BBD 09.08.08 You Belong to God
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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09.08.08
You Belong to God
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but
he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not
know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. - 1
Corinthians 6:18-20.
Listen to this news report. "Gambling, robbery, sexual immorality, and
violence is prevalent. Half of all children are born out of wedlock; purity
and fidelity to the marriage vow are sneered out of fashion. Corruption in
politics is rampant. The world is broken." That news report was from the
year 1694, but it sounds like it could have been a news report from 2008.
Immorality is not a new thing, and it has been a problem for as long as
there have been human beings. We look around our world today, and we know
that there are huge problems of all kinds, and sometimes it looks like the
whole world is going to hell in a handbasket.
When our friends and neighbors are involved in immoral activities we may
come to think that because everyone around us is doing what is wrong that it
is okay for us to do those things too. We begin to slide into the gray area
between black and white, and before long we are closer to the black than we
are the white. Before long we are not coming to church, we stop reading out
Bibles, we stop praying, we stay away from other Christians, and we may not
think it - but down there in our heart of hearts we think that God is okay
with it because He hasn't struck us dead with lightening or something else.
Let me remind you what God thinks about that kind of thinking and living. He
says, "You are not your own. You were bought at a price; therefore glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." You as a child of God
are not your own. You belong to God. Your body belongs to God. Your spirit
belongs to God. You are accountable to God.
When you stop coming to church, when you don't read your Bibles, when you
don't pray, when you don't live like you ought to live - you are not getting
away with something. No, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Because you
are accountable to God and God is not deceived. As the apostle Paul says in
Galatians 6:7-8, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man
sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh
reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap
everlasting life."
We live in a society where no one wants to admit to their own mistakes or to
their faults. We see so many politicians wanting to take credit for the good
things that are done or that occur and then when something bad happens or
goes wrong - they are more than ready to point their finger at someone else!
We are ready to do that too, but it simply will not work with God, don't be
deceived about that because "God is not mocked." Paul says, "... for
whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh
will of the flesh reap corruption.."
How do we sow to our flesh? We sow to our flesh any time that we sin. We sow
to our flesh by doing what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do
(Things like going to church, reading the Bible, praying, witnessing,
serving, etc.). When we spend money selfishly that should have been given to
the Lord, we are sowing to the flesh. When we look at the wrong things, tell
lies, steal, blaspheme God by the way we live our lives we are sowing to the
flesh.
Instead of sowing to the flesh and reaping harvest after harvest of bad
things we must instead sow more to the Spirit, to reap more of what the
Spirit has for us. "You are not your own. You were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
Copyright © 2008. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
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