Contemplating Giving in to Sinful Desires? Don’t Go
There. – Purity 1193
Purity 1193 11/08/2023 Purity Podcast 1193
Purity 1193 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of water cascading down a rock
embankment with fallen leaves of autumn resting on the ledges comes to us from
yours truly as I climbed to the top of the “easy access ledges” of Lye Brook
Phos and got an up close look at the falls that I had hiked 2.3 miles, up hill,
to see.
Well, it’s Wednesday and I thought that this photo
of Lye Brook Falls near Manchester Vermont was as good a way to welcome us to “hump
day” as another so here are the Lye Brook Falls. Are they worth the 2.3-mile hike to see them
up close and in person? That’s a matter of opinion of course, but the hike wasn’t
too taxing, and I would say that those who like the outdoors would enjoy
it. Of course, some people don’t like
the outdoors, some don’t like to be challenged, and some don’t like authority. So who am I to say it’s worth the trip?!?
Hey easy, now, do what you want, we have free will
after all, sort of, and you can pick your own path, but I would have to caution
everyone out there that you are not free of the consequences of the path you
choose.
Life is all about choices and the decisions we make
about our course in life and the relationships we make can have far-reaching
consequences and result in effects that we never intended to cause or take us
to destinations we never intended to go.
As someone who has made some pretty poor personal decisions
in life, I can tell you that you want to look before you leap and try to be
aware of the consequences and think before you act.
Yesterday, I met with a brother in Christ for our
final session of prayer ministry and as we concluded our session we both
reflected on our perilous journeys through life and how much of our learning
was by trial and error and by making the same mistakes over and over again –
how we not only did what was morally wrong or foolish but how we pushed those
poor decisions to the extremes in many cases resulting in wasted opportunities,
broken relationships, and bondage to addictions. We both rejoiced over God’s amazing grace to
pull us out of the darkness more than once and to lead us to a place of peace
and contentment in following Jesus.
While there was little from our dark pasts that we
would encourage anyone to try, in hindsight we both recognized that even our
poor decisions had value – we both know now what we should have never done, and
what happens, when you decide to “go there”. Spoiler alert – if you have a secret
sinful desire that you ever wanted to try, like having an affair, trying hard
drugs, taking what doesn’t belong to you, or hurting someone physically or
emotionally, its best not to give into
those temptations because even if you somehow avoid immediate negative repercussions
from doing so, you never escape their consequences, and they always result in
bad outcomes.
The damage you do in this world often comes back to
you in ways you never expected. Violent retaliation, legal charges, broken
relationships, and loss are just some of the possibilities you can face from “going
there” – but perhaps the worst outcome giving in to sin has on us – besides the
initial guilt or shame – is the hardening of the heart and the warping of the
mind that sin can do.
Giving in to sin changes you. You look at the world
differently. The adulterer looks at every person’s partner as the next possible
conquest. The thief looks at other’s possessions as something to steal. The liar twists facts, figures, and
circumstances to tell the story they want to tell to hide their evil intentions. Sin is rebellion against God and man, and it
eventually separates us from both.
A person whose life is defined by their sins will
struggle with human relationships and will have a very hard time trying to convince
anyone they have a relationship with God.
The Bible convicts us with this truth.
Hebrews
10:26-31 (ESV)
26 For if we go on sinning
deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a fearful expectation
of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has set aside
the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment,
do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of
God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and
has outraged the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said,
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God.
Galatians
5:19-21 (ESV)
19 Now the works of the flesh
are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity,
strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies,
and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do
such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
1
Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV)
9 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,
10 nor thieves, nor the
greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God.
11 And such were some of you.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The implications of these passages of
scriptures are that our only hope for life beyond this world is found in our
relationship with Jesus and that we need to repent of our former sins.
These verses should convict those of
us who are still in bondage to sin to ask for the Lord to help us to repent and
redefine our lives – so we can honestly say that when it comes to these sins –
such WAS I before – I put my faith in Jesus and repented of them – as in I
turned from them and do them no more.
I can tell you all about the negative
consequences of a lot of the sins in these Bible verses. I can warn you not to “go
there” and I can honestly say that you can be set free from them by following
Jesus.
So – don’t play with the idea of
giving in to some secret sinful desire, instead turn from the very idea of sin
and discontinue the sinful practices and habits that still trip you up.
There is freedom and victory from sin
available to the Christian you just need to follow Jesus and ask for God’s
help, and keep on walking and talking with God, to experience it,
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Children.
Matthew 21:15-16 (ESV)
15 But when the chief priests
and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying
out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,
16 and they said to him, “Do
you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out
of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
Today’s
verses fall under the fourth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Children.
4. Jesus accepted the praise of children.
Today’s verses tell a
great story of how even the immaturity of childhood couldn’t hide the fact of who
Jesus was from the children who saw the wonderful things that He did that
caused them to call Him the “Son of David” – a term that declared that Jesus is
the Messiah.
I’m sharing a link to gotquestions.org
that tell you all about “Jesus, the Son of David” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-son-of-David.html)
to give you the ins and outs of that term.
But the kids gathered praising Jesus here might not have known all that –
they saw the wonderful things Jesus did and the person He was, and they immediately
made the connection. Hey, that’s the Messiah! And when they knew that truth –
they didn’t care for dissenting opinions or what anyone would think about them –
they praised Him!
And we should do the same –
continually! Why? Because Jesus is still the Messiah and His wonderful work is
still being done today – in our lives, and in and through other Christians
throughout the world, and His wonderful work will keep right on happening until
that faithful day when Jesus will return to rule and reign once again.
So show your child-like
faith and praise the King of Kings and Lord of Lords because Jesus is the Messiah
and His wonderful works are not done yet!
——————————————————————–
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we are sharing from A. W. Pink’s – The Arthur
Pink Anthology – a collection of A.W.
Pink’s tracts brought together in one book and dispersed here on the blog for
your encouragement.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for free as a PDF at many sites, but printed copies of collections of A.W.
Pink’s books are available for purchase wherever Christian books are sold.
The Arthur Pink Anthology – 3
Anxiety
“Be
anxious for nothing.”
(Philippians 4:6)
Worrying is as definitely
forbidden as theft. This needs to be carefully pondered and definitely realized
by us, so that we do not excuse it as an innocent “infirmity.” The more we are
convicted of the sinfulness of anxiety, the sooner are we likely to perceive that
it is most dishonoring to God, and “strive against” it (Heb. 12:4). But how are
we to “strive against” it?
First, by begging the
Holy Spirit to grant us a deeper conviction of its enormity. Second, by making
it a subject of special and earnest prayer, that we may be delivered from this
evil. Third, by watching its beginning, and as soon as we are conscious of
harassment of mind, as soon as we detect the unbelieving thought, lift up our
heart to God and ask Him for deliverance from it.
The best antidote for
anxiety is frequent meditation upon God’s goodness, power and sufficiency. When
the saint can confidently realize “The Lord is My Shepherd,” he must draw the
conclusion, “I shall not want!” Immediately following our exhortation is, “but
in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request
be made known unto God.” Nothing is too big and nothing is too little to spread
before and cast upon the Lord. The “with thanksgiving” is most important, yet
it is the point at which we most fail. It means that before we receive God’s
answer, we thank Him for the same: it is the confidence of the child expecting
his Father to be gracious.
“Therefore I say unto
you, Take no thought (anxious concern) for your life, what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the
life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” “But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
(Matthew 6:25, 33)[1]
—————————more
tomorrow————————
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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