Sin Up Close And Personal

Scripture

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

~Psalm 27:14, NIV

Quote

Sin is what we do when we are dissatisfied with God.

~Anonymous

David loved the Tabernacle {Jesus}. He loved to go there, to dwell there, to seek the face of God and gaze upon His beauty. He prayed, My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” So far as I know, David’s parents did not forsake him. When Saul went crazy, David hid his parents in Moab and all his brothers and relatives joined his army. David’s greatest treasure was his relationship and communion with God. Being with God made him feel safe, secure and loved. As important as his parents were, they were not substitute for God. David’s incredible faith gave him confidence and hope. He could have jumped the gun; he had two opportunities to take Saul out of the picture but he refused to lift his hand against God’s anointed: David wisely waited on the LORD. Sometimes we don’t wait; we take matters into our own hands. We are not satisfied with God’s timing and we lack the confidence that He will do a thorough job at vindicating the righteous. David wanted to be king but he was willing to wait on God’s timing.

Eve on the other hand, was not willing to wait. The devil teased her mind, “Why is God withholding from you and your husband?” “What is God hiding?” What Eve wanted was not evil in itself; what made is so evil is that she refused to wait on God. The devil convinced her to get ahead of God by going after knowledge on her own. The LORD intended to give them knowledge but there were some other things they needed first and one was to learn to obey and the other was to trust God even if they didn’t understand what He was doing. Knowledge is over rated and obedience is under valued. Samuel said, Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. When we disobey or rebel, we affirm the fact that we do not want Christ as our KING. The devil loves rebellion. He is all over it and I am very afraid it becomes a form of demon possession. David was seeking God’s face; the Israelites were seeking their own which is sin. David was satisfied with his Savior: they were not. I’ve seen sin up close and personal and there is nothing good about sin–yours or mine. Dallas Willard said, “Satan’s goal was never to be evil, his goal was to oppose God [rebel] and evil is the result.”

Unrelated but significant: Dr. Keller says that if we trace our ‘fears’ back to their origin, we will find an idol or a substitute for God. I couldn’t get this statement off my mind last night. Do you think he has a valid point? I think he does.

Well, I know that rain depresses a lot of people but I’m not one of them. I love rain and I was thrilled that Landon’s baseball game got canceled. I’m just being honest. I didn’t feel like driving to Elkmont. I will go LORD willing but I just wasn’t in the mood this week. The rain gave me a chance to study all day long. I didn’t even run my fan, I listened to rain hit our metal roof: what a beautiful sound.

I noticed Joe David picture on the wall at DBC. I know that was bothering Traci and so I suppose she is happy now. It looks good and so do all the changes. I like the higher baptistery. It should have been changed years ago.

LORD willing, I get to go to Mandy’s birthday party today. I love parties if there is food. Mandy will be 39 on Friday.

Reading through the bible with 20 others at GP: today I spotted some DON’T in Leviticus 19 on 2/19/19.

  • Don’t make idols
  • Don’t steal
  • Don’t misuse God’s name
  • Don’t gossip
  • Don’t hold grudges
  • Don’t eat blood
  • Don’t encourage your daughters to be prostitutes [so don’t dress them like one]
  • Don’t talk to the dead {witchcraft, seance}
  • Don’t disrespect older people {like me and Gregg}
  • Don’t mistreat foreigners
  • Don’t cheat when your playing cards or doing anything else

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