As you have read so far, if you have been following my articles, we have been discussing SIN. One of the main reasons I have chosen to write on this topic is because SIN comes in so many different forms and sizes. The Bible is very specific about SIN:

James 2.10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

As followers and believers of Jesus Christ, we KNOW one SIN is enough to keep us out of heaven. It is by that SIN, we are separated from God the Father. Yet it is through the precious blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross, which is the ONLY saving grace we have when we deal with SIN. In other words, every SIN we commit MUST be covered by HIS blood on the cross, otherwise there is no relationship with HIM.

Simply being human, we know SIN will exist in our lives. Hence the reason for a “relationship with Jesus Christ” in the first place! One SIN is so big as far as God the Father is concerned, we as humans are not able to get over it, under it or around it. In which case we must deal with our SIN in the most direct manner there is:

Declare our SIN and ask the Lord to forgive us of our SIN and that means each and every one of them. You can say all the “Hail Mary’s” or “Our Father’s” that you want, it will NOT work! You must see your SIN individually, you must state to the Lord, that this SIN is mine, Father, would you forgive me of this?

Romans 3.9-10: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one!”

Romans 3.19-20: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Any commandment given in the Bible─which is the Word of God─is the Law of God! To break any one of them, you have broken all of them! And again, there is NO way around SIN. Again, you MUST come to God the Father in prayer and ask for HIM to forgive you of your SIN. SIN is the direct disobedience to the Lord God Almighty and that, HE will NOT tolerate!

Now this is the point where we must also say, each and every person must come to the cross of Jesus Christ. Each one must ask for the forgiveness of their SIN against God and themselves, this is the acknowledgement of your SIN in your life. This one thing must be done with all the earnestness one is able to experience in life, otherwise it is nothing. In other words, this prayer must be said with every fiber of your being! Trust me when I say that the Lord will know whether you truly mean that prayer or not (and so do you).

1 John 1.9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We as humans, have become so flippant about almost everything!

“Well…it’s just a little white lie!”

There is NO such a thing as a “little white lie or gray area!”

It is either a lie or it is not, and a lie is a SIN. It is an endeavor to misrepresent the truth. To misrepresent the truth by deception to any degree, is a LIE, it is simply NOT telling the truth. And the Bible says, “Don’t do it!” It used to be a pillar of individual integrity to always tell the truth, at least most of the time.

Now days, that is far from anyone’s mind. Trust me, personal degradation begins with the first step, after that, where does it end? If we all stop to remember, this is exactly what Satan did to Eve in the Garden of Eden; he simply bent the truth a little. “Are you sure God said, that if you eat of that tree…you will die?” Here read it:

Genesis 3.1-5: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Well…we most certainly know the difference between good and evil, but we are far from being Gods! Then again, maybe some people just don’t know what, “shame” is all about! All Eve had to do was to say, “NO” and walk away, but she didn’t. So here we sit, covered in all of our own SIN and the only way to get rid of it, is by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary!

That my friends, is the only reason Jesus Christ sacrificed HIMSELF on that cross to begin with, because HE had NO SIN and HE had to become SIN for us. We should be bathing in HIS blood on a daily basis if not more often, because all of us are SINNERS from beginning to end.

With as many people that have gone to the cross of Jesus Christ and hung their old lives there on the cross, you would think the place would be totally covered in bodies. Every single time a person is saved by Jesus Christ, there is only one cross and nothing else. That cross is the beginning of our new life and it is the end of our old sinful selves.

Each and every time, Jesus Christ simply wipes the place clean with HIS blood.

Having said that, I am always amazed at how the following Scripture makes more and more sense! It literally jumps off the page and renounces itself; this is how the Bible literally moves in your hand.

John 15.3-7: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

It is an awesome thing to KNOW Jesus Christ, and that underlined part of the verse  above means you can’t even take the next breath of air without the benefit of HIM. If nothing else is understood here, it must be this: YOU are in control of nothing! Every thing and every second of our lives are in the capable hands of God the Father! God is omnipresent and omnipotent.

HE knows everything, is everywhere all at once and is all Powerful. HE is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. In the vernacular, HE is everything, everywhere, for all of time, without end─HE is God. This IS my Lord and Savior…How happy and overjoyed I am that HE loves me, because I would hate to be on the bad side! Amen?

How much do we truly give to the Lord?

If you go to any church, you will hear that we are to give 10% of what we have to the Lord. Are you sure, that is what the Bible says? Let’s do some investigating on this idea and see if what we “think” is really what we should give.

Luke 21.1-6:  “And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, as for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

What does it mean to Jesus, in the story above about the “poor widow?” Obviously, Jesus was impressed by the gift she gave, as compared to all the others. So in this context we see the true heart of our Lord and Savior, what HE feels is important and then we are able to make a comparison, into what we feel or “think” we should give.

Mark 12.14-17 “And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?

Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.

And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.”

In many cases we seem to miss the mark because we are thinking in one set of circumstances and yet the Lord KNOWS the real circumstance. (As in the story above.) The inquisitors were trying to get a conflicting answer concerning “taxes.” They were endeavoring to trap Jesus by his own answer, yet when HE did answer, they…had no reply! First of all, let’s understand that WE (as in humans) did NOT create this planet or anything else─we have never created a single thing.

Money is the weight that drags mankind down and makes him a slave! It is the single greatest thing to harm mankind in almost every way possible. If you have plenty, then you must work even harder to maintain it, because everyone else in the world wants to take it away from you!

If you have too little of it, no one cares about you, no one wants you around them as if you’re sick and filled with disease or the like. Therefore to live, the poor must work harder or do things that are dangerous, just to survive. So, whether in plenty or in want, who is at the heart of this “money” thing? You guessed it, Satan and his ilk!

In other words, the Lord Jesus told us that “money” is nothing, it’s worthless! Then again, anything that we DO NOT use for the Lord, is worthless. That my friends is the point here! Too often we loose sight of where these things, like money and other stuff, really comes from. Money is made from the pulp of trees and the ink originally came from plants. Who do you think created these? It wasn’t you and me! If this is a truth, according to the Bible, why do people put money on this pedestal and revere it so? Is that not idolatry?

The Lord knows we need to be able to buy food and pay our utilities for our homes. The Bible states that, “A man should work or he should not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). We need clothes, warmth in the winter and cool air in the summer, so on and so forth. Where does it say we should hoard it or use it to demean others, to set ourselves above others? It does not. And as a matter of fact, it should be the other way around.

Somewhere along the way, we have taken the 10% rule and have written it in stone! What if you see someone walking about in freezing weather and no coat? You’re supposed to give that person a coat if you have more than one. There is a difference here. Do you think this would include helping someone out with paying their utilities, if they are struggling? If you say this is a “no-brainer” then maybe you understand…more than you are letting on. It is still a long way from “Doing something about it!” Right?

James 1.16-17: “Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

James 1.22: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

There are many other ways that one can be a help in the work of the Lord, where you can give not only money, but of ourselves as well. Most people will not say anything about needing help, it is their pride, but we know “Pride goeth before a fall” right? Most of the time we need to be vigilant with our “intuitive skills” and then to be ready to fill in the gaps were needed.

2 Corinthians 9.6-8: “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

One other thing we must remember, God expects you and me to be different and to handle things differently. We are different because we belong to HIM, therefore we must do the work of our heavenly Father!

Ecclesiastes 12.13-14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”