BBD 10.19.05 Disruption
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
make this transition and during this time the old website will remain at the
current url http://www.theburningbush.org and the new website will be at the url
http://www.theburningbush.net. Both websites will remain active and new devotionals
will be posted at the new and old websites. All of the devotionals written
during 2005 are available at the new site. One of the new features is the
ability to post your prayer requests and praise reports directly to the
site.
The new website url is http://www.theburningbush.net
Join the Burning Bush Prayer Group! Send and receive prayer requests and be
a part of a great ministry. More than 400 (currently 483) wonderful people
make up this group. To join send an email to: BBPG-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please sign the GuestMap at The Burning Bush website. You can plant your
country's flag on the map and leave a message. You can find it on the front
page at http://www.theburningbush.org
The Burning Bush Devotional
1,892 New Subscribers since November 2004
10.19.05
Disruption
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And
you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is
no sin. - 1 John 3:3-5.
I like the way the "Message" translates this passage of Scripture: All of us
who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of
Jesus' life as a model for our own. All who indulge in a sinful life are
dangerously lawless, for sin is a major DISRUPTION of God's order. Surely
you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin
in him, and sin is not part of his program. - 1 John 3:3-5
A supermarket in Exeter, Pennsylvania recently had an unexpected, and
unwanted visitor. An eight-point buck deer was frightened by something out
of the woods where it struck a parked truck and crashed through the front
window of the supermarket. For more than an hour, the deer crashed and
thrashed through the store from the meat-counter to the bread aisle.
Shopping was disrupted as the buck caused terror for those who were
unfortunate enough to be present. Kelsey Bracken, a cashier, was grateful to
have been away from her register at the time. As Bracken put it, "I would
have died. It ran right through register five." The deer was eventually
fenced in and trapped by two police officers using shopping carts. The
officers were then able to shoot it with tranquilizer darts ending the reign
of terror caused by the frightened deer.
The story of the deer in the supermarket gives a picture of a couple of
spiritual things. First, it gives us a picture of what lawlessness is like
and sin is like lawlessness. Lawlessness is like a large eight-point buck
crashing and thrashing its way through a supermarket destroying everything
that it encounters. There is no way to reason with lawlessness because it is
uncontrollable and damages everything it touches. You cannot set down and
have a peaceful mediation session with sin because sin will eat you alive if
you try to compromise with it. Sin is an animal, a dangerous, frightening
animal that will tear you and everything and everyone you love apart.
Second, the story of the deer in the supermarket gives us a picture of some
of the collateral damage of sin. Sin disrupts God's plan for your life. Sin
brings to a halt the blessings of God upon your life and prevents Him from
molding you into the image of your Lord. Sin brings everything spiritually
good to a standstill and brings a reign of spiritual evil into your life.
In order to prevent the disruption of the lawlessness of sin you need to be
able to recognize it. Here are some ways in which sin is described in the
Bible: "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23)"; "So
whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin
(James 4:17)"; "All wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17)"; and, "The devising of
folly is sin (Proverbs 24:9)." John Wesley defined sin as, "a willful
transgress (or breaking) of a known law of God."
We have all sinned and as long as we are clothed in human flesh, we will be
capable of sin. The Bible confirms in Romans 3:23 that we have all sinned
coming short of the mark of perfection. That is the bad news. The good news
is that we do not have to live in sin because through Jesus Christ the
chains of sin have been broken if we know Him as our Savior. 1 John 1:9
tells you what to do to remove the sin and to return to God's will and plan
for your life: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Copyright © 2005. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
The Crossmap Christian Search and Portal is a wonderful resource. I would
like to encourage you to visit this great site at ww.crossmap.com. Crossmap
has added the Burning Bush Devotionals to their site. You may visit
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http://www.christianpost.com.
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