Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Asking the Right Questions

So many Christians nowadays have the same question circling through their minds: "Is this a sin?" 

See, that is where we went wrong. Asking such a question is the mistake in and of itself! Questioning the moral good or bad of any action is prideful. We think of ourselves as the one who can correctly judge whether or not this action causes distance from God; and, underlying that, we debate whether or not a separation from our Lord and Savior would be worth the sin. These trade-offs distort our image of grace! If we are saved by grace, we should be able to indulge a little in worldly things. 

Generally speaking, sin is in and of the heart. All throughout the Old Testament, Israel is seen (similarly to us today) commiting offense upon offense against God. And although He offers them grace every time, He DOES get fed up with their infidelity. Hosea, my most favorite book of the Bible, tells two stories: one of Hosea and Gomer, the other of God and Israel. In BOTH situations Hosea and God remain faithful to an unfaithful partner; who, by the way, act as if they don't love them at all. God even says a few times, through prophets, that all He wants is love. Sacrifices and grace aren't the important part, although He allows us those to be able to draw close to Him! Close enough to LOVE.

You see, God created this world with the purpose of loving it, and being loved by it. After sin entered the world, however, we stopped loving our God and started seeking other ways to fulfill our lives; ways that required less intimacy and surrender. With God, He knows ALL of you and it all is brought to the light. With ANY other thing in this world, all it requires is a sacrifice of PART of yourself; not the whole of you. Sadly, these things are not infinite like God is, and like an arcade machine, will continue to ask more of you when its run its course. Now you pour more and more of your resources - that is, your heart - into this finite thing that will leave you with nothing. God, on the other hand, will REMOVE you completely, then fill you infinitely with what really matters: Jesus. 

God is love. He had the intention of loving our world. God's Spirit dwells in those who  have commited their life to Him, which means we are filled with love as well; the unconditional kind! So when we ask ourselves, "Is this a sin?", we stoop down to the place we once stood. We roll in the mud some more, wondering if its still worth less than Jesus when we made that initial decision. Second guessing, doubts, and guilt all follow just the THOUGHT of sinning against our God; and yet, the idea is just so delicious we hold onto it one moment longer, wondering if it could REALLY be better. Maybe. Just maybe.

No! It will NOT be better! It will leave you with nothing! Don't turn back to what Jesus has saved you from; run to Him instead! God's infinite love is infinitely better than some action that will run its course, then ask you for more. You walk this precipe, looking over the edge, wondering how much fun it would be to free fall; however, you forget what the hardest part about sin is: the ground. It will break you in all the worst places and no man will be able to fix you ever again. Luckily, our God IS no man! He is GOD! Jehovah-Rapha, God who heals. He'll put you back on that cliff because of His grace, hoping you'll run to His love. But it is YOUR choice to through yourself off that cliff again, or run towards Jesus, who stands away from the cliff! 

A better question: "Will this glorify God?" I can guarantee you that this question will be pretty easy to answer in most cases. Either it does, or it does not. No grey area like with the previous question! You see, glorifying God is loving Him and acting in a way that displays Him to others. Its called living above reproach. So, is getting a tattoo a sin? Perhaps not. Does it glorify God? For me, no, because it can lead others to think that I don't love God like I should. If someone will stumble in their walk because they see me with a tattoo, I'll cut my losses and live without one. Better to live without a privelage than with a burden! And this applies to ALL questions of life, including the biggies around my age group: When can I date? Can I cuss? What about pre-marital sex, or even intimacy? (Personally, I consider kissing, hugging, and even holding hands varying levels of intimate... I've set boundaries to keep myself from giving me away to another prematurely!)

Yall, its a heart thing. The heart is something that loves. God has replaced our finite love for the things of this world with an infinite love for the things of HIM. If you're heart has been changed, live to glorify that One who changed it. We need to #LiveItLikeJesus!

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