“First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. ”Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more-more-until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!”
That’s just how satan does sin! He makes it look appealing….now none of us can truthfully say we like the taste of blood so that old devil uses something most of us do like, sugar! He’ll sugar coat that sin, make it look so good to you and taste good you begin to think well that can’t be all that bad. You may say, “everybody makes mistakes” or “I just made bad choices”. Let me tell you something…as long as we’re wrapped in flesh we’re gonna’ make mistakes, it’s human nature and it’s not necessarily sinful if we are referring to that which results from human imperfections such as poor judgment, lack of knowledge and wisdom, etc. Such faults have to do with an imperfect mind. But when it comes to moral matters that spring from the heart, it is a different thing. God calls such behavior “sin” and so must we. We need to say with God that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and add, “I have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” God further tells us, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).Paul tells us in Romans we are to renew our minds, change our way of thinking. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is…His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) Paul tells us in another place to fix our thoughts on what is true and honorable…”And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8) There are several ways we can fix something and one of them is a. To place securely; make stable or firm. b. To secure to another; attach. Hallelujah! Folks we are to fix (make stable) our thoughts on the good things, super glue ‘em as they say. Oh here’s where it gets exciting…we are to secure (attach) our thoughts (our minds) to something or in this case someone. We need to attach our minds to Jesus! “Thou wilt keep him in Perfect Peace, whose mind is stayed (attached) on Thee: because He…shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Now those are shouting words to this old lady! Hallelujah! We are to have the mind of Christ! Just as you train a dog to sit and stay, you can train your mind to stay upon God and His Word. Sometimes you have to physically push the dog’s hind end to the ground at first and say: “sit.” Then you take a couple of steps back and point to the dog and say: “stay.” You do this over and over, day after day, until the dog learns to sit and stay at your command. A dog can learn to sit and stay for very long periods of time with proper training. A trained dog will sit and wait outside a store as his master shops. You can command your mind to stay in the same way. I’m not going to lie to you, it won’t be easy! At first it will be quite a task. Your mind is used to wandering. When you train your mind to stay upon God and think on His Word you must keep commanding it back to the Word when it wanders. Just like the dog, who at first will get back up and start to follow you, you take your mind back to the Word and tell it to stay put.
The key is you must have something to focus on. You must put God’s Word in your mind when it wanders to other things. That means reading your bible, putting His Word not only in your mind but in your heart! And that means learning to pray and stay focused on God. Jesus Christ had so trained His mind to focus upon God, that when a distracting situation was presented to Him, He just stayed (fixed) His mind upon God. Folks, we need the mind of Christ!
But getting back to my story…We have to call sin what God calls it….”sin.” Sugar coating it by calling it mistakes or bad choices will not cover or lessen it before God’s all-seeing eyes and it may dull our sense of the seriousness of dealing with it. God looks at the heart and knows well the deceitfulness of it. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
I think of a female inmate in jail who was very “upset” because she had been picked up for driving with a suspended license and put in jail for a short time. She felt the law should be devoting itself to cases involving crimes more serious than hers. How typical it is of us all to compare ourselves with others, feeling our “crime,” our transgression, is not as serious as most and can be excused lightly. Still, she had willfully broken the law, displaying a rebellious spirit that foretells of more and deeper trouble ahead. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).
We need to face our sin with what someone has termed “judgment-day honesty.” Now while we have opportunity to confess and forsake sin, is the time to face it and clear it up! God speaks in His Word of those who “tremble at His word” (Isaiah 66:5). This implies great respect and honor and reverence for God’s Word and a healthy fear of disobeying it.
“It is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:11,12). How important it is to have God’s Word search our hearts. We cannot trust our own searchings apart from the Word, for “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
We Christians who are eager to be all God would have us to be in holy living, in faithful witnessing and in effective praying have no choice but to hearken diligently to God’s Word and obey it. Only as the Holy Spirit controls the cleansed heart can we hope to live the blessed holy, fruitful life that God intends. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
How foolish we are to try to sugar coat, make sweet or cover up sin, and to hold onto it, giving evidence of a proud, stubborn heart that needs to be broken at the foot of the cross. For the sake of our precious, loving God, for our own sake, and for the sake of others who can be blessed and helped by our lives, we must confess and forsake! What can compare with the sense of joy and peace when guilty hearts are forgiven and experience a fresh touch of God….his God who is the perfection of divine grace and love and beauty. No price is too great to have a right relationship and blessed fellowship with Him, the Lover of our soul!
“Cleansed and made holy, humble and lowly; Right in the sight of God.”
In His Love,
Elizabeth
Elizabeth
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