article by site founder, Connie Rice
American culture has moved farther and farther away from God and His Word, and in a number of ways, actually promotes what God has clearly taught is sin. This environment makes it easier for even Christians to minimize or justify the sins in their life. Of course, this comes easily to all of us since we are sinful beings. To do otherwise requires the will and intentional commitment to know and obey the Lord’s commands. It is all too easy to develop the world’s way of looking at things, especially when they make it sound right, good, and even compassionate. However, there are always consequences to our choices, so it would be wise to seriously consider what God has said. Has He given clear guidance on an issue? Does He repeat any of His commands? How well do we know what He teaches? Have we come to know Him on a personal level? Does He have His rightful first place in our lives? When Jesus comes to meet His children in the air, will we be excited to see Him or like a disobedient child, will we dread standing before Him to give an account? I can’t help but wonder if the tears Jesus wipes away might be tears of our own individual regrets and lost opportunities that we didn’t consider while on earth.
“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
1 John 1:5-10
When we really seek the Lord with all of our hearts, minds, soul, and strength in prayer and in His Word, He reveals Himself to us. The command to seek Him is repeated in the Bible, even by Jesus. Reading the Bible helps us to know God and see things more clearly. We begin to understand that all love and goodness come from Him and that the reason He hates sin is because He knows the destruction it causes His children. When we choose to do things His way in spite of what we may desire or may not understand, or maybe even disagree with, God is pleased and pours out His blessings on us. Does that mean life will be smooth and trouble-free? Of course not – we live in a broken world due to the sin of Adam and Eve. However, what we find when we live a life of trust and obedience to our loving Savior is that He is patient, merciful, and gentle toward us and is faithful to provide for our needs. He even sometimes surprises us with unexpected and undeserved blessings.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-7Sadly, many Christians have not experienced a close relationship with their Savior because they haven’t fully surrendered to His Lordship in their lives. We can be good at thinking we know better than Him, but we only fool ourselves and set ourselves up for more trouble than we would have had otherwise. Habitual sin can also destroy our witness to unbelievers because it does not allow us to reflect the Holy Spirit in our lives, so we are not set apart as God intends. We’re supposed to be His ambassadors to a lost and dying world – He fills those trusting in Him with His peace, strength, light, and joy so others can also find eternal salvation through Jesus Christ.
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:5-8We see the effects of a world that has denied God and His Word – evolutionary teaching has caused those who don’t seek evidence for themselves to think that God does not exist, that the Flood did not happen, and that the Bible is not true. When we look at powerful leaders and influencers in the world in recent years, we see people trying to be God instead of seeking Him. They give glory to those who copy some of the characteristics of incredible creatures that God has made instead of giving glory to the One who created the creature to begin with. We see people trying to improve on God’s ingenious system of a perpetual and nutritious food supply and boast that the engineered food is more plentiful and pest-resistant (I can’t help but ask why is it good that the pests don’t recognize it as food anymore). We also see people trying to control the world’s weather and climate and even trying to improve on humanity itself with technology. The closer we look at God’s Creation, the more in awe of Him we become unless we deny the obvious and fool ourselves into thinking that we are smarter than the Creator of the universe.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [g]Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Romans 120-25In my preparations to teach on how Jesus fulfilled the components of the Old Testament Tabernacle, it is clear that sin is a serious thing to God. He knew we would never be able to be with Him as sinful beings, so made a plan through the sacrificial and voluntary death of His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind so God would see His righteousness over us. He only asks that we believe in Jesus as His Son, that His perfect life made it possible for His death to pay for our sins, and that He rose again, overcoming both sin and death. All we have to do to be forgiven is to acknowledge our sin before Him and ask to be forgiven. Jesus says that if we love Him, we will obey His commands (and gives us the power to love and obey with the gift of the Holy Spirit to indwell us). What more could He have done for us?:
- gave us His own power to live in fellowship with our Creator while on earth
- freed us from the power of sin in our lives
- fills us with purpose, His peace, and joy – even in the midst of the inevitable challenges of living in a broken world.
- gives us the future hope of eternal life in heaven with Him
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Matthew 24:36-39We’re watching Scriptural prophecies fall into place, so Jesus could return at any time for His children. Will we be deceived into thinking that our sins don’t matter to God? Will we minimize or rationalize them? God has not been silent and He does not change. God deserves our devotion, worship, and obedience and is looking for those whose hearts are turned toward Him. The closer we get to the end, the more we should seek God in prayer and His Word and share the good news with others so they can live in heaven with us and avoid the horrific times that Scripture teaches will most certainly occur. I personally suspect that after Jesus takes His children in the Rapture, the story will be that we were all abducted by aliens so the whole world has to come together – bringing into fruition the one-world government and Tribulation times prophesied in the Bible.
“Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. “
2 Thessalonians 2:5-10
© Constance Rice 2025
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