“Our Daily Bread”   http://odb.org/2012/07/10/its-okay-to-ask/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht

Philippians 1:10… that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,  (NKJV)

Yesterday I wrote about the verse right before this opening scripture, in which the apostle Paul spoke of attaining knowledge and discernment…  Spiritual maturity is needed to be able to discern right from wrong… Satan is so cunning and deceitful, that man is helpless in his own strength, to be able to defend himself from Satan’s attacks…  The Christian’s only hope of defense from the evil one, comes from wearing God’s entire set of spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-20); and from following the urging of Holy Spirit, who dwells with-in every Christian…  The 64 thousand dollar question is…if you are a Christian, do you listen to the Holy Spirit all of the time…some of the time…or have you as a Christian, taken back control from the Holy Spirit ??

The only way we as Christians can “approve the things that are excellent”, that Paul writes about in the opening scripture…is if we can separate the things in our life that are truly important, from all the enticing distractions that Satan will be constantly placing in our way, to pull us away from God…

Paul uses the word “sincere” in the opening scripture… Most of us know what sincere means… Thefreedictionary.com defines sincere, this way… “1. not hypocritical or deceitful; open; genuine – a sincere person sincere regret”… When you look around you, do you think you can spot a sincere person when you see one? 

I found my Bible study notes (written by John MacArthur) on the opening scripture about the origin of the word sincere, extremely interesting,…  He writes that sincere might have originally meant “tested by sunlight”…  This was because the word sincere is derived from the Latin sine = without, and cera = wax… It seems things haven’t really changed much in the past two thousand years… In Jesus’ times, there were crooks that tried to pass off defective pottery, by filling the cracks with wax before the worthless pots were glazed and painted… The pottery looked great until it was held up to the sunlight, where the cracks were then visible…  The reputable pottery dealers marked their fine pottery (that could withstand “sun testing”), with the words “sine cera”…without wax !!

Are you living a life that can be considered“sincere and without offense” ??   None of us can claim that we do not sin…  Anyone who claims this can’t be a Christian…1 John 1:8… If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  (NKJV)

All Christians will still sin…hopefully less and less with spiritual maturity and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, as the Christian is quick to ask forgiveness of any sin, right after it is committed…  Thank goodness our God is a forgiving God; and will bring His children back into alignment with Himself, after they confess and repent of any and all sins…  The apostle John gives us the key to being sincere in God’s eyes, as he writes this next verse, in…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.  (NKJV)

When we as Christian’s turn our backs on the Holy Spirit as He urges us not to sin…and we go ahead and sin anyway…we are grieving the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)… We become unrighteous in God’s eyes, and are then in line for the chastising and the scourging God promises to those of His children that are no longer walking in the Spirit…Hebrews 12:5-8…

God promises to bless His obedient children… No where in scripture is this made clearer, than in Deuteronomy 28:1-14…  Here is the link for the entire piece of scripture on the blessings of obedience… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deut28:1-14&version=NKJV      

Here is just the first part, as recorded in…Deuteronomy 28:1-2… “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:  (NKJV)

For me this is a no brainer !!  We can sin against the Holy Spirit, and be subject to punishment in the way of chastising or scourging from the Lord… Or we can follow the leading of the Holy Spirit (if we are a Christian)…and allow God to bless us by helping us over and above all that we ask or think…Ephesians 3:20… Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, (NKJV)

Heavenly Father, I pray that all of Your children will see the benefit of the blessings and the help that You want to bestow on Your obedient children; and that any Christians that are harboring sins, will turn from their sins by confessing and repenting of them (1 John 1:9)…  I pray Lord that we can all become “sincere and without offense” in Your eyes, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce r mills