Spiritual Warfare #41

Chapter 10, The Landmine of Immorality by Charles Stanley

This is a hard-hitting chapter. Charles speaks of what God says about immorality. If you happen to be in one of the situations described in this chapter, please know it is not meant to condemn you. (John 3:17) "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." However, the Holy Spirit may convict you to change your ways. You are loved and God wants His best for you.

The Nature of Immorality
Today people are more concerned about what society thinks is correct than what God says is right.

People have become involved in relationships purely to fulfill lustful desires. When the relationship ends, they are left with feelings of deep loneliness, betrayal, emotional abuse, and failure. Society may tell you, "Live any way you please." But no one will mention that God has the final word concerning sin and its consequences. Once sin has had its way, God is the only One willing to pick up the shattered pieces of your life. The world does not comfort failures-people who are outcasts or hopelessly given over to addiction and passions that are out of control.

God forbids adultery, debauchery, fornication, homosexuality, and anything that violates His moral law and principles. One's inner conscience knows this. However, people often ignore the very warning signs their consciences produce. They work overtime to hid the very things that are eating them up inside, such as pornography, rape, sexual abuse, and such.

We may fall into sin, but if we truly know Him, we will not remain there. Sin and God's holiness have no common ground. God is holy, and He cannot look on sin. He will hear the prayer of a sinner, but He never accepts the sin someone purposefully commits.

Paul wrote, "God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you" (1 Thes. 4:7-8). The Lord takes full responsibility for commanding us to live godly lives. Sanctification is a process that continues over time. It means that we are becoming more like Christ. The more we surrender our lives to God, the more He shapes us into the image of His Son. We are sanctified, made holy, through our relationship with Him. Salvation is a one-time event, but sanctification is something that takes place over a lifetime. When we accept Christ as our Savior, He saves us from the penalty of our sin. He forgives us. He also declares us not guilty of sin, because He has forgiven our post, present, and future transgressions. Therefore, in the future when we sin, we begin to learn about the consequences of our actions and how we can avoid future failures.

Enough to chew on for today? There is so much meat in the chapter, it will probably take some time to go through it. I hope you're up for it!

Sputters is still throwing up quite a bit. I'm going to talk to the vet today and see if there is anything that can be done. She's lost all the weight she gained this past week.

Greg and I are limping along. Greg had to put in a long day yesterday, so I took Kristen to drum lessons at 4:30, then we had to drop her off for a small group get together at 6:30. We talked with some friends from church before we left. We hadn't gone grocery shopping in over a week, so my plan was to do that, but Greg wasn't up for it so we opted to pick up prescriptions at Target, call in a quick bite for me, since I hadn't eaten in several hours, and head for home. Greg didn't want to go in to Target, as he was too tired, so he asked for the keys to listen to the radio while I ran in. I came out 15 minutes later to a dead battery. Two calls to 411 to get the number of the towing company resulted in a 20 minute wait (not a big deal, except my food was supposed to be picked up much earlier) and we were finally on our way. Mark couldn't jump us because he was at a required piano concert at CSUS for school. At 10:30 last night I realized we missed a staff meeting at the time we arrived at Target. We haven't missed one in 2 years. We must be really messed up right now. I'm looking forward to the time life goes smoothly again! Blessings!