feel better about your sin for a time. We also realize that it infuriates you when we refuse to join in as you attempt, ineffectively, to justify your wickedness by calling it “marriage.”

This is nothing new. We Christians have been infuriating pagans by refusing to bend on truth for over 2,000 years.

And we will continue to do so until Christ returns.

Children don’t like to be told “no.” They sometimes throw a fit when we don’t give them what they want. Still, when we know that some desire they may have is both wrong and harmful to them, we must tell them no.

They get over it.

You’ll get over it.

We’re telling you no because we love you with the love of Christ. But understand this: As we are so commanded, we must, and do, hate the evil conduct by which you define your identity. Sexual immorality – in this case self-destructive and disease-spreading sodomy, which violates the laws of nature and nature’s God – is a grave sin that will destroy you in both body and soul. You are deceived. It is not “who you are.” It is what you do.

And what you do is wrong. Period. Full stop.

If we as parents were to condone, support and even assist our children in the commission of a grave sin, of a wrong, what kind of parents would we be?

What kind of friend would we be to you if we condoned, supported or assisted you in the commission of your grave “gay marriage” sin?

Maybe this will help you to understand. Whereas, and while you may be in denial of this fact, sexual immorality is the central defining characteristic of your temptation-driven “gay” identity. Christ’s righteousness and our obedience to Him are, at least in part, central aspects of our Holy Spirit-gifted Christian identity.

You can financially ruin us, sue us, throw us in jail or even feed us to the lions, but we will never, under any circumstances, while empowered by the Holy Spirit, deliberately disobey God to please you or anyone else. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

Of late, we Christians are especially inspired by one of our Christian sisters (and others who face similar trials). She is leading by example in her obedience to Christ.

“If Rob walked in the store today, I would hug him and catch up on his life. The same faith that tells me that I can’t be a part of Rob’s wedding is the same faith that tells me to love him as Christ does.”

And with this graceful, compassionate and very truthful statement, Barronelle Stutzman, the elderly grandmother and floral artist who faces financial ruin at the hands of both homosexual activists and the state of Washington, has at once mirrored the love of Christ and exhibited the heart of a lion.

Ms. Stutzman is the victim of anti-Christian persecution and discrimination. Her case has garnered national attention and represents a microcosm of the cultural Marxist effort in America to silence Christian dissent and compel us to join in sin. Barronelle is being sued by homosexual practitioner and longtime customer Rob Ingersoll for politely declining to create the floral arrangements for his mock “gay wedding.” She has been charged by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Because of the tremendous negative publicity Ferguson’s and Ingersoll’s persecution of Ms. Stutzman has generated, Ferguson recently offered, via press release, to quickly settle the case for $2,000 – as long as Ms. Stutzman would surrender her Christian freedom and right of conscience and promise, going forward, to sin. That is, to take-part in sodomy-based “marriages.”

Again, and with characteristic grace and courage, she flatly declined.

“[This conflict] is about freedom, not money,” wrote Ms. Stutzman in reply to the offer. “I certainly don’t relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important. Washington’s constitution guarantees us ‘freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment.’ I cannot sell that precious freedom. You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do.”

Truth, in love.

Dear “gay” friend, you will one day realize, hopefully before it becomes too late, that you are not only on the wrong side of history, you are on the wrong side of eternity.

It breaks our hearts to see you there.

And so we refuse to help send you.

Sincerely,

The Christians

Matt Barber is founder and editor-in-chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber).

glorification, new earth, new heaven, sanctification, sin

Those distressing sin-battles

Posted on January 13, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Sin is a torture. There is no avoiding it. There is no getting away from it. I hate the sin in me, and I hate that the older I grow in Christ, the sadder and more disappointed about my sin I become. Why? The more I’m sanctified the more sin I see. The more sin I see the more I realize that, blessedly, Jesus is the only One who can catch me up. He will glorify me on His Day. The most I can do is run the race. Persevere. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

I love the bible. My Savior, who I really love, sent His Spirit to inspire an entire book which reveals God to us. I love that. It encourages us with words of life. In this book are common men, men and women who were living lives and worshiping or not worshiping, or in Apostle Saul/Paul’s case, killing. One day, Jesus broke the veil and converted Paul. Hallelujah!

I can’t wait until our soul and our flesh are both perfectly pure!

However, even with a direct confrontation with a glorified risen Jesus, and even with the Spirit as fully on Paul as He was, Paul still did what he didn’t want to and didn’t do what he wanted. That old flesh.

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15-20)

In other words, Paul struggled. The flesh certainly has a grip on us, doesn’t it? I’m grateful again that the people who are written down in the book are regular people, saints of grace, but not saintly. At least I can relate to the passage there in Romans.

When Jesus came, and some disciples told John the Baptist that people were going over to Jesus, John replied.

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

O, Lord, please increase the Spirit in me! Please, more each day. Yes, I know that’s sanctification, but it is all right to long for the glorification, is it not? When there be no more sin in me, when I can worship Jesus properly? O happy day. I know I am not the only one to feel this way.

There is then…there is then sort of an ongoing sadness in the Christian life, isn’t there? And the longer you’re a Christian, the sadder you are over your sin. And what makes you sadder than you used to be is you keep assuming that you ought to grow out of this. There’s a place in life for fun and there’s a place in life for joy. And the Lord wants us to rejoice, all of that. But there’s always that nagging reality in the life of a true Christian, that deep-felt grief and sorrow over sin until it is repentant of. ~John MacArthur, The Only Way to Happiness is to Mourn Over Sin

There is the joy that we know we don’t have to increase by ourselves. We can’t. We have joy in knowing the Holy Spirit in us is the One who will increase us to Christ-Likeness.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

He is a glorious, wonderful Savior to save us from wallowing for an eternity in our sins. What a blessed relief that is coming, final and eternal release from the sinful flesh.

New Heavens and a New Earth

17“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
18But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. (Isaiah 65:17-20)

What a Creator. We brought sin into the world, but He will finally banish it. No more distressing flesh-battles…only peace- and purity.

balaam, divination, greed, sin

The Way of Baalam

Posted on December 20, 2014 by elizabethprata

The bible warns us several times about not going the ‘way of Balaam’. You might remember the incident, where Balaam was a false prophet who was hired by King Balak of Moab to curse Israel. When Balaam’s donkey refused to go any further, and Balaam was beating on it, the donkey spoke! It chided Balaam for not seeing the angel in the road blocking the way.

Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, (2 Peter 2:15)

But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. (Revelation 2:14)

Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. (Jude 1:11)

Micah reminds the People that the Lord defeated King Balak and defeated the sorceries of Balaam. (Micah 6:5)

The Graphics Fairy

We are also reminded of how Balaam came to his end–

They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. (Numbers 31:8).

Because we are reminded so often in scripture about Balaam, we should remember. Balaam was a diviner, who charged fees for divination. (Numbers 22:5,7). Of course Balaam would say what the buyer wanted said, especially if he was the highest bidder.

What he did was seduce the people of Israel into immorality and idolatry. Balaam then represents two things, the covetousness of the false teacher who loves money and the apostate who influences others to sin. (source)

For all those people who refuse to admit that there are false teachers who need calling out, beware. We call them out because they cause divisions. (Romans 16:17). We need to mark and avoid them because they seduce people into immorality and into idolatry. (Revelation 2:14). Immorality and idolatry are sins, and the wages of sin is death. Therefore we say, false teachers kill.

The Graphics Fairy

Pulpit Commentary-

But I have a few things against thee. They are few in comparison with the things commended; but they are very serious; and there must be a sad want of care in the Church at Pergamum to allow such things. These corrupt teachers are alluded to in 2 Peter 2:15 and Jude 1:11. Like Balaam, they debased spiritual gifts to the vilest purposes, and thus became a snare or stumbling block, to others.

The bible is clear- Jesus tolerates neither those who teach falsely, nor those who tolerate false teachers. Both are sin.

john owen, mortifying sin, sin

Are you sin-killing? Or just sin-managing?

Posted on December 20, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The Gospel Project editor Trevin Wax interviewed pastor and writer Jared Wilson. Wax asked,

Why are Christians tempted toward sin-management instead of sin-killing? What’s the difference?

Jared Wilson answered:

Sin-killing is more painful and requires more self-honesty. Any schmuck can change his behavior. The Pharisees did. Buddhists do. The unsaved working the program in addiction recovery can do that. But it’s the desire, something much more elusive, much deeper, more rooted in our interior life and worship-wiring, that has to be fixed.

It’s the difference between mowing over weeds and actually uprooting them. And it’s a pain to pull weeds; we’d all just rather mow them down. Over and over and over again. It takes some grit to manage our sin — and then we can feel proud of ourselves — but it takes grace to kill sin.

Sin management versus sin-killing. It is a convicting notion, and one that has stayed with me for a few days, mainly because I’ve been sin managing instead of sin killing. I started thinking about mowing over versus uprooting. These thoughts unearthed a memory.

My husband used to hate dandelions. He had a virulent hatred of them, one of the only things in life that he didn’t like. Or didn’t like enough so that he was instantly moved to action.

Blackwell’s Herbarium, 1757

We didn’t have a lush yard. It was surrounded by towering pine trees, which drop acidic needles that spoil the soil for grass. It was on a slope, which helped any loose soil run off. It also bounded a lake, so the soil was sandy. At most there might be five or six dandelions cropping up, but whether there was five or or five hundred, the moment a yellow petal reared its head above the ground, my husband would launch off the couch and warrior-like go out to slay those persistent mangy weeds.

He had a special screwdriver that was too twisted and blunt to use for its intended purpose. He would grab it and march out to the offending weed. He’d bend over and jab the long screwdriver next to the stem, deep into the ground, He would use one hand to lift the dandelion and use the other to wiggle the screwdriver under the taproot. He’d grab it up and hold it aloft as if he was David brandishing Goliath’s head.

One reason he, and all people who have dealt with dandelions on the lawn know, is that they are almost impossible to eradicate. The Ortho lawn maintenance company says of dandelions,

Kill Dandelions in the Lawn: Even the best cared for lawns will have an occasional dandelion. They are difficult to completely eliminate, and the entire plant (root and all) of the dandelion needs to be removed or they can grow right back.

Kill Visible Dandelions The best way to attack dandelions is to kill the whole plant, taproot and all, and then keep new weeds from establishing themselves in your lawn. Don’t hand-pull them, as they will grow right back unless the tap root (often 2-3 feet deep) is completely removed.

When I mowed the lawn, it was more like pushing the mower between desert-like dunes to reach the few tufts of grass weakly standing in clumps. But even in our scraggly yard where it was tough to maintain grass or flowers, dandelions grew easily. The few my husband didn’t uproot, I’d mow them over but then they’d pop up in a day or two, all new and fresh.

Puritan John Owen said of killing sin,

Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Jesus said,

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, (Mark 9:47)

When we are drawn into sin, we are drawn away from Christ. When we sin, we are committing adultery with our Groom standing right there, watching. Sin is serious.

The dandelions-as-sin motif isn’t new or glitzy or insightful, it’s just an apt metaphor for the very important concept of sin killing vs. sin managing. Because you know what happens when you only manage sin. It will soon run away from you. The Satanic Sirens sing a sweet song … But just because I’ve mowed over the dandelion doesn’t mean it’s gone. It’s just easier to think it’s gone, because I can’t see it.

You know that ‘sin is crouching at our door, its desire is to have you, but you must rule over it.’ (Genesis 4:7).

How do we rule over it? But submitting to the One who has already won His victory over sin. Do it in these ways, as Sinclair Ferguson advises in his essay “How to Mortify Sin”, here. In summary, Ferguson wrote in part:

Turn to the Scriptures
Remember our new identity in Christ
Expose the workings of sin in every area of our lives
Acknowledge what sin really is: sin. Not a mistake, or a little problem or any other euphemism.

And so on. Please read the essay, it’s short.

Ferguson said, “You cannot “mortify” sin without the pain of the kill. There is no other way!” How true this is.

The sirens of sin crouch at our door, trying to convince us that a mowed over sin is just as good as an uprooted or plucked out sin.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Big sin? Big God!

Posted on November 17, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“I was sinking deep in sin…” goes the first line of an old song. (Love Lifted Me, 1912)

Mixed media collage, plus digital overlay. By EPrata

No matter how deep in sin a person is, no matter how low…no matter if they are in the gutter, or even one foot down the shaft of the gates of hell (like I was)

God’s arm is not too short to lift you from it!

He won’t make you wait. He won’t toy with you. If you call out to the Lord to save you and forgive your sins, He will, instantly. If you are saved but have sinned or strayed, and you call out to the Lord to forgive you, He will, instantly.

He was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ He said, ‘why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:29-31)

encouragement, king saul, repentance, sin

A sin-sick mind: King Saul’s journey into darkness

Posted on November 9, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

We read many times in the bible that sin corrupts the mind. A mind without Christ will not work right, it will be blind, deluded, corrupt, twisted.

The perversion of a sin-sick mind varies from person to person. Not all people are as totally evil as they could be. But sin piling upon sin will corrupt the mind in increasingly evil ways. Here is one example: King Saul.

I wrote recently about Saul and David. Saul was king, the people’s choice and God allowed it. Yet when David had earned victories and the people sang of them, Saul became jealous. In jealousy, Saul cast a wary eye against David. What happened then? The next day an evil spirit came to Saul. (1 Samuel 18:7-10).

The point of that essay was to show how quickly sin will rise and seize the opportunity to magnify itself in a man’s heart and mind. Sin does not wait for a second invitation. Sin does not lollygag. Sin pounces at any opportunity, with all haste.

The point of this essay, in still viewing King Saul through the biblical lens, is to see how sin that’s unaddressed degrades a man’s mind.

David plays the harp for Saul, Rembrandt

Some time has gone by, and Saul is by now deeply tormented by David. He has no cause to be. David is Saul’s servant, gaining the king victories. David never gave reason or cause to Saul for any lack in his duties as servant and subject. David played the lyre to soothe Saul. David has made no move against Saul and has only supported Him. Yet Saul is jealous. Saul threw a javelin against David while David played music for Saul. David escaped the piercing. It must have been the hand of God, for Saul was large and tall, skilled in battle, and one would surmise Saul’s javelin did not miss his target in close quarters. Yet it did.

David ran. His wife, Michal, told Saul’s messengers who appeared as his house that David was in bed, sick.

And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” (1 Samuel 19:14-15).

Saul’s fear, envy, jealousy, insecurity … all negative values that show us Saul was not standing in the hand of the LORD. His negativity had grown to monstrous proportions. Monstrous, because Saul purposed to kill his servant. His servant was said to be sick, in bed, and Saul decided to kill him in bed. Saul said he will kill his servant David while David was at his most vulnerable and could not even fight back.

This is a perverted mind and a blackened heart. Of course, David was not actually sick, his wife was trying to gain her husband time for David to flee. However, Saul’s act here was a watershed.

You’ve heard the phrase, “he drifted in and out of consciousness”? Saul had been drifting in and out of God. He was in God’s hand at his anointing. Samuel the prophet tells this to Saul:

Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:6-7)

Saul threatening David, by José Leonardo.

Here Saul learned the Spirit would be:

with him
equipping him
giving success to him

Initially all was well. But then Saul disobeyed and gave an unlawful sacrifice, and he lied to Samuel the Prophet about it. Events in Saul’s life and kingship lost their luster and eventually “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” (1 Samuel 16:14)

Verse 23 of that same chapter shows us that the harmful/evil spirit came to Saul and at times departed from Saul, usually when David was playing the lyre. Saul drifted in and out.

In 1 Samuel 18:10 when the harmful spirit tormented Saul, this time Saul began raving. Here is the key:

Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. … And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. (1 Samuel 18:12, 15)

Saul was looking at man, and not at God.

Saul knew the reason for his troubles and the reason for David’s success. Does not Saul believe God is a mighty God and a loving God and a listening God? If Saul had humbled himself before the LORD and asked for forgiveness of his jealousies and violence against a man of GOD, does Saul believe the LORD would not have forgiven? Saul knew he was out of the LORD’S will and pleasure but Saul remained in awe of David, not in awe of God. Saul refused the antidote that was poisoning his mind and polluting his heart.

Repentance.

What a joy we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He shed the last blood the Father will ever need. He stands with the Father, interceding for us in our sins.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The truly gracious gift to us from the Father is Jesus, who atoned for our sins. When we do sin after conversion, He listens and accepts and forgives. We need not fear the departure of the Spirit as the Spirit departed Saul, and we have the bible as our holy writ to guide us into all truth. It is on this foundation we stand, and looking to Him, our Savior and our Friend, when we repent.

We live in a truly gracious age! We should celebrate our opportunity to repent, be forgiven, and grow in renewing our minds with pure truth of holy scripture. Once converted and justified by grace, our minds are no longer degraded and polluted, but it is still our responsibility to read the bible so as to renew it in truth. It is our responsibility to wash ourself daily with it. It is our responsibility to pray mightily to God for forgiveness of our daily sins, and appeal to our High Priest who stands at the ready to bring our cares and sins and woes to the Father. David washed himself often in prayer to God in repentance and in heartfelt plea for forgiveness.

Saul and the witch of Endor, Gustave Dore

More than that, what a joy it is to do so! Saul did not, and ended up in 1 Samuel 28 where all people with unaddressed sin end up: at the devil’s door. In this case, the Witch of Endor’s house. In his sin-sick mind, when Saul finally sought to address his problem, it was too late. His mind was too far gone to think right.

And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. (1 Samuel 28:6).

And so Saul went to the devil ‘to inquire’ of the devil instead of to God. Worse, Saul swore to her ‘by the LORD.’ Oh, Saul wretch of a man, swearing to the devil by the precious LORD! What has Light to do with darkness?

David did pray and repent often and seek to live in God’s will, and ended even his most tearful prayer in hope and joy and peace at pouring out his woes to God. David was called a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), not because he never sinned. Why did David’s mind not become sin-sick as Saul’s did? Because when David sinned (unlike Saul) he repented and in so doing saw God ever more clearly as the savior, protector, gracious and revered Eternal Hope.

lion, resist, sin, victory

Spiritual warfare is real: the lion prowls seeking whom he may devour

Posted on November 5, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

public domain

In the Old Testament bible days, there were active demons on earth, possessing people. It wasn’t a frequently mentioned activity in the bible, but it happened. Further, the people living at the time knew what it was when it was happening.

I hear unsaved folks and even Christians say that in the bible times of 1000, 2000, 3000 years ago, people were ignorant of medical things. They were just dumb sheepherders who attributed everything to demons and not to science or medicine. Well all I’ve go to say is, go build a Sphinx, a Pyramid, Solomon’s Temple, Aqueduct, or a Babylon Hanging Garden, Lighthouse at Alexandra, and then we’ll talk.

Though a visible presence of demons as bodily possessors was an occurrence in the OT days, they weren’t frequent. Demonic events seemed to ramp up immediately prior, during, and just after Jesus’ incarnation. The heightened activity of satan on earth was evidence of the battle in the heavenlies, by then having come to earth in a fierceness unseen since that time.

The presence of demons will again become visible and palpable immediately prior to Jesus’ Second Coming. As Revelation 9:2 tells us, the pit where many demons are being held will be opened for them to pour out like locusts and perform God’s wrathful will upon the people of earth. Sin will be unrestrained (2 Thessalonians 2:6) so demonic activity will have a heyday unlike any other, except perhaps immediately before the Flood. (Genesis 6:5)

Aside from the dramatic events of the Flood and the Tribulation, and the few years of Jesus’ incarnation, for the most part, demonic activity is invisible. Make no mistake, just because it’s invisible doesn’t mean it is not happening.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:11-12)

public domain

Here is an example of how demonic activity is present on earth but invisible. It is fairly early days in the kingship of Saul. The Israelites wanted a king they could see, “like the other nations.” They rejected God as their king and wanted a man. God did as they asked, and Saul initially had some success. However, God’s choice, David who had been anointed but not set up as king yet, was having more success.

“And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” And Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. (1 Samuel 18:7-10)

Here is what struck me about this. Saul was jealous of David. Saul cast a wary, jealous eye upon David from that day on. This is Saul’s right. He can choose to sin. It is God’s right to do something about it.

How long was it before the evil spirit came upon Saul? The next day.

Do we suppose sin waits? Lolls around, just to see how it’ll go? No chance. Sin is always crouching at the door.
“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.” (Genesis 4:7)

Sin desires you! (And me!)

Here is an example of how sin crouches. “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13)

The ‘him’ referred to here is Jesus. The devil tempted Jesus, got nowhere and departed to get Him another time (or so the devil thought).

So sin crouches. Guess what? Sin also prowls.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Sin desires us, crouches at our door, prowls, and once sin appears in our heart or mind (like Saul) it comes in immediately.

We must master sin, as commanded in Genesis 4:7. Of course we cannot do that ourselves. The beauty of the universe and every atom in it, is that Jesus delivers us this grace, this power. Through this power that ever believer has, we can live victoriously before Christ! Saul did not rely on the LORD. David did. It wasn’t that neither sinned, but it was that David actively and constantly sought the LORD’S power to help him resist sin, and when David failed to resist, he repented sincerely.

“Against you alone I have sinned.” (Psalm 51:4)

It might surprise some to know that satan isn’t behind every sin. Our own fleshly desires are part of the battle, too. When satan isn’t directly tempting, our own desires fill in the gap. Adding to that are the world’s desires, pressure from without. We cannot master the world, and we can’t master satan, but through Christ, we can rule over our fleshly desires, and when we do that regularly, satan withdraws “until an opportune time.”

The key is to give him the opportunity less and less frequently.

Licensed for reuse

It seems that the odds are stacked against us, with satan on the prowl, his demons crouching at the
door, the world pressing its desires onto us, our own desires clamoring to get out, but Jesus IS THE VICTORY. He has won it! He gave His victory to us! His Spirit in us is the all in all, able to conquer any and all sin. As ugly as sin is, how beautiful, wonderful astounding, that He sent His Spirit to enable us to resist satan. In so doing satan will flee! Otherwise, ‘the next day’ sin will come bursting through your door.

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What Does the Bible Say about Demons?

Why did God send an evil spirit to torment King Saul?

adam, encouragement, Eve, eyes, Garden, sin

Seeing God with eyes closed

Posted on October 26, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’ve mentioned on my other blog that I love to play around with my photos using the online photo editors. I think it’s cool what you can do these days with a photo by manipulating it into something different or even nearly unrecognizable.

Not that new is necessarily better. I learned about heliogravure and collotype which produced stunning photographs and reproductions with clarity, tone, and detail almost unsurpassed by today’s digital photos. But I digress.

The colors of fall are spectacular. Once the summer haze and humidity clears out the night sky becomes ablaze with stars and the day sky is a deep blue like a sapphire. Years and years ago, I took this photo of a fall tree in Maine, its leaves having dropped and its bare arms crookedly reaching under an azure sky. I’ve always liked the picture.

EPrata photo

I monkeyed with the picture and made this:

EPrata photo

I like the altered photo too. Are they the same picture? The same scene? Do they depict the same reality?

They do … and they do not. By blocking out some tones and colors, it brings forth others. By reversing some aspects, it shows others.

I enjoy reading and studying the first three chapters of Genesis. I spend a lot of time there. In this instance, I was thinking about the moment when Eve and then Adam ate of the fruit.

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:4-7)

Their eyes were opened? Of course we know that isn’t literal. They were not blind before, they could literally see. Eve “saw the fruit was good for food”. In chapter two of Genesis, God brought the animals to Adam, who obviously saw them before he named them. Adam saw which tree not to eat from, because he instructed Eve likewise after she was created. So they could see.

As Albert Barnes’ Notes state,

It must therefore mean that a new aspect was presented by things on the commission of the first offence.

As the two photos above showed, a new aspect of things that had been there all along but now were in the forefront. The happy blue sky is gone, it is now darkened. The glory-white clouds are now ponderous boulders in the sky, scudding ominously. The tree which was of good AND evil, now shows the aspect of evil and ghostly death that the pair could not see before.

Gill’s shows us the depth of the loss:

And the eyes of them both were opened,…. Not of their bodies, but of their minds; not so as to have an advanced knowledge of things pleasant, profitable, and useful, as was promised and expected, but of things very disagreeable and distressing. Their eyes were opened to see that they had been deceived by the serpent, that they had broke the commandment of God, and incurred the displeasure of their Creator and kind benefactor, and had brought ruin and destruction upon themselves; they saw what blessings and privileges they had lost, communion with God, the dominion of the creatures, the purity and holiness of their nature, and what miseries they had involved themselves and their posterity in; how exposed they were to the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and to eternal death:

They had been naked and unashamed (Genesis 2:25) but also unaware. Now they were aware. Their eyes had been closed to evil and thus only glory filled the lamp of their eye. Upon eating of the fruit (disobeying God) the eye’s shutter that had excluded all sin and evil was now opened, allowing its full flow into their eyes, heart, and mind.

When we’re glorified, the shutter of our eyes that was opened in the garden will be closed once more. We will never look upon sin again! We will only see the glory of God, unfiltered and fully Bright. As His children with childlike faith, we will see with eyes closed. Did you ever think that our eyes being closed will be a good thing?

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