Healing
One Sunday, it felt a little uncomfortable at church when the lady pastor preaching boldly uttered: ladies keep your skirts up and men, please keep your trousers’ zips up!
I was still young and it was my first time to hear someone speak explicitly on sexual immorality from the pulpit. What made me particularly uneasy was it was someone of the opposite sex ministering on that sensitive topic.
Now when we were growing up, such deep talking was normally addressed by a male to other males or a female to other females. It was not done in a Sunday service where there are mixed genders and families sitting together.
However, I have learnt over the years that being uncomfortable is not necessarily bad as long as it is the truth that’s being said. Imagine, how many people would not have died if controversial messages, like sexual immorality, homosexuality, abortion, alcohol and drug abuse, and gangster-ism were addressed regularly from the pulpit?
Habitual offenders, indeed, ought to be rebuked in front of everyone as the Bible instructs us to do.
1 Timothy 5.20 Those who persist in sin reprove in the presence of all, so that it may also be a warning to the rest. (WNT)
God says, be ye holy for I am holy (1 Peter 1.16). It isn’t just sexual sin we have to keep ourselves from. But from anything that is not good. Sin is when you know how to do good and you don’t do it (James 4.17).
Now the wages of sin is death (Romans 6.23). Death is lack of fresh supplies; be they for your very own soul, finances, relationships, wisdom or even blessings. Death or lack causes distress.
Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a single meal because he was hungry! There are certain foolish things one should never do, no matter how hungry or desperate. When the inheritance day came, it was Jacob, instead of Esau, who got the blessing.
Heb 12:16 Watch out for immoral and ungodly people like Esau, who sold his future blessing for only one meal.
17 You know how he later wanted it back. But there was nothing he could do to change things, even though he begged his father and cried.
We may not necessarily be committing the “big” sins but every decision we do has consequences. Sometimes, it is the friends we choose. Because we have certain friends, it may block good friends or relationships from comimg our way. When the time for God to bless us comes and we are found to be out of position, then we will miss out on the very blessings we will have been desiring so desperately.
The five foolish virgins were caught out without oil. The five wise virgins flatly and rightly refused with their oil otherwise they would also have missed out on the wedding (Matthew 25.1-13). (Remember, the bible says don’t give holy things to dogs! –Matthew 7.6.) The master answered the five foolish virgins when they knocked and begged to come in, I don’t know you.
If we continue sinning wilfully, God will not forgive but punish and condemn us (Hebrews 10.26). After repenting, we have to prove we are no longer dogs that go back to their vomit. God then blesses and use us mightily (2 Timothy 2.20-21).
1 John 5.21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
An idol is anything that takes our focus away from godly things. It diverts our attention from good deeds we ought to be doing. David was supposed to be at war; instead, he remained behind. He saw Uriah’s wife bathing and he committed adultery with her. Then, he went on to murder Uriah. Why? Because he had idolised the woman (2 Samuel 11).
Idols steal our time. They may include, too-much TV watching (generally soap operas, secular music and sports) at the expense of reading our bibles or praying; loving to eat or to smoke at the expense of our good health; gossiping instead of improving our wisdom.
Idols make us miss out on many good things like peaceful relationships, health and prosperity.
We ought to keep ourselves. Otherwise, when the season blessings comes, we may cry loudly with many tears but to no effect because, we’ll still miss out on the blessings. Therefore Keep yourself from idols.
Wally Tsuro
is the author of Healing Digest and Encouragement Mail
http://healing-digest.blogspot.com/
http://wallytsuro.blogspot.com
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