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by Logan Ames

One of the things that my family members and I like to do when we get together is play cards. This has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember and we are very competitive, even to the point of trash-talking each other during the games. My dad has a saying that I’m guessing he took from playing cards with his dad and brothers growing up and he uses it to describe the circumstances when someone else in the game gets lucky. If a person makes a strategic error and still gets rewarded for it, my dad will say, “Man, he fell into the outhouse and came out with a new suit on!”

No matter where you live, work, play, or go to school, people generally like to present themselves at their very best. You don’t show up to an interview for a new job wearing dirty sweat pants and a shirt with cut-off sleeves. You don’t go to a first date without taking care of necessary hygiene concerns. You don’t give a speech or take an important test without preparing and you don’t enter the big game without practicing and coming up with a game plan. Those who don’t follow these simple unwritten “rules” of society are seen as lazy or apathetic. While we all know that appearance isn’t everything, we generally try to hide our shortcomings and accentuate our strengths. We try to control what we can and we are usually dealing with others who, for the most part, can only see what we choose to let them see.

But this is not the case with our Creator. He has the ability to see everything that we do and everything that we are. There is no imperfection or shortcoming that is hidden from him. We may fool ourselves into thinking that we can present our very best before God by showing up every Sunday for church, speaking about him to others, and praying regularly. But he is not deceived. He sees us, hears us, and knows even our secret thoughts at ALL times, no matter how we present ourselves when we think it matters.

In Romans 3:9-20, the Apostle Paul concludes that, before God, no one is righteous and all are under the power of sin regardless of their background. For human beings, the picture is pretty dim. We can’t present our best before God because there really is no “best”. Take a look specifically at verses 10-18, where Paul quotes pieces of Scripture from Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah to describe the utter hopelessness of mankind. The state of the human race, as Paul sees it, is a wasteland. There is “not even one” who does good or seeks God. Everyone has become “worthless”. Poison, deceit, cursing, and bitterness are all mentioned as things that come from their mouths. They don’t know peace and are “swift to shed blood”. They are ruined and miserable and “there is no fear of God before their eyes”. As my dad might say, this is quite an “outhouse”.

The passage for this week is not one that we want to read when we are seeking encouragement. Pastors may shy away from preaching it because no one leaves “feeling good”. Yet, it is one of the most important things for us to understand in the Bible. How can we accept a Savior if we don’t believe we need one? Do you think you are good enough that God will approve of you apart from Jesus? If so, I urge you to read that passage again. Read it over and over again until the truth of your own hopelessness as a result of your actions is obvious to you. Paul finishes the section by saying that we will all be held accountable to God (v. 19), and that “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law” (v. 20). In other words, none of the supposed “good” things we think we do could possibly make up for all of the ways we have rebelled against God. We need another solution.

Paul wrote similar words about how we are presented in God’s sight in his letter to the Colossians. “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel” (Colossians 1:21-23a). This is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. Look at it piece by piece. Paul explains the state of alienation that we were in as enemies of God because of our behaviors, just as he explained in Romans 3:9-20. But here, he explains that God didn’t leave us in that state. God chooses to reconcile us to himself by the work of Christ on the cross, so that whoever believes is presented as “holy” and “without blemish”. Talk about coming out of that mess with a new suit on! Without Christ, we are seen as the complete wasteland (or outhouse) that we are. But through faith in Christ and his work, we are presented as absolutely perfect. Our only part beyond that is to keep the faith and stand firm remembering that the hope is only found in the gospel and not in anything that we can do.

If you have not experienced this transformation from the outhouse to a new suit, I encourage you to think about your life and how you will be presented before God as it stands now. Make no mistake, the Bible says in Revelation that all will be judged, which means we will all stand before God one way or another. The good news is that God isn’t waiting for you to leave the outhouse. Romans 5:8 says that he demonstrates his love for us in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Friends, that means God has given you a new suit to wear while you were still stuck in your own mess. You don’t have to wait until you have it all together because you never will. All you need to do is accept your hopelessness apart from Jesus and then, by faith, grab hold of the hope that is only found in him. Will you make that change today? If so, be sure to let us at Worldview Warriors know so we can welcome and support you. If not, just remember that you have no idea how many more chances you will get.

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by Katie Erickson 

“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:
'There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.'
'Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.'
'The poison of vipers is on their lips.'
'Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.'
'Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.'
'There is no fear of God before their eyes.'
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (Romans 3:9-20)

We’re a little ways into the 3rd chapter of Romans, and we finally see a conclusion! Paul has spent more than two chapters just preparing his argument and setting it up, and now we see the first conclusion that he makes: All Jews and Gentiles are under sin (verse 9), and because of that, no one is declared righteous by the law (verse 20). If you want to review all of Paul’s arguments that led to this conclusion, please go review my previous blog posts on earlier passages in Romans.

To back up his conclusions here, Paul gives a string of quotations from the Old Testament. This is actually the longest series of Old Testament quotes in the entire New Testament. Paul quotes from Psalms 14:1-3, Psalms 53:1-3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Psalms 5:9, Psalms 140:3, Psalms 10:7, Isaiah 59:7-8, and Psalms 36:1. These references wouldn’t mean much to the Gentiles, since they likely hadn’t studied the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) very much. But this would have been highly significant to the Jews, since they would have likely known much of the Hebrew Scriptures by heart. This would bring it all together for them, and it would reinforce that what Paul is saying to them has authority.

You’ll notice in this passage, there is a repetition of the phrase “there is no one.” Paul does this for emphasis. If something is repeated, and repeated, and repeated, it is for emphasis so the writer makes sure the reader really gets it. Paul is really hammering the point home that it doesn't matter whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile or anything else about you, you cannot be saved by yourself. There is nothing you can do to save yourself, and no one else can either. Sin is universal, and we are all under its power.

This is emphasized again in verse 19, where Paul writes that “every mouth may be silenced.” If this were a courtroom scene, we would have to be silent. We realize that we are sinful, so we have nothing to say in our defense before the Judge. There is so much evidence against us, that nothing we can do or say will prove our innocence, so our mouths will be silenced. No argument we can make for our own righteousness will stand.

This then leads into Paul’s conclusion that no one is declared righteous by the law. The law is not able to save us. However, the law is still very useful to us, since it makes us aware of our sin as Paul says. Traditionally, the law has three main uses: a mirror, a curb, and a guide. The law is a mirror because it shows us our sin. When we see what is right and wrong, we see that we are sinful. The law is a curb because it keeps our sin in check through fear of punishment, just as a curb on a road keeps cars on the road. The law is a guide for believers because guides us on how to live. We know what we’re supposed to do to stay on God’s path, even if it is difficult for us to always follow that.

At the end of Romans 2, we saw that even though the Gentiles didn’t have the law of God in the same way the Jews did, they did still have God’s law written on their hearts in the form of their conscience. We all have God’s law in us in a general sense of right and wrong, but the law still cannot save us.

We are all under the influence of sin, and there is no one who can be declared righteous just by the law itself. Fortunately, if you know Jesus, then you know where Paul is eventually heading with this argument - that only Jesus can save us, through His grace and because of His death on the cross and resurrection. The picture may look bleak where Paul is leaving us right now, but the good news is coming!

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by Ami Samuels

Do you have a teachable spirit? One day last fall I was eating lunch at my kitchen table looking out over the lake. I noticed that some ducks had landed in the water just outside my window. I sat quietly observing the ducks, and as I watched them I began to wonder what I could learn from their behavior.

To be honest I didn’t glean any new insight about ducks that day. What I discovered was that I try to have a teachable spirit. I try and learn from other people, animals, circumstances, and nature.

Many years ago, our pastor was sharing that he had planned a trip to visit his mother. While he was at his mother’s, he would attend Sunday morning service with her. At the time he had grown his church to around five hundred members, and he was preaching two services every Sunday (this doesn’t sound big by today’s standards but it was considered a large congregation in the 1990s). His mother’s church was a small country church. It had one service and about fifty members. He told us that he could have had the attitude of “What can I learn from this pastor” in a sarcastic way. But he didn’t; he went to her church with the attitude of, “Lord, what can I learn today in this message from this pastor?”

That is a teachable spirit.

We do need to be discerning in what we are being taught. Make sure that what is being communicated is Biblical. Look up scripture verses and seek wise counsel if you aren’t sure about what is being taught, because not all things being taught are correct. Do your homework and check it out. Check out this post by my fellow writer Charlie Wolcott for some more on recognizing false teachers.

Likewise, not all lessons are good. My boys have had several coaches in sports over the years. They have had some outstanding men coach them: men who taught character, prayed with them, and coached as Godly examples. On the other hand, we have had some not so great coaches: men who were leading by poor example, didn’t know the game, and were unfair. I have had many conversations with my boys about the fact that we can learn something from everyone. You can learn how to be, or you can learn how you don’t want to be. You can learn how to treat people, or you can learn how not to treat people. You can learn from their character or from their lack of character. There is always something to be learned in every situation.

One particular season, one of my boys was having a difficult time with a new coach. I asked him, “What have you learned from him?” To which he answered, “I learned how not to treat others. I learned that I never want to make anyone feel like he made me feel.” That is a tough lesson to learn but it is an important lesson. It was heartbreaking to hear, but I knew he was learning a lesson sometimes only life can teach.

In a devotion entitled “Cramming for Finals,” Florence Littauer writes, “A ninety-six year old lady was a faithful attendant at my women’s club Bible studies. She came with her lessons prepared and knew all the answers. One day a tactless member asked her, ‘Why do you work so hard on these lessons when you’re so old and it doesn’t matter?’ Little Bess Elkins looked up and said confidently, ‘I’m cramming for my finals.’ It’s never too late to get ready for our finals.”

Having a teachable spirit requires us to reflect, discern, and study, but if we want to continue to grow as people and in our faith we need to continually grow. Jesus was often referred to as Rabbi or Teacher in the Bible because he was constantly teaching. As children of God we need to be continually learning.

As Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

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by Nathan Buck

A Christian, a Jew, and a Buddhist all walked into a bar… when they regained consciousness, they found an atheist lying next to them, but facing the other direction.

Okay that was meant to be funny and “punny” at the same time. But it was also meant to illustrate a point.

The athiest claims there is no god – which is why he was walking the other direction. The Buddhist claims he is god, since god is in, through, and not separate from all created things, and he his happy to be in the company of other spiritual people. The Christian claims to walk in the fulfillment of God’s promise of relationship and destiny for humanity. And the Jew claims to have had God reveal his moral law, teachings, and character through his heritage and ancestry.

Despite their beliefs, and any sense of “status” or importance because of their experiences or ideologies, all of them were knocked out by walking into the bar. They all were walking, they all have their own belief system, and regardless of what they believe none of them are exempt from the physical or moral laws of the universe.

In Romans 3:1-20, Paul makes a very simple, yet powerful point. No one has special status before God just because of his or her heritage or life experiences. Even though God chose to reveal Himself and His teachings (laws) through the Jewish people, and even though He does express a special appreciation for the Jewish people, their lives are subject to the same physical and moral laws as everyone else. Although their history and the very fabric of their culture expresses the law of God, it only expresses the law – it does not make them exempt or help them keep it. Because of God’s work through the Jewish people, everyone has the opportunity to know God’s teachings and understand the moral laws that should govern our lives and help us be right with God. But none of us are exempted or specially equipped to live right before God, just by learning what His teachings say. In other words, reading the Bible, even memorizing it, doesn’t make us a good person or allow us to stand blameless before God.

Read the passage for some pretty pointed ways in which Paul makes this clear. Then zero in on verses 19-20: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh is justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

No one is exempt from God’s moral law any more than they are exempt from the law of gravity. We can ignore it, defy it, and theorize about alternate methods of establishing moral bearing. We cannot escape it. And to extend the analogy a bit further – knowing about gravity only tells me why things fall to the ground, and affirms that I am a captive of gravity’s pull; it doesn’t cause gravity to cease to apply to me. Likewise, knowing God’s Word and His teachings only makes us aware of our sin and our resistance toward Him.

Even if we tried to keep every aspect of God’s Word and tried to be perfect, our efforts to try and satisfy and live out God’s teachings will only make us aware of how inadequate and prone to rebellion we really are. It is great to try and keep the laws of our community, the laws of our country, and even God’s law. But one truth smacks us all in the forehead at some point – no one is perfect, and no one can keep all the laws perfectly.

The question is, when we come to our senses, will we recognize that we walked into a bar? Will we be open to learning why the bar was there and how we should have been walking so that we wouldn’t smack into it? Will we awaken to the fact that there was a voice that was graciously trying to warn us, and we weren’t listening?

What about you? Are you willing to see where you are running counter to God’s law and be open to a new way of living? Are you relying on your outward efforts to try and satisfy God and be accepted by Him? Are you ignoring God and simply charting your course in life by what others say? Read on in a couple weeks. We’ll take a look at how we can stand blameless before God.

by Charlie Wolcott

When engaging in battle, one of the most important things any general must have is knowledge of the enemy. To accomplish this, one must employ spies. Many of us love the classic spy thriller. James Bond, Ethan Hunt, and even some of the kid spies such as Spy Kids or Agent Cody Banks. We love the suspense of the agent sneaking through high tech security rooms to get the critical data tape that can save or destroy the world. However, we have to recognize that we are not the only ones using spies.

There are many different types of spies. Some act as simple informants. They are locals that know the status of the city/nation. Some are infiltrators where they try to get inside the government of the organization/nation to know what the leaders are thinking. Some are double-agents, where they were sent out as a spy, but then worked for the enemy while still pretending to be a spy. But there is one type of spy I want to address, because this type is the one we as Christians see the most: the false teacher.

The false teacher is a type of spy that works for an enemy and pretends to be a valuable person to us, but their goal is to teach and to spread misinformation, or worse, to gradually turn the people against the leader. Remember my post last week about the Moral of the People. It is difficult for a leader to accomplish what needs to be accomplished if the people don’t support him. These types of spies will get into all sorts of professions, preferably influential positions. Today, such positions include educators, government officials, business managers, athletes, and Hollywood stars. Now, before I go a step further, I must clarify that not all of these people are spies. Most of them are legit, but for a spy to come in and influence the people, those are the positions they would seek to fill so they could be trusted and believed.

What really gets hairy with these types of spies is that because of their influence, those who listen to them will follow them and go along with the teachings. These false teachers cannot simply state an outright lie about the leader or the people. If it is too distinctly different from the cultural norms, anyone with half a mind will quickly catch on and figure the spy out. Instead what they do is a very gradual pull, little by little. Often the subtlety is so slight that no one recognizes when they have completely strayed off the path. And the best way to do that is to remove any concrete standard from the minds of the people so they cannot tell when they are being duped or not.

Used virtually worldwide today is a methodology called “Dialectic Thinking.” It comes from the same root as the word “dialogue.” The basic premise is this: Start with a current standard accepted by the society (SYNTHESIS), then bring in a different idea or standard (ANTITHESIS) and then have the two sides dialogue until they come up with a consensus (SYNTHESIS). This SYNTHESIS then becomes the new THESIS for the next generation/iteration.

Dialectic thinking is the same thing as “open-mindedness” and “tolerance” as they are being used today. They are open to anything and everything... except that which says there is a standard of right and wrong. And it does not take long to find out which group is making a stand and saying there IS right and wrong: the Bible-believing Christians. The dialectic process is a slow fade away from having any standard except that which the state declares, and it has been the opening of Pandora’s Box. This process has removed individual rights and voice in the name of “unity” and it is in the process of removing both the parent’s right to direct and discipline their children, but also the children’s respect for the authority of their parents. One current expert willing to step up and voice the issues going on here is Dean Gotcher. This link with his name goes to the first part of a seminar he gives on the Dialectic Process. But suffice it to say, we have a society today that refuses to acknowledge any standard of right and wrong and will vilify any who dares to suggest there is.

How did this happen? Through the use of false teachers. Spies who came in, proclaiming themselves to be the experts and convincing the masses that they need to take their word for it because they are the experts. These people are in the core of the education system, they are in the seminaries, and they are in the pulpits.

So here is the issue we have to address: who is telling the truth and who isn’t? And how do we tell? First, we have to recognize that every single person on this planet is fallen. We’ve all sinned, and we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. Every instructor we sit in front of, with the exception of Jesus Christ, is one fallen head instructing another fallen head. They can claim to be the experts all they want, but that does not make them right. Paul said it clearly in Romans 3:4: “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Now this passage was referencing how despite the fact that we all sin and cannot carry out the Christian life on our own, God will still be faithful. But this also tells us that we need to check everything out with Scripture. This is the art of having a Berean spirit. Here is more on that.

We have to check out what everyone says with Scripture. The Bereans did not take Paul and Silas at their word. They checked them out, and found them to be legit. How many of us do that today? One does not need a PhD to tell if a science expert is blowing hot air or not. One does not need a Masters of Divinity to know if a pastor is speaking offenses against the Word of God. Nor does one need that to tell if they are speaking the truth. If you listen to the Holy Spirit, you will know when something is wrong or not. You may not know what, but you will know if something is wrong. You can have all the experts in the world telling you that you are wrong, but if you stand firm on the authority of Scripture, you can stand in confidence that God will come through. Do not fear the world, because Jesus has overcome the world. Here Jesus is talking about the worldly system. This includes the Dialectic Process. This includes Evolution. This includes political agendas. This includes emergent church thinking, and “social relevance.” This includes the “prosperity gospel” and the love of riches. Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world and will not be merged with this world’s system. If Jesus beat the system, why join it?

Any time someone, no matter their credentials, speaks anything ill towards the Word of God, you can know where it comes from: the pit of hell. It was the lie from the beginning: “Hath God really said?” Beware of the false teacher. The list of Scriptures on this is long. Here is a sampling. 1 Timothy 6:20-21. 2 Timothy 3:15-4:4, Colossians 2:8, Romans 16:17-18, Philippians 3:17-19. And here is the freaky part of all these false teachers. They come from within our midst. They don’t come from these foreign lands and speak a strange message anyone could spot. They come from among us. They are wolves dressed like sheep. Mark them. Identify them. I understand no one is perfect. I understand no one on earth, except Jesus Christ, is ever going to have it all figured out. I’m not talking about perfection. I’m talking about those who speak ill against God’s Word, who cause confusion amongst God’s people, and ultimately who deny the authority and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Beware of the deception. Know the truth, and the truth will set you free. The way a treasurer can tell the difference between a fake dollar bill and a real dollar bill is by studying the real thing in such detail that any fake will readily stand out. We need to have that same mindset to know the Truth, God’s Word. When we know it, any fake, any false teacher will be easily spotted. If we don’t, we will be easily swept away.

This is a detailed introduction to my next post where I will address the goal of having such false teachings in our midst. Yes, the enemy is planting false teachers and lies among us, but why? What is he really after? It’s all part of a bigger plan. I’ll expose that plan next week.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  Any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will be deleted.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature, will be reported to the authorities.

by Logan Ames

Don’t you just love it when someone asks you a question that shouldn’t even be dignified with a response? You know, like those questions that just make you look at someone and shake your head. You might ask, “Seriously?” Or maybe you would say, “I’m not even going to answer that.”

A couple of years ago, Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals was asked a ridiculous question by a reporter and simply responded, “That’s a clown question, bro.” His answer was adopted by a politician the next week and was mentioned in jokes for several months. Well, I’m here to tell you that it fits a particular group of questions that are addressed in this week’s passage in Romans.

First, let me ask, if you could go back and change some things about your life and choices you’ve made, would you? This is not the “clown question”, but for some it may seem like a no-brainer.

Some would immediately list all the things they would change. I do, however, recognize that there are many out there who have the opposite view. They may be able to recognize past mistakes, but they stand firm on the philosophical ground of “everything happens for a reason” and “my mistakes have made me who I am today”. Pop culture has even fed into this mindset with movies such as “The Family Man”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and others that illustrate that things happen and people exist for a reason and we shouldn’t try to change it because we might be “messing with fate”. Because the world desperately wants to believe in a power greater than themselves and because Christians believe that God is sovereign over all things, people in both groups play with the idea that everything happens for a reason.

While I’m not here to shoot that theory down, I’ve heard at least one of my co-workers recently take it too far. She said something like, “I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I wouldn’t change them because they have led me to where I am today”. I don’t think she fully understood the ramifications of what she was implying, but it got me thinking about our sins. This week’s passage shows that this line of thinking is nothing new. People in the first century were making an argument, as recorded by Paul in Romans 3:1-8, that they should not be judged for their sins because man’s unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly. In other words, they were implying that even their SINS must be all part of God’s plan!

Paul had explained in verses 1-4 that there is an advantage for Jews because they had been given the words of God first through the Scriptures, but also that even their disobedience couldn’t nullify God’s faithfulness. This was the heart of his message that all human beings are justified by faith in the work and grace of God through Jesus Christ and NOTHING MORE. The Jews struggled with this because they were so set in being justified by their own works. To put a hole in his theory, some evidently took it to the extreme. If Paul was saying human works don’t matter, then why shouldn’t we just keep sinning and then stand back and watch how God’s glory is revealed in spite of our actions? As Paul says in verse 7, “Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’” I assure you that this is where Paul, in a much more elegant, thoughtful, and Hebrew way would have said something like, “These are nothing but clown questions, brethren”. In fact, you can see in the passage that Paul never actually does answer these questions. Of those who would dare to ask such questions, he simply concludes, “Their condemnation is just!” (v. 8)

It’s not that asking questions is a bad thing. It’s a good thing and you can see that Jesus and his disciples did a lot of it in the process of teaching and learning. Going back further, God asked questions of many of the prophets and other Old Testament characters to show them what they were failing to understand about their circumstances. Moses and Job come to mind. But even Moses and Job had to come to a point where they accepted who God was and then all other questions that they had were submitted and freely asked under that knowledge. When we get to a point of questioning God’s judgment, character, and heart as the unknown debaters in Romans did, Paul says it’s not even worth it to respond.

There are reasons why anyone asking those questions of Paul should rethink the questions rather than look for answers. First of all, nothing a mortal human does or doesn’t do can “enhance God’s truthfulness”. That’s like saying I’m going to give 110% during my next workout. It’s not possible to go beyond the maximum. God IS truth. He is fully true in a way that even the most honest man on this planet can’t understand, so there is no way his truthfulness can be enhanced. Secondly, believing that our sins increase his glory would allow us to say that he is responsible for our sins because he created us. While some may choose to believe this, it’s nonsense!

Genesis 1:26-27 clearly states that God created us “in his image and likeness”. God is without sin and we were created to be the same way while still having the ability to love him and find all of our fulfillment in him. The unknown questioners in Romans would have already known this and that is why Paul felt a blunt non-response was necessary.

Are you one who says you wouldn’t change your sins because they made you who you are? That may be a true statement, but that doesn’t mean they were part of God’s good plan for you. I can look back and see how God used even the times that I was disobedient to him, but his greatness doesn’t change the fact that it was still rebellion on my part. That rebellion led to consequences and pain for myself and others. The danger in believing that even our mistakes lead us where God wants us is that we may take them lightly and repeat them. We may begin to think too highly of ourselves and believe that God will take care of us no matter what we do. This is a false guarantee and it is not Biblically-based. God doesn’t need you and I to mess up so he can show up and show off. And we are fooling ourselves if we think sin doesn’t do more damage than good.

Every time. Without exception. Don’t make a mockery of God’s grace. The fact that he watches over you even when you sin and still chooses to set you back on the right path is a tremendous blessing and not something to be taken for granted. His grace gives you the strength and freedom to stop sinning, not a license to keep doing it. Walk away from whatever is holding you back and trust him today.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  Any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will be deleted.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature, will be reported to the authorities.