“Our Daily Bread”   http://odb.org/2012/08/13/tear-down-that-wall/

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

Hebrews 12:11… Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  (NKJV)

Once a person becomes a Christian in God’s eyes, they are cleansed of all previous sins…declared righteous by God…and are expected to turn from their sinful ways of living… The Holy Spirit is given to the new Christian as a Helper (John 14:26), to guide them around the pitfalls and temptations that Satan will put in their way, as he tries to distract them from continuing to live for the Lord…

These temptations can be extremely hard to resist, because many of these sins are associated with the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes that the apostle John warns the Christian to steer clear of, in…1 John 2:15-16… Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.  (NKJV)

But the willpower of a Christian is absolutely no match against the lustful temptations that Satan will bombard the young Christian with, to try and lure them into the sins of fornication, excess drinking of alcohol, and any other sinful acts that God warns us about in the Bible…

1 Corinthians 6:9-10… Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  (NKJV)

The young Christian starts out with the full power of the Holy Spirit, which will warn them when they are about to sin… But little by little, some young Christians will be lured in with their first drink of alcohol or experiment with drugs… And then there is the lust of the eyes, as thoughts or desires of pleasurable sexual acts are conjured up (which Jesus tells us is already the sin of adultery, in…Matthew 5:28)… These seemingly innocent sins will lead to much worse sins down the road, as the Christian ignores the urging of the Holy Spirit to stop…

Alas, God is longsuffering… The sins progress, and just because God doesn’t intervene…the Christian starts to believe the lies that Satan uses to tell them that these sins are absolutely normal, and OK… WRONG !!   There will be repercussions for all sins committed by God’s children… God will eventually chastise and scourge the ones He loves, to hopefully bring them back into submission to His will for their lives…Hebrews 12:5-8…  Here is the link for this warning of chastising for sins by God… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=heb12&version=NKJV

The sooner the Christian understands that God cares about them, and wants them to confess and repent of their sins (1 John 1:9)…the sooner the chastising will stop…  Being re-aligned to God’s will again…as the Christian finally realizes the error of their ways and turns back to Christ…“yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

I write today for any sinning Christian, in hope that God’s Word will show them that He cares for them, and that there will be a price to pay for their sins… I have included an audio link for Charles Stanley’s sermon for 8/11/2012, that he titles…”When Plans Turn to Ashes – Part 2”   …This was my inspiration for today’s writing; and well worth listening to !!   http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/today-on-radio

Heavenly Father, I pray that any of Your children that are living in sin…whether things seem to be going well for them…or if they now find themselves going through unexpected trials and tribulations…now see Your promise of chastising for any of Your children who have gone astray…  I pray Lord, that sinning hearts and lives would again look to You; and that confessing and repenting of these sins will yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” that You promise for all of Your children who become righteous again in Your sight…  I pray for this urging by You for all of us, to live in Your will and Your ways…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce r mills