Desiring God

I've just begun to read "Desiring God" by John Piper and few things caught my attention.

One such thing is the downplay we have on our sin nature!  We tell ourselves that our sin wasn't so bad and we'll go before God and confess our "little" sin and then move on.  We fail to realize how horrible our "little" sin is in front of a perfect, holy, and all mighty God who absolutely despises sin!

In our world today we have people telling us that hell isn't real or everyone except Satan and his demons are going to Heaven.  Our concept of heaven and hell as to very real places is very messed up.  We fail to see that our sin is such an abomination to God that He can't even be in our presence it is so bad.

I think that the "believers" these days who think that everyone is going to heaven or that hell isn't real have a very relaxing opinion about sin and how the Lord views it!  Our Bible's make it very clear that Heaven and Hell are very real places.  It also makes it very clear that the only way to Heaven is by "believing in the Lord Jesus Christ"!  So why the confusion?

Obviously we are all human beings and a wonderful aspect of being human is differing opinions.  We all think differently and have different mindsets.  However absolute truths have all but vanished in our society today.  Heaven and Hell is one such absolute truth that people are now trying to take away.

The problem begins when we think that our sin was little before God's eyes.  If our sin was so little than why is the price for the payment of our "little" sins so big?!?!  Death is a very big price to pay, I hope you would all agree with me on that!

Stop toning down your sin.  Everything you do that is sin is horrible in the sight of our Almighty God.  Don't go before Him and confess your "little" sin.  Act in outright repentance and confession as you know that you have committed a horrible act before a righteous God who knows everything you do, right or wrong!  Once people actually realize the horror of their sin before God's eyes the actualization of what Christ did on the cross for them will become a reality, as will the realization of Heaven and Hell!!!

A LIving Sacrifice

I little while ago I was asked "what does "living sacrifice" mean?" I thought it out a little and gave a quick response that was very... immature.  To be quite honest with you, I never really thought about it to much.  So now I want to share my thoughts.

So I think about "sacrifice" and its context within the Old Testament.  It was used in terms of sacrificing animals to God.  It was used for pagan worship as well.  In the New Testament it is used in terms of Christ coming and being the sacrifice for our sins.  Putting Himself in our place for our sake.  In our world today we don't see much of sacrificing ourselves for other people.  Our world is all about the "me" mentality, the ME MONSTER!!!  We live in a very selfish world.

"Living" is self explanatory.  We are alive.

I am a living sacrifice.  My life is God's cause He gave it to me and He can take it.  I am sacrificing my will for my life to do the will of my Lords.  Allowing God to take COMPLETE and ABSOLUTE control.  This goes right along with the second verse of not conforming to this world because we have given ourselves to God!!!