Scripture

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was.

~James 1:23-24, LSB

Quote

Most people have a shallow understanding of their sin and depravity. They are not sensitive to sin unless it is flagitious {violent, cruel, vicious}.

~Henry Scougal

We humans have a tendency to trivialize sin. We have in our mind that some sins are terribly bad while others are not so bad. We may even go so far as to think in terms of good sins and bad sins. In reality, there is no good sin. We even go so far as to redefine sin or lessen its severity. We may refer to our sins as failures, shortcomings, faults, or weaknesses but all sin is sin and it is all hideous and repulsive to Holy God. Our problem is that we spend to little time in the WORD. The holy bible is a mirror of sorts and the more we look into its pages, the more we see our sin and depravity. There is no greater vanity than to pretend to be humble or holy. We never pretend for Christ’s sake; we do it to convince others that we are not really that bad. The WORD of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.

If we gaze into the perfect law of God and study the teachings of our LORD and savior, we are bound to see our sin and to understand the serious nature of all sin. We should never look at any sin as light or inconsiderable. All sin is against God because He is perfectly holy. How much pride, vanity, weakness, folly, and sin is manifest in our daily behavior? I am not sure I want to know. You may feel like me: I am humbled by my sin and striving against it. At times I feel like I am making a little progress but my progress is too small and my sin and failures are too great. One thing is certain, I cannot regulate my actions by any other standard other than the WORD of God.

This is the rub today: the world is demanding that we conform to their ways. To do such a thing, we have to ignore what the Bible teaches. Eventually, they will force us to choose between their moral relativism and the WORD of God. I am going to stick to the WORD. Mankind is not capable of determining what is right or wrong, just or unjust. The only justice is God’s justice and since only He is holy, only He can define sin. If God says it is sin, that settled it no matter what the world believes.

Extra

Worked a little in the garden yesterday. The gentle rain today should help. My seeds are not sprouting. Corn has been planted for two weeks. The ground is not hard and I am thinking it is the cool weather. The rye grass and the trees are beautiful this time of year. I love April green. Lord willing, I will be attending Edith Sandlin’s COLS today. I hope you have a good day and thanks for reading the blog.