Christian Living

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HOW MY SIN AFFECTS YOUR LIFE
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“In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?” Psalm 56:4 NIV

We live in a world at cross-purposes with God’s desire for us. God desires us to live life centered on contemplating God and understanding His plan for your life. God’s longing is for us to comprehend He is the source of all life and for us to realize that He will supply what we need to have a full and happy life when we set our focus on following His ways.

More than likely you have already acknowledged that people (our society, our world, everybody living on the planet) are extremely messed up. Some of us spend a lifetime scheming and plotting to get things. Thinking things make us happy, we are never happy with what we have and we seek more stuff. Stuff doesn’t please our natural desires and only knowing Christ and following Him gives meaning and purpose to who we are.

Every living person battles with choosing to live acknowledging whether we will live rightly or wrongly. And most of finally acknowledge that our choices affect other people. More than likely most of us ignore how much impact our wrong choices affect everybody else. It’s true. What decisions we make influence the next steps we take in life. Our lives are tied together and we can’t escape that truth.

Everybody is messed up when you consciously decide to step outside of God’s will and choose to do whatever delights you. The mother of the drug addicted teenager, the man who steals from his neighbor’s garage, the person shoplifting at K-mart, the driver who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the rapist, the identity thief or a thousand of other persons we could note here, all of these people, making wrong choices, are influencing how we live.

Let’s look at it this way, if the President of a large conglomerate makes a wrong decision and the company loses money or ten thousand jobs are cut from the payroll then the affects of those choices trickle down to where some of us live.

If I were to go to my brother’s cabin, pilfer his boat, his four-wheeler and poison his dog, how many people would be affected by choices I made? The choices each of us make, good or bad, overflow into numerous lives. Lives are affected, relationships are tainted, trust is lost, and families are shattered when one member of the family decides that their personal happiness is more important than any other single issue. My sin, your sin, touches the lives of countless persons and we hurt them.

Dear Christian, friends do me a favor? It will have an enormous impact on your life and mine; read Colossians 3. Please read the entire chapter. Once you have finished that stop and think --- CONSIDER how your life can affect mine. What we do influences others for years to come if not for our entire lives. Please accept the truth that we must live for Christ realizing that today is momentary, tomorrow disappear into yesterday and eternity awaits us. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down her on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 NLT) And then “So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5 NLT)

“Whatever you do or say let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus.” (Colossians 3:17 NLT) You and I must live maturely, sensibly as Christians. Remember we characterize the work of the Lord in us by what we say and do. My hope is that when touch lives with you I will leave and imprint that will encourage and help you. And, if that happens, then I will have realized God’s plan in my life.
Note – Should you want to contact me with comments or suggestions?
E-mail: [email protected]
Frances L. Carroll
9835 Old Fruit Hill Road
Crofton, KY 42217

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