Set Apart

I'm a details person. Having observed one person enough for an extended amount of time, I am prone to find a tendency or a habit in them, that would otherwise be bypassed by others. (Often times this is seen as a bit stalkerish, but I promise I'm not, LOL) Such as how they stand, what words they say regularly, who they hang out with or what kind of shoes they wear. Along with physical habits, there are spiritual habits to take notice of.

When an obvious pattern of sin becomes prevalent in peoples lives,often I wonder how they themselves go along in life and not notice such a big, yellow "sin ahead" caution sign each time around. I think,"Oh, how stupid of them, they should have seen that coming....again. I mean,come on,it's RIGHT in front of their face!". But then after reading Adam's post on The Sinfulness Of Sin and talking about the topic with him for a bit, something he said in our conversation went off in my head like a bright exclamation point.

"They can't see their sin because they are blinded by it."

Having thought about it,it makes SO much sense! If we are blinded by darkness,how can we see the light? If we cannot even see the light in comparison to the dark, how can we know the difference between the two?

John 3:19
This is the verdict:Light has come into the world,but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that in it may be seen plainly that what he had done has been done through God.(NIV)

Recurring sin darkens our view. Satan can put scales on our eyes after some time and make us unable to discern at all. These scales once implemented,do not come off easily. Pleading family and friends won't take them off, getting caught won't take them off, neither will punishment. No, the only One who holds the power to undo what the Master of Darkness has devised is the far greater Master of Light,our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who died and rose again so that there would be freedom from our sin!

Romans 8:1-4 says,
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us,who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. (NLT)

If you find yourself,or a friend struggling with a pattern of sin,remember, there is NO sin that binds you that God cannot break.
God holds the power. Pray and ask Him to conquer that area in your life.

I'll leave you with this verse,
James 5:15
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he had committed sins, he will be forgiven.(ESV)

Posted in: Adam, Annie, guest, Member on Saturday, August 2, 2008 at at 12:01 PM 0 comments  

((We,the regular Set-Apart "staff" thought it would be beneficial to have different peoples come in a write for the blog sometimes. We like to call them our "guest bloggers". So here is the following post written by our friend,and brother-in-Christ,Adam.))




So really, how bad is sin? Ask yourself that. From 1-10,with 10 being the worst. How bad do you think sin really is? I hope everybody said a ten or there is something wrong. Haha. Alright, now how bad do you think sin is when you are sinning? Do you think it's ok to say a little lie here,a lustful glance there, or maybe forget to take the trash out after your parents asked you to? What would you give those on your sin scale? What would you give a little lie? Maybe a 3 out of 10? What about a small lustful glance? Maybe a 4? What about forgetting to take out the trash after you were told to? Possibly a 1? Well truth is, all those are tens!

J.C. Ryle said "I am convinced that the first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin."

Sin is the thing that God hates the most. Come to think of it,sin and its affects are the only things God hates. God's relationship to sin is one of complete hate,anger, and wrath. Now,we as Christians are covered by the blood of the Lamb,so we don't have to fear God's judgment. But people who haven't accepted Christ as their Savior have everything to fear.

Now what I want to talk about in this post is realizing how evil and sick sin really is. But in order to do that we have to look at sin not from our level,but from God's level. From our level,since we are sin filled creatures,sin looks like a normal everyday thing. Even if we hate sin,we still manage to do it. There hasn't been a day in my life where I haven't committed a sin. But we have to look at sin differently in order to realize how bad it is. As sinful creatures we are blinded by our sin and can't see clearly. But God sees sin as something that is rebelling against His glory and power. Sin is something evil that lures you into its addicting claws and promises satisfaction but never delivers. Also,if we are not covered by the blood of the Lamb, it will take us with it to hell for eternal torture and torment. That is what sin really is.

All sin is a rebellion against God,but not all sin has the same consequences. Not obeying your parents wont have the same consequences as adultery. But they are both very serious,whether you think so or not.

The closer we get to Christ the more we see things the way he sees them. So that means the closer we are to Christ the more we hate sin. The closer we are to Christ the more sensitive we are to sin. My sister is a great example of this. She will apologize for some things that I wouldn't even recognize as a sin. She does this because her conscience is fine tuned,if you know what I'm saying.

Now there are many trails I could go down with this post but I'm going to choose this one because I recently read about it. In Donald Whitney's book,"Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health",he has a chapter about grieving over sin. Now this is something I do a lot and I wasn't sure if it was good or not. I knew sin was bad and didn't want to ignore that I had sinned but I also didn't want to forget that Jesus paid for my sins. Whitney points out that the more we grow to be like Christ the more we hate sin, and therefore,the more we grieve over it.

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
- 1 Timothy 1:15

Paul in his letter to Timothy is clearly grieving over his sins.

Whitney writes, " The closer you come to the light of Christ, the more sins His holy light will expose in you."

Jonathan Edwards said,"The more a true saint loves God... the more he mourns for sin."

In the book "Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health", Whiteny points out that there is a right way to grieve and a wrong way to grieve. He says that the two kinds of sorrows for sin is sorrow in a godly manner, and sorrow in a worldly manner. The godly manner leads to salvation and repentance,while the worldly manner does not. Here are two verses that show both kinds of sorrow:

"Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry,but that your sorrow led to repentance" - 2 Corinthians 7:9

"He could bring about no change of mind though he sought the blessings with tears" - Hebrews 12:17

The difference between the two sorrows is one is focused on God, and the other is focused on itself. One looks for answers in God, while the other one looks for answers in itself. And in itself there are no answers.

If you struggle with not grieving over sin Donald Whitney writes, "Ask God to show you the reality of your sin." He also says, "Meditate on the fact that it was your sin that nailed the holy, sinless One from Heaven to the cross."

Thank you for reading this and I hope this touched some of you who read it.

Posted in: Adam on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at at 11:45 PM 0 comments