ALL OF US HAVE PRACTICED certain areas of wrong from our youth. It is a pattern of life that comes “second nature” to us. As a result, it strongly resists change. We gloss over our resistance with the varnish of excuses: “Well, nobody’s perfect.” “I’ll never be any different; that’s just the way I am.” “I was born this way—nothing can be done about it.” “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Jeremiah tells us why such excuses come easily:
Read MoreCategory Archives: Sin
From Depraved to Saved
WHOEVER IS SOFT ON depravity should watch Schindler’s List. It’s not for the fainthearted, I should warn you. It is a raw, harsh, shocking exposé of unbridled prejudice, the kind of anti-Semitic brutality spawned in hellish hate among the Nazis prior to and during World War II.
Read MoreBreaking Bad Habits
I USED TO BITE MY FINGERNAILS right down to the quick. I’d rip off those babies just as soon as the first signs of new growth would appear. For well over twenty years I carried around ten ugly stumps that resulted in two miserable experiences: personal embarrassment and physical limitations. God began to convict me about my nail-biting habit. It took Him, let’s see, nearly a decade to bring about a final and complete victory, ashamed as I am to admit it.
Read MoreIs It Can’t or Won’t?
DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU are the recipient of limitless ability . . . incredible strength? Just read a few familiar lines out of the Book, slowly for a change: “I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). “Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness'” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Read MoreA Survival Secret
YOU CAN’T TURN ON the evening news without being inundated with painful reminders of the shocking disregard for God’s moral law in our culture. Surviving times as intense as ours cannot happen easily. Furthermore, it is not something we do corporately or, for that matter, publicly. It’s an “inside job,” this business of rising above and living according to God’s holy standard. The secret? Turning away from evil.
Read MoreEchoes
A YOUNG BOY LIVED WITH his grandfather on the top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps. Often, just to hear his voice echoing back to him, he would go outside, cup his hands around his mouth, and shout, “HELLO!” Up from the canyons it reverberated over and over, “HELLO . . . HELLO . . . hello . . . hello . . . hello . . .”
Read MoreConsequences
GENESIS 21 gives the account of a man whose previous sin now haunts him and harms the people he loves. The birth of Abraham’s long-awaited heir, Isaac, gave him and Sarah great joy, but their delight became tinged with regret.
Read MoreA Cycle of Sin
THE BIRTH of a newborn is a momentary event, taking place in a matter of hours, but at that moment, life has only just begun. Growth and maturity occur steadily and gradually as a child develops from infancy to young adulthood.
Read MoreThe Poison of Impurity
WHEN GOD paid His visit to Sodom and Gomorrah, these twin cities controlled a lush, fertile valley through which ran the Jordan River.
Read MoreA Phony Prophet
This was no time for Paul to be tolerant or passive. We live in a culture that virtually deifies tolerance. One lady recently said to me with a broad grin, “I love everybody; I even love the devil.” I call that “tolerance gone to seed.”
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