Today ends my "No sweets for one week"! YIPEE! I must confess that I did have a chocolate chip cookie and a cup of hot chocolate. For me, 7 days and only one cookie w/ hot chocolate is a big deal. Such a big deal that I lost 3 lbs!! Now, if that doesn't tell you how big of a sweet tooth I have I don't know what will! I really found that it was easier to do than I thought. I may try it again after this weekend. I'm doing a lot of baking and cooking for the girl's movie night Saturday so I'm not even gonna torture myself.
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~~Now back to regularly scheduled programming~~
The other night my hubby was preaching and he made a comment that I have been pondering over all week. Now, I don't remember the exact phrase but it went something like this:
The world loves baby Jesus, it's 'adult' Jesus that they have a problem with.
You know it's Christmas season and a lot of people get that warm and fuzzy feeling when they see that cute little baby Jesus in a manger. They might even shed a tear when they get an email with a picture of a star and three wise men and the faint sound of "Away In a Manger" softly playing in the background. Now is there anything wrong with that in particular? No, not at all.
But let's talk about 'adult' Jesus. You know, Jesus as a grown man was not a liked fellow back in His day. And not surprisingly He isn't today either. Now, many people will 'say' they love Jesus.. they will proclaim with their mouths, chain emails, or sporadic church attendance that Jesus is great. But the real evidence is the way they live their lives. In thinking about all of this, let's remember who Jesus is. Jesus is God. And God hates sin (Jeremiah. 44:4). If we are a child of God with the Spirit of God living in us, will we continually let sin reign in our lives... thus proving our love for sinfulness?
Ok, ok most of us will admit that we hate sin, right? I mean *most* people hate murder, rape, child abuse... right? Right. But sin is much more than just these things. Sin is any rebellion against God. Selfishness, prayerlessness, forsaking the assembling of believers together, lying, hatred, jealousy, infidelity, adultery, lust, gossip, putting other things/people before God {idolatry}, premarital sex, slander, laziness, gluttony, homosexuality, avoiding God's Word, not tithing, greed... watching a TV show with adultery, lust, infidelity or singing a song that is vulgar is agreeing with what you're watching/hearing, which makes that a sin as well. And I know God doesn't find sin entertaining. I could go on but you get the idea. There are no BIG or small sin in God's eye's. I found this quote today by John MacArthur on sin.
And, of course, there's just no interest in the public forum talking about sin today. I mean that is absolutely archaic. Sinful nature? To say that people are corrupt at birth? To say they inherited a wicked nature from their parents because they were all genetically, as it were, in Adam? They were all there and sinned in Adam in his loins, and everything that came out of that cursed man and that cursed woman bears that curse? Unacceptable. To say people are all born with an evil bent; that they are all born with a desire to violate the law of God and to dethrone God and replace him with themselves? To say they are incapable of doing anything good? To say that they are rotten to the very core, that everything about them -- everything they think, everything they say and everything they do -- is only evil continually? To say their heart is deceitful and desperately wicked? Frankly, folks, that is just not acceptable in the public forum. Our culture has really declared war not only on sin, because they don't want anything defined as sin. Everything is just a lifestyle choice.
Nothing is a sin. So our culture has declared war on sin and, consequently, declared war on guilt. The very idea of guilt is considered medieval, obsolete and certainly unhealthful.
Pretty true of what our culture today thinks... "Everything is just a lifestyle choice." Wow... speechless.
Why does the world love all kinds of sin and therefore hate Jesus? Because of what He stands for {purity, holiness, righteousness} and what He stands against {sin}.
Listen to His words....
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:20
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matt. 6:21
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14
"Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’"Matthew 7:22-23
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 10:32-33
Jesus is the King of kings. He will reign forever. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.. either today or on judgement day.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" Matthew 13:9
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