<\/p>\n
Hi how are you all? I am very late writing this week\u2019s blog as we have had a death in the family. It has been a stressful week. How was your week?<\/p>\n
This week I want to blog on an unusual topic- happiness and sin. I had a dream a week or so ago where two people were getting married. The problem was they shouldn\u2019t have been but I had to pretend to be happy for them.<\/p>\n
Too often, this is how we treat sin in our lives- we don\u2019t hate it like God does. In fact it makes us happy. We can\u2019t repent for something we are happy to do and keep on doing.<\/p>\n
So what is sin? Sin in the Old Testament was disobeying the commandments of God. However, in the New Testament, and what we currently live under, is not believing that Jesus is the Son of God- that He died and rose again to restore us to right relationship with others. It is also not obeying the two commands Jesus left us with- love God and love others. Sin encompasses a wide range of things but as a Christian if we repent and turn away from it, we are forgiven<\/p>\n
Most of us do this but there are some things we struggle with. I struggled with anger for a lot of years until God healed me of it. It was really my first reaction to circumstances but that didn\u2019t make it right. I would ask God to forgive me but the next time something happened, the anger would arise. Eventually as I read the Bible, God healed me of it. This is not what I am discussing in this post. I wasn\u2019t happy I was getting angry.<\/p>\n
So what happens if we deliberately keep on sinning because we somehow enjoy it. Hebrews 10: 26-31 in the Message Bible states:<\/p>\n
26-31\u00a0If we give up and turn our backs on all we\u2019ve learned, all we\u2019ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ\u2019s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment\u2014and a mighty fierce judgment it will be! If the penalty for breaking the law of Moses is physical death, what do you think will happen if you turn on God\u2019s Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult this most gracious Spirit? This is no light matter. God has warned us that he\u2019ll hold us to account and make us pay. He was quite explicit: \u201cVengeance is mine, and I won\u2019t overlook a thing\u201d and \u201cGod will judge his people.\u201d Nobody\u2019s getting by with anything, believe me.<\/p>\n
These verses tell us that if we keep on sinning and enjoy it, we turn our backs on all we have learned. We are literally telling God that His way is not best for our life, His truth is not believed and Jesus\u2019s act on the cross doesn\u2019t apply to us. This is a harsh truth but one where there is warning. <\/p>\n
For those that this is speaking too, there is still time to repent and return to God. However, it can become harder to see the love of God especially when your heart gets hardened to the truth.<\/p>\n
God loves but He is also just. Jesus took the punishment for us but if we don\u2019t believe, then we must take the punishment on ourselves. This is a hard truth and is a weight none of us were meant to carry.<\/p>\n
This post has a very heavy message but I hope you heed the warning. It tells us in Galatians 6: 7-8 in the Message Bible that:<\/p>\n
7-8\u00a0Don\u2019t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others\u2014ignoring God!\u2014harvests a crop of weeds. All he\u2019ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God\u2019s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.<\/p>\n
None of us wants to harvest a crop of weeds. We all should desire a harvest of eternal life. So today, repent of your sins, turn back to God and allow Him to rid your life of anything not pleasing to Him. You can do it because you are amazing!<\/p>\n
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.<\/p>\n
Karen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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