Don’t sin

 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

What is your attitude toward sin? I have often made the excuse for sin before I even do the deed. “Nobody’s perfect!” “Jesus is the only one that can be sinless!” This sounds reasonable and is even likely true, but what if there is more? 

Jesus Himself told us, “Be perfect therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect!”(Matt. 5:48) So, if Jesus gives us a command, who are we to try anything different? Shouldn’t we be aiming for perfection? Did you know that Jesus was 100% man, but also 100% God? Most believers understand this! But do you know that you are the same? We are born 100% man and into a life of sin, but we are born again and receive 100% God on the inside of us! Unless you don’t believe the Holy Spirit actually lives inside you! 

So what does that mean? How can I be like Jesus? By the Grace of God! God Loves us and so He sent His Son Jesus to die in our place! That is already done! And you know what that means? We are co-heirs with Christ and children of God! There is no getting around it! That is what scriptures tell us! Then to take it a step further, Christ says, “You will do even greater things than me!” (John 14:12) 

How can I do greater things than Christ?!?! I am but a lowly sinner! With that attitude I will never be who God who God has called me! I am righteous! I am a child of God! I am a saint! I am no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to righteousness! 

So it starts in our mind! Paul tells us in Romans 12 that we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind! Here’s an interesting concept. All that you need to be an Overcomer in life has already been given to you! You just don’t see it yet! God, give us vision to see what You have already done!!! 

So now, back to the verse at hand. “I am writing these things so that you do not sin!” John is telling us not to sin! He is implying that there is an option to not sin! How can he say that? Because He understood! He knew what Christ had done! In fact, we can see from His gospel that he didn’t even see himself as John anymore! He had such a revelation of how Christ saw him that he referred to himself as “the one whom Jesus Loves!” That is quite a place to be! 

So as John writes here, we are told we are not to sin! Now there is always a way out, because we do have Jesus advocating for us. But He has made it possible to live a sin free life! 

Again, this is a mentality thing! Maybe I will never be sin free. And likely that is true, but I should have a goal to obey everything that Christ has told me! And when He says to be perfect I should not make excuses before I even try to fulfill the command! If I always aim for being a sinner, I will always struggle with it. But, if I aim for Jesus, I at least can get as close as possible before I leave this earth! And when I do leave, I know I will be made perfect in Him! So, let’s try for obedience, and aim for a sin free life! And know that Jesus is still with us anytime we mess up! 

You know what you didn’t do!

“Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4‬:‭17

When you hear the word sin, what do you think of? We have all struggled with sin in our lives. But what exactly is sin? It is easy to label all the bad stuff as sin. We look at the Ten Commandments and see things like murder, theft, immorality, covetousness, and things like that. But does that cover all of what sin is? 

Jesus reminds us that two things cover everything in the law and the prophets, Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. So does that mean anything that does not fall into these two things is sin? 

Then we see James jump in and tell us that “if you know the good you ought to do and do not do it, that is sin!” Have you ever had a moment where you felt the urge to do something or help someone and you passed on because you had somewhere to be? I have. And now as I read this I am convicted as I knew the good I was supposed to do, but did not do it! 

Jesus tells us the story of the Good Samaritan to give us a picture of this. I have a story that is similar that I want to share to illustrate this point and how it can make an impact. 

This story takes place in 1995 on Mother’s Day. There is a woman with two young boys, 13 and 10. They have had a rough time in life. The mother is working hard to provide and not seeming to be able to get ahead. Raising two boys by herself and feeling discouraged in life. That morning is like many others. It’s a Sunday and they spend the morning in church. 

After church they make a spur of the moment decision to visit Grandma, who lives about an hour and a half from their small town. About a third of the way through the trip, a tire blows out on the car. Fighting to maintain control the woman carefully pulls to the side of the highway. Since they were in the fast lane, they ended up on the shoulder by the median of the highway. 

A quick search of the car reveals the spare, but no equipment to change the tire. Maybe a mile from the nearest exit the mother and two boys start the journey to find help or a phone. This on top of everything else starts a mental spiral with questions of “why!!” 

Only a few steps down the highway someone pulls up to the median from the other side of the freeway to assess the situation. When he discovers that the only thing missing is a jack and wrench he advises to head back to the car. He then takes the next exit to circle around and change the tire. 

What could have been a huge ordeal only sets this small family back about 45 minutes because of the kindness of a stranger. Because it resolved so quickly they proceeded to make the surprise visit to see grandma. 

On that trip there was peace and a decision made to make a move to be closer to family. This mother finally started to see a light in her almost hopeless situation. Then a week later she goes to sleep and never wakes up again. Because of the decisions made on this trip those two boys chose to go live with their grandmother. A place where they would learn to seek and serve God for their lives. 

The course of these boys' lives was  changed by the thankless act of a stranger. A man they would never see again. A man who was looking for a reward and would likely never know or understand the impact that he had. 

Now I’m not saying that you should stop and help everyone. There are times that it may not be the right choice. But what if you do stop? What if you help? What impact might you have if you know the good you ought to do and you do it! 

I’ve heard it said, “Be the change that you want to see!” Now there’s a concept. Instead of complaining, take action! Do something. Take a stand! Be different! Start where you are at - instead of walking past that piece of trash and saying people shouldn’t litter, pick it up and throw it away. Instead of complaining about people being unfriendly, you make the change and be friendly. 

Bottom line, you know what you should do, because it is tugging at you! It is that thing that keeps bugging you about other people. It’s that area that you see needs to change. Get up and take action! Do what you know you need too! 

Cleaning up the crap - Life Lessons from a 3 year old.

Having a 3 year old is one of the greatest joys you can experience. It is also one of the greatest challenges you can face. A 3 year is so impressionable, but they also really like to push their limits and test their boundaries. Sometimes when you speak to them they listen intently as if your words were the only ones that matter; other times they run right past you as if they never heard you. One thing is certain, having a 3 year old (or child in general) will leave you with plenty of those times when in the moment you want to cry, but looking back at it you will laugh hysterically at the shear ridiculousness of the situation. This is one of those moments. I hope you can laugh a little, and then take away a truth that will help you in your walk with God.

Nicole (my wife) was gone on a women's retreat with our church. I was spending the weekend with my 4 children. It was Saturday afternoon and I had a movie on that I was in and out of watching with the kids. At one point I am sitting on the couch and notice that my 3 year old, Jaden, is missing. As any good father would do I yell down the hall because I am too lazy to get up off the couch.

"Jaden?" I yelled.

"What dad?" I hear from down the hall.

"What are you doing?" I asked, still not wanting to get up.

"Pooping!" he replies.

Normally this might not be too concerning, but Jaden is still in the middle of potty training. He knows that he is supposed to go to the bathroom in the toilet and he is perfectly capable of getting on there himself, but it is still questionable if he will. Too often he would make it to the bathroom too late, after already doing the duty in his pants. Most of the time we still use a diaper for him; he has learned to pull it up and down like a pull-up, but this afternoon was different. You see, Jaden had already used the toilet a couple of times that day. He even went poop already that morning with no issues, but the last time that he went in there he took his diaper off. I had thought about it and since he had already pooped and was doing really good with going potty I didn't worry too much and figured I would take care of it in a little bit.

So that is why his response had me a little worried. I quickly got off the couch and hurried to the bathroom. When Jaden told me he was pooping I knew it could be trouble, but I was not really prepared for what I found. As I stepped into the doorway to the bathroom it took me a minute to process what was unfolding before me. Jaden's pants were on the floor next the floor rug. He was standing wearing only his shirt and he had toilet paper in his hand. I continued to assess the situation and saw there was poop on the rug and all over the floor, which had been tracked around from his foot which was covered from his toes all the way up his leg.

This is the part where you feel like crying, or yelling, or pulling out your hair, or whatever you do to release frustration. After the initial shock wears off I am left with the question, "Where do I start?" If I start with him I will inevitably  step in the 'crap' on the floor. If I start with the floor he will likely move and create more of a mess. I quickly pick him up and stick him in the tub, then proceed to collect all of the clothes and towels and the rug that have poop on them and get them in the washer. Then I clean the floor and flush the toilet, which he had filled up with toilet paper as he was trying to clean up his mess. Lastly, I moved to him and the bath tub and cleaned him up.

Now, here's the breakdown of what happened. Jaden had been hanging out with us and then must have realized that he needed to go to the bathroom. Without telling anyone, he heading to the bathroom, but was too late. Once in the bathroom he attempted to take his pants off so he could clean himself up, but in doing so he pulled his leg and foot through the poop that had filled up his pants. As he tried to clean it up he kept making it worse and inevitably left his mark everywhere he went and on everything he touched. Then I found him, standing in the midst of a mess that he could not fix.

Based on the title of this post I promised a 'life lesson' from this situation. Technically, I don't know if you would consider it a life lesson, or just a picture of our lives and our struggle with sin. Think about it. How many times have you known what you were supposed to do, but you did the opposite, kind of like my son did in this situation. Then, realizing that you messed up you try to clean it up yourself. As you do you inevitably make a bigger mess than when you started until everything that you touch becomes infected with your sin. It becomes a hopeless situation.

That's when the Father steps in and picks you up out of it. Now, we must understand that just because he picks us out of our mess it does not mean we are completely free of it right away. Sometimes there is a process involved. With my son, I had to clean up the mess in the rest of the bathroom before I started on him. Meanwhile, he had to patiently wait on me and trust that I was going to take care of him.

I think there are times we get ourselves into trouble because we try to get back out into the 'world' before God is done working on us. If my son had gotten out of the bathtub before I was finished cleaning him up he would have continued to make a mess and gotten himself into more trouble.

So, I guess all in all, the lesson that we can learn from this is that when we do screw up we don't have to try to clean it up ourselves, in fact we really can't. We don't have the ability to.

If Jaden had made it to the toilet before pooping he would have been fine, but once he made the error, it became a situation that was out of his control. And if he had come to me at that time it would have been a lot quicker and easier to clean up, but since he tried to handle it on his own it became worse.

In the same way if we avoid the sin to begin with there is no issue, but if we do sin we must recognize that it is beyond our ability to fix it. If we go to God right away we will avoid making a bigger mess, but if we do not go to Him it will only get worse until we do.

So, if you mess up, go to God first. Don't let the situation get more out of control. Confess to Him your sin and let Him cleanse you and set you free. The sooner you let God take control, the less of a mess you will be in.

1 Timothy 5:24-25

1 Timothy 5:24-25 – The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.

           We are known by our actions. What we do is the fruit of who we are. As we watch people, both those we know and those that we do not, we form opinions about them based on what they do. This is not always right, but that does not change the fact that it is true. It’s like the old saying, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me.” We make judgment calls on people based their actions. It’s natural.

           This verse is talking about reputations. It goes beyond forming an opinion about someone based on something that they just did; it talks about forming an opinion based on a pattern of deeds. It tells us that men’s actions may reach the place of judgment ahead of them.

           Take Paul, for instance. When he was still known as Saul he had a reputation of persecuting Christians. Some he would throw in jail and others he would see killed. When he was on the road to Damascus the Christians that were there already knew that he was coming. Then, after his conversion, God asked Ananias to visit him and Ananias actually questioned God to make sure they were talking about the same person. This is an instance of sin building a reputation for a person, but what about good deeds.

           Jesus is the best example of good deeds reaching a place before He actually does. When Jesus would enter into a city there were already people waiting to hear Him. His reputation of good deeds and miracles had traveled ahead and prepared the way for Him.

           This concept works for you as well. Your deeds will create a reputation for you. People will form an opinion based on what they see and hear about you. Now your situation may not be to the extreme like these two examples, but the principle is still the same. It reminds us here that even those deeds that are less obvious will be revealed.

It is important that we act in accordance with what we believe. Do good all the time, whether people are watching or not. What is your reputation? What do your deeds say about you?