The Plumbline

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Romans 6:23) Have you discovered that you no longer need to listen to sin tell you what to do anymore? If you are like the millions upon millions of others who have said 'yes' to Jesus, you likely still have a bit of a struggle in this area. Sin just doesn't 'go away' when you say 'yes' to Jesus - the ability for it to control you does, but the enticement to sin is still presenting itself. The issue is not whether sin still entices, it is really an issue of which voice we will listen to the most frequently! We can listen to our own inward lusts (desires), or we can listen to the sti...

Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. (James 1:13-15) Woodrow Wilson reminded us, "The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it." That might aptly describe how it is when we are tempted - swimming AGAINST the stream, trying to live a righteous life, but pulled ever so hard by the strength of the 'evil current' that works against us. I have been pulled or tugged in one direction or another all of my life. At times, I am tempted to say that God is working AGAINST me, but I know that is NEVER true. At others, I am fully aware that my own silly desires (lusts) get in the way of making right choices. Temptation is r...