Today I find myself in
a kind of odd situation. See I fully
intended this blog to be about being a homemaker, but today I feel lead to
write about something different. Over the last few weeks God has been planting
little seeds here and there in my heart as he was preparing me for some changes
he’s working out in me. A lot of little
words have all of a sudden been knitted together in this beautiful
concept. I feel like I should share it
with you. I hope you don’t mind.
Did you know we are all
sinners? I know it sounds so basic, but
God really has given me a new understanding of how true that statement is. When
Jesus came and began his ministry, one of the points he made at the Sermon on
the Mount was completely redefining the way people saw sin. It wasn’t good enough just to not have
committed a sin, but you couldn’t have even thought about it. There’s a lot of sins we can probably say we
haven’t done – hey, I didn’t murder someone, great! – but what Jesus said was
that our standards are just not high enough.
God’s standard is perfection.
With that understanding
marinating in my spirit, God lead me to this next step - Confronting sin. There are some sins we commit knowing that it’s
a sin, while others we may commit accidently, etc. Whether you intentionally commit sins or not,
we still sin. I was hit with a need to
confront it. Not just quit sinning, but really
confess my sin to God and admit it’s something that I need his help on. I needed to know that I wasn’t quitting this
sin on my own – not by my own power, but by His Spirit.
Then today, I hear a
preacher on the radio preaching out of Leviticus, let me outline it for
you. The Israelites are stuck in this
rut, so to speak between slavery (Egypt) and their promised land. And God lays down the law. Literally.
Leviticus is probably one of the most challenging books of the Bible for
many Christians because it was where God outlines to the Israelites how to
consecrate themselves to God. Rules,
rules, rules. But what God was really saying
to the Israelites is that “you are in the world, but not of the world.” See they
were entering the promised land, where lots of other people were already living. Those other groups had customs and gods that
were not GOD. And God wants his people
to be set apart for him. So while the Israelites
were called to live in this promised land, they were not called to live like
the people who already were there. Sound
familiar? Jesus has given us the same
commandment – you are living on this earth, but don’t act like the world, don’t
act like everyone else already living here.
And here’s where it all
hits home, before the Israelites could enter the promised land they had to
consecrate themselves for God. They were
already drawn out of slavery (the equivalent to our generation of being saved)
and were preparing to enter the promised land (their destiny, as the preacher
put it). But before they could enter
into that destiny, they had to make the choice to consecrate themselves for God
– they had to confront their sin. God
has given us the plan by which we can be saved; he has prepared the tools for
us to consecrate ourselves to Him, he has laid out our promised land on this earth
and in the next – but it is our choice whether or not we will walk that path
with Him or not.
I don’t know about you,
but I want to be an Enoch, a Noah, a David.
Who walked with God, had faith in what he’d never seen, and sought God’s
heart. So that’s my prayer today. To serve
him alone, forsaking all others.
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