Daily Thought for Tuesday, October 18th

October 18, 2011

Sin

Today’s Thought:

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”  – The Bible (James 4:17)

Today’s Quote:

“No sin is so light that it may be overlooked; no sin is so heavy that it may not be repented of.”  – Moses Ibn Ezra

Today’s Question:

 Have you ever considered the possibility that: “We are sinful not merely because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life?” – Franz Kafka

Today’s Bible Verses:         1 John 2:4,  1 John 1:8,  Romans 3:23  &  Romans 6:23

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today’s Spiritual Thought:

“A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission."  –  Marcus Aurelius

In the world today, sin has become a bad word.  Some think it is politically incorrect to label certain acts or deeds as sins because it is polarizing and negative.  Sadly, many churches have adopted a more socialized gospel where sin takes on an abstract quality that is hard to define and what is sin, is left up to an individual perspective and interpretation.  However, this is not what God intended and ‘sin’ is still ‘sin’ whether we wish to call it that or not.

Ultimately sin is anything and everything that causes us to be disobedient to God.

In the Garden of Eden the first sin was not eating, it was disobeying a directive from God. 

And we need to remember that while God has promised to forgive our sins through His Son, Christ Jesus, that does not instantaneously remove all the consequences associated with our sins.  “The mercy of God does not suspend the laws of cause and effect.  When God forgives me a sin, He destroys the guilt of sin but the effects and the punishment of sin remain.” – Thomas Merton  For example: if one lives riotously and promiscuously indulging in excesses, drug use, abuse of alcohol and frequent and unprotected sex: that soul may come to a place where they repent and confess those sins and even turn from those sins: but that does not immediately undo the damage already done to the body by virtue of these abuses.  (This is an extreme example: but it clearly clarifies the point)

Even, once we have turned from our lives as sinner and become Children of God that does not mean we will never sin again.  We may not commit the same sins but we will sin.  For most Christians the longest lists of their sinful deeds are not always those of sins committed but by virtue of the deeds they have omitted that they are suppose to be doing.  For example, daily prayer, searching God’s word to seek wisdom and understanding, putting God first in our lives, loving our neighbor as ourselves, serving Him by serving others, and the list could go on.

That is why we need to be repentant daily.  The model prayer that Jesus taught the disciples included a petition for forgiveness: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” – The Bible (Matthew 6:12)

And maybe we should also keep this in mind:  “There is no record of Christ’s having ever said to any man ‘Go and sin as much as you like: you can put it all on me.’ He said, ‘Sin no more.’” – George Bernard Shaw

Today’s Prayer:

Father, I give thanks not that I am a sinner but that I am a sinner saved by grace.  Forgive me my trespasses and enable me to be willing to forgive equal to the measure in which forgiveness is needed.

“Hate the sin and not the sinner.”

- Mohandas K. Gandhi