Tag: sin

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Inspirational, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The scripture for today, January 24, is Jude 1:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ~ “

God is perfect, and so cannot dwell with faults and imperfection. We have faults. Romans 3:23 says everyone sins. And Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. But God always has wanted us to live with him. What a dilemma!

God solved our problem at great expense. He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth who lived the faultless life for us. Then God offered His perfect Son, His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place.

After that, God told the world that He would consider us “without fault” vicariously through Jesus. He’s already paid the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is believe He did and follow everything He said and did to the best of our ability.

How amazing ~ God’s love for us!

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Inspirational, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The scripture for today, January 13, is Habakkuk 1:13 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”

This pretty much explains why none of us deserves heaven. Only sinless people can be in heaven. Of course, we cannot be sinless. For thousands of years, God let mankind try any way we could to be perfect. Some people he gave the Law of Moses to, and some people he continued to let try on their own. Neither worked. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get it right.

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So God gave us a temporary fix: We could kill an animal to die in our place, and offer it as a sacrifice, to take onto itself God’s rage at destructive sin.

But Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time was come, God sent his son.” Finally, when mankind understood we needed outside help, God sent Jesus. Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus lived the perfect life that was impossible for us to live; he was completely free of sin. Then God offered his son as the final sacrifice to die in our place ~ to be “falsely” accused of all the sins that WE had committed, to take onto himself God’s anger, rage, and fury at OUR sins, to pay the death penalty for OUR sins.

That done, God ~ who can only dwell with sinlessness ~ is able to allow obedient, faithful people into his home, heaven.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Inspirational, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The scripture for today, December 29, is Deuteronomy 12:29 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess.”

Why would a good God drive people (the Amorite nations) from their own land so that other people (the Jews) could live there? Way back in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land he lived in as a wanderer, but first they would be enslaved in a foreign country some 400 years. During that time they would multiply. Indeed, they did grow from 70 of Abraham’s grandchildren to over three million.

Then it would be time for his descendants to possess the land. Why so long in the future? Verse 16 explains it: “For the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” God always gives people plenty of time to repent and change.

The Jews did finally possess the Promised Land, but God warned them, “If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Leviticus 18:28). Indeed, they did eventually defile the land with their own sins, so several centuries later, they were dispossessed and forced to go to Assyria and Babylon by their conquerors.

Yes, God keeps his promises ~ to both good and bad. Today, regardless of the condition of the nation we live in on earth, let us look ahead to that even better promise of an even better land ~ that spiritual Promised Land ~ heaven. And it will be forever good.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 27, is Mark 10:27 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God:  All things are possible with God.’ “

Can we be perfect? God let mankind try for many centuries to be perfect.

To one group of people he gave over 600 laws and said, “If you keep these, you will be perfect.” But, as hard as the Jews tried, no one could keep the Law of Moses perfectly.

To the rest of the world he basically said, “Try to figure out for yourselves how to be perfect.” So they tried all kinds of religions, but with all of them, they could not be perfect.

Finally, mankind was ready for Jesus. He came to earth and lived that perfect life that is impossible for us to live. He became the perfect Lamb of God, and became our sacrifice for our sins, for Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” He paid the wage for us.

So now, according to Romans 6:3-4, just as Jesus died on the cross, we too can die to our sinful nature ~ the part of us that sins and doesn’t care. Then, just as Jesus was buried in his tomb, we too can be buried in a watery tomb of baptism. And finally, just as Jesus was raised up out of his tomb the Savior, we rise up out of our watery tomb the saved.

Then God considers us perfect too. God cannot associate with sinners in his heaven. He can only have perfect people in his heavenly home. Impossible for us to live there with him some day? Yes. But, God sent Jesus to fix that problem. With God, nothing is impossible.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today is Psalm 10:11 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-Cover-KINDLE“He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.’ “

Most of us believe in God in some form. And we believe that God knows what we do. But do we sometimes bury our belief in God in our subconscious mind so we can go around and do things we know are wrong? Do we believe we won’t get caught, and we can slide into heaven doing whatever we want?

In other words, do we justify our favorite sins? Or do we justify our sins of omission ~ good things we should be doing, but are not ~ under the excuse that we don’t have time to do good to others?

God loves us more than we can ever imagine. He never forgets us. The only things he doesn’t approve of are things that will ultimately hurt us and which he calls sin. Therefore, we can conclude that pleasing God is ultimately, at the end of all things, pleasing ourselves.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 7, is Joshua 10:7f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 2-DREAM MAKER-COVER“So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.’ “

We today cannot imagine a good God condoning violence, let alone promoting it. But think back. Mankind was quite barbaric in the centuries and millenniums before Christ. God never runs very far ahead of mankind, or else mankind would not understand, would get discouraged and then not even try to follow God. By the time Jesus came, God was saying, “No more violence.”

In this scripture for today, God was telling Joshua to attack people in the Promised Land ~ Canaan. This brings up another question: Why would a good God allow one group of people to kill off another group of people? God told Abraham centuries earlier, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16).

In Leviticus 18:24, 28, God warned the Jews through Moses, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled….And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” So God warned the Jews that, if they got at bad as the previous people in Canaan, he would drive them out too.

Further, in Old Testament times, God often punished people immediately. Why punish them? Partly to get them away from the good people. And God used armies of believers to do the punishing for him.

Today God does not expect us to do the punishing. Romans 12:19 says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’ says the Lord. On the contrary, If your enemy is hungry feed him….Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Thank God, he has taken the terrible task of vengeance away from us. We can just forgive our enemies and hand things over to God to take whatever steps need to be taken. In the mean time, we can read the Old Testament and learn that God takes notice when people are doing bad things to us. God does take care of us.

God does love his children.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Inspirational2 Comments

The scripture for today, July 23, is 1st Corinthians 7:23 in the New Testament of the Bible.

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”

Who were you bought from? Satan. Romans 3:23 says everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God. God, who is perfection, cannot dwell with us. It would be like light dwelling with darkness. It cannot be done.

But God loved you so much, he figured out a way to make you sinless. He sent his son, Jesus, to live that perfect life that is impossible for you to live. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. So Jesus drew those wages in your place. He took the blame for all your sins onto himself, and died spiritually and physically in your place.

Then God told the world through his Bible that, if you will believe this really happened and follow his will for you, he will consider you perfect too. Until that happens, you are a slave to what men tell you to do ~ and of Satan.

You were bought at great price ~ the blood of Jesus Christ.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, June 21, is Romans 6:21ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sometimes we do things we are ashamed of, and decide God would be too ashamed of us to accept us as his child. But God can get rid of the shame, for he can forgive so completely that it is as though we never did those things.

Some people bristle from the phrase “slaves to God” or even slavery at all. But we’re all slaves to something ~ a big car, high position, beauty, a hobby, chasing after the opposite gender, reading, eating, music, sports, etc.

From the beginning of time, sin has always resulted in death. Death means “separation” , and in the case of sin, it means separation from God. God allowed us in Old Testament times to kill a perfect animal in our place, but we had to keep doing it throughout life. Then Jesus came as our perfect Lamb of God, and allowed himself to be killed in our place.

The wages were paid through Jesus; so by believing this is true and following Jesus, we are no longer in debt.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Inspirational, Life of ChristLeave a comment

The scripture for today, May 21, is 2nd Corinthians 5:21 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover

A lot of people do not understand what Jesus’ death has to do with going to heaven. The key is in Romans 3:23 that says “The wages of sin is death.” When Adam and Eve sinned, immediately their souls died, and the bodies gradually died. It’s been happening to everyone since then. But, during Old Testament times, God allowed people to make a perfect animal take their penalty, shed its blood and die in their place when they sinned.

This was only a temporary fix, however. Hebrews says the blood of animals cannot truly take away (take the substitute punishment for) sins; they are remembered again every year.(Hebrews 10:3-4).

Finally, John the Baptist announced Jesus was “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). In order to forever stop all the sacrificial substitute dying, God prepared his own perfect Lamb ~ Jesus, who never sinned. For 33 years, God’s Word took human form in Jesus and became one of us. Then he had to shed his blood and die in our place. In so doing, he took the sin penalty forever.

Jesus did two things impossible for us to do: Live a perfect life without sin, and come back to life after he died ~ both physically and spiritually. Why? So we could do another thing that is impossible for us to do on our own: Enter heaven, the home of the perfect.

God invites us to his heaven if we will just follow Jesus. We don’t even have to be perfect ~ just forgiven. Jesus was perfect for us. What amazing love.

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Inspirational, Life of ChristLeave a comment

The scripture for today, April 16, is Hebrews 4:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Header-Jesus' Hands In Clouds

Anyone who has lived very long has committed some sin they hope no one ever finds out about. Some people have committed many such sins. Sometimes because of that one “big” sin or the constant repetition of a particular “big” sin, people punish themselves by putting words in God’s mouth. They say, “God could never forgive me for that.” Perhaps you can never forgive yourself, but God is greater than you.

Jesus told Peter we must forgive our brothers 70 times 7. If kept literally, that would mean we’d have to forgive the same sin 490 times. It is figurative for forgiving all the time. 1st Corinthians 13, the “love chapter” of the Bible, says, “Love…keeps no record of wrongs.” Let us not only forgive others, but let us help people who cannot forgive themselves.

God is a God of mercy.