Growing in Spiritual Life

Walking: our lifestyle and our progress.

Causes of rebellion

~Romans 6:12-14~

In God’s eyes, anyone who sins is rebellious, and Scripture tells us we’re all guilty (Romans 3:23).  Now, it makes sense that an unbeliever would choose to act apart from biblical teaching.  But what about those of us who have committed to follow Christ – what would cause us to stray from the will of our heavenly Father?

There are two powerful human tendencies that lead to disobedience: doubt and pride.  Both can be dangerously misleading.

1.  Doubt is a mental struggle over whether or not to believe God’s promises.  From our limited perspective, we cannot understand how the Lord works.  Sometimes His way does not feel like the right path, so in order to obey, we must step out in faith.  Then it can feel as though we are jumping off a cliff and trusting God’s invisible rope to hold us.  If we listen to our doubt, we will surely transgress.
2. Pride is the sin that caused Satan to fall from heaven, and it is a deceptive obstacle for believers as well.  Pride has to do with thinking that our way is best, putting more faith in our ability than God’s promises, and desiring praise.  Anything we do out of pride is rebellion against the Lord.

Whatever the cause, sin never leads to the Lord’s best for our life.  God’s way is the only road resulting in fulfillment and peace.

The enemy wants to lure us with doubt and pride – both feel right and are easily justifiable from our human perspective.  But believers should follow Joshua’s wisdom instead:  “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Commentary from Charles Stanley’s In Touch devotional, November 21, 2017.

Give or Take

Greed and lust for power drive people to amazing injustice.  It is the serving of self, typically at the expense of others.

“Luxury leads to vice when a person becomes consumed with the pursuit of pleasure, since a life without self-denial soon becomes out of control in every area.”  John MacArthur, Bible Commentary, pg. 1895, notes for James 5:5.

Porn is accepted

Porn is accepted, don’t you think?  According to the demand and the stats, you would think so.  Generally, I would sum up pornography as images of what was created (originally) to be private and precious moments, which were never meant to be projected on the world’s screen.  So it’s sort of a new version of something old and what God created to be good, twisted into a different version, a darker version.  The acts themselves are a different type of darkness, separate from the projection of the images of the acts-projecting the images is an extension of the acts in the images.  Whether you never view these images or you view them everyday, you should know what they really are.

The darkness of lust is difficult to escape.  If you are there, you are not free.  We are slaves to whatever controls us.  But you should know there is a chance of escape.  Jesus came here to rescue us all, and make us whole.  Seek Him and you will find Him.  When you do, thank Him for every incremental improvement each day.  Because of the nature of sin, change sometimes takes awhile.  Sort of like deconstructing a vault.

For His divine power has given us everything

required for life and godliness,

through the knowledge of Him who called us by

His own glory and goodness.

By these He has given us very great and precious promises,

so that through them you may share in the divine nature,

escaping the corruption

that is in the world through lust.

For this very reason,

make every effort to supplement your faith

with goodness,

goodness with knowledge,

knowledge with self-control,

self-control with endurance,

endurance with godliness,

godliness with brotherly affection,

and brotherly affection with love.

2 Peter 1:3-7

“He’s vulgar, Wormwood.  He has a bourgeois mind.  He has filled His world full of pleasures.  There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least-sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working.  Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us.”  The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, pg. 118