Living Life for Christ Alone

For a long time, I struggled with the voice of condemnation. I desperately wanted to please God, but never felt like I could do enough to please Him. The voice of accusation and condemnation would speak, and I would fall into the trap of introspection.  To this day, there are still times when I fall for that voice. But God has been over the years teaching me to recognize when He is convicting and when the enemy, the accuser, is condemning. Because there is a difference. They are not the same. Characteristics of the Accuser’s voice: 1. When Satan comes, he tempts us to despair of our relationship with God. He takes his accusations and puts them between us and God, tempting us to believe that whatever we have done or have failed to do has become a reason for God not to want us anymore. He lies to us and says that our sin has separated us from the love of God. Have you ever felt driven away from God because of guilt and shame? That is not God doing that. God...

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” –John 15:18 These words forge upstream in a world where our natural inclination is to be the most well-liked, popular person we could be. But Jesus spoke these words without hesitation or shame. He spoke them right before He was to be crucified on a cross. He spoke them knowing most of the men hearing His words that day would one day be martyred for their faith in Him. He spoke them knowing that they would be written down for people like you and I to read and marvel at how difficult those words are to embrace. He spoke them so that we would not be disillusioned when people reject us for following Him with our whole heart. He spoke them so that we would not be surprised when people don’t like us talking about Him. He spoke them so we would count the cost before we make a stand for Jesus in a world where people don’t want God. He spoke them so that we would know they aren’t rejecting us, but Him. ...

This morning, as I was reading my bible, a verse caught my attention that I hadn’t really given thought to before. Let me share it with you. God speaking: “…I was crushed by their adulterous heart, which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols…” (Ezekiel 6:9) A couple of things struck me… We live in a world that glorifies sin. It calls evil good, and good evil. Much of our culture and media today is based off of little to no morality, and pushes messages that encourage you to step over your moral lines drawn for yourself and try the unthinkable. Pride, selfishness, divorce, sex before marriage, gay marriage, adultery, murder, hate, lying, envy, slander, and on and on –these things are often portrayed as good. Our Christian culture is not left unaffected by this either. How many Christians do you and I know who minimize sin against God? It is hard to find someone who weeps over sin anymore. Most people either push it under a spir...