BBD 11.19.13 Disruption (Classic)
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>
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The Burning Bush Devotional
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Classic from 2005
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 NKJV.
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 sit 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 © 2005-2013. Ed Wrather.
The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8,
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