“Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” 

my twocents…

some people who are new in Christ, and some non-believers, and some even long-time self-proclaimed Christians, don’t really know what sin actually means. growing up and hearing that word, ‘sin’, it just sounds so uncomfortable, like a mean old nun chastising you. it sounds very judging, and it is just a word we’d all rather not talk about, right? we could instead talk about “our ‘tiny mistakes’ that really didn’t affect anyone”, or “our ‘white lies’ that had honest intention”, or “our ‘justified actions’ that shouldn’t be called sins anyway”. using any other words besides ‘sin’ will make everyone more comfortable, allow for less confrontation, and well let’s be honest, it will also perpetuate denial and impede growth. 

so we need to sit up straight and be ready to learn what sin truly means and why it’s important to know. this amazing verse tells us so much in so few words. we see the origin and the development of sin. so, we can understand the character of sin by it’s predecessor and successor. 

it all starts with desire. without Christ, we live in the world and for the world. without the truth, we live by lies and makeshift guesses. without light, there is just darkness. so in this dim setting, we have to distract ourselves with goals to obtain the things we desire. as we do not follow God, we follow a false leader. we may think for ourselves, we may be subject to influences, or we may do someone else’s bidding, but either way, it’s mostly wandering. when we truly want to fill the dark void that only light can fill, we fall victim to thinking that other things might work: money, fame, lust, vanity, gluttony and drunkenness. we envision ourselves being glorified and pleasured, these things will 'make us happy' and we want that. so here are the desires… the next step is action: sin. 

can you follow any of these desires without sinning? no. the root intention is selfish, and there is no love in any of this. even when we are fooled by lies that have told us that lust is love, please realize, it is simply not the truth. or maybe it’s believable that if you have money, it will create harmony, and everyone in your family will get along. nope, it doesn’t work like that. again, without light, it’s just darkness, and without God, there is not love. 

now let’s say this is a person that has accepted Christ. well, there’s still a lot more growing to do after being born again. it actually is like re-doing the toddler years: learning words, seeing the world for the first time, and learning the truth, the Word, for the first time. as we learn, our actions start to change to promote goodness and glorify God. but in the beginning of this journey, we continue to sin and oftentimes, without knowing it. we might be involved in a situation that keeps repeating itself, or a problem that can’t seem to be solved. this is a sign that more learning is needed: return to the Word. we are used to living in self-focused, selfish ways, catering to our own desires. through our journey in Christ, we mature spiritually and learn to make sound decisions through knowing the Word and becoming great listeners to God. note the word: journey. 

so, desire gives birth to sin. and as you can see, it isn’t so blatantly taking a gun to someone’s head, “the sixth commandment”. it’s taking one step back into darkness, away from God, and the thing is, there is a ripple effect. when we sin, people get hurt. and sometimes, those people take that pain and respond with more sin. everything we do on this earth affects others. this is the most intricate ecosystem. what we obtain is also a thing not obtained someone else. sin is more like a black mold that has been given the opportunity to grow. unattended, it grows beyond our line of sight and it affects numerous people and things that we can’t even see.

and that’s when death enters. the mold kills the things it overtakes. sin causes destruction, not construction. 

so here we are in this present world, with a ongoing spiritual battle between darkness and light. the dark void absorbs and destroys, but the brilliant light shines and creates. we cannot have two masters, but we must pick one. slavery to sin or obedience to God? do we side with the darkness or follow the light? (if you need a hint: in the end, God wins.)

“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:5

1/18/23

“Adulterers and adulteresses!

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? 

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world 

makes himself an enemy of God. 

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 

‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?

But He gives more grace. 

Therefore He says:

‘God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.’”

my twocents…

think back to those days in high school when all the focus was on the “cool, popular kids”. we tried to be like them, or maybe some of us rebelled in anger, or some of us just felt the weight of oppression as we could not be seen through the crowds. we'd come home after a trying day at school and turn on the tv and see this alternate reality of what people should look and act like. the ease in which it was presented almost made us feel stupid for not being like them already. the tv really pleaded a strong case that it was, in fact, reality. 

we made some bad decisions, and we compromised ourselves. we stumbled and fell low, wondering why we couldn’t just be accepted… that same pain cycled through generations and it cycles in the air around us now. the world and God are at odds. doing the ‘cool thing’ is not cool with God. being popular is not being popular with God. and accepting admiration from the world, is rejecting love from God. there is something here that goes deeper. it is pride. all those years that we learned what it took to ‘be cool’ and all that training we put ourselves through to reach this ideal image - now we’re just supposed to dump it down the drain? “well, now i am more attractive and charismatic than i ever was. people like me, and i can persuade them and make them laugh, and i can finally be the person i’ve always wanted to be.” this is said… but what prices have been paid to get here? with destructive sin as currency, what have we really gained with our purchase? the dark places we had to go to learn the things we learned, to step over our neighbor, to be better than him- was it all worth it? of course not… that emptiness lingered inside as it always had, and might have even grown a bit. the darker the mind and the more filled it had become with thoughts of ‘self, self, self’, the lower we sank and more denial was necessary to cope. 

until we came to the Cross. and that was the beauty of the contrast, the telling of the truth. that God and the world are at odds, and coming into the light was brighter that we had ever imagined it would be. by kneeling to the Cross, the ego sure took a hit. all that work we’d done was, in fact, dumped down the drain. but there was no denying the truth. we needed Him. we needed Him so bad. this might have actually been our first time feeling what humility was like. it felt uncomfortable, and kind of embarrassing, but it felt right. we felt obedience when we had never wanted to listen to anyone but ourselves our whole life. we always wanted to be our own final approver, but now we realize that He does our final approving. this isn’t about God being jealous, it's about the fact that He allows us to learn that we have to step down from our pedestal of pride in order to receive His grace. just like kneeling down to a brook to receive water. do you expect the water to just magically flow up out of the brook into your mouth while you’re standing tall and proud? no, but it’s there if you’re willing to come down… it’s where it always was… and it sure is plentiful!

1/14/23