Last week we looked at past devotionals on revival. This week I feel led to look closely at the consequences of sin.

You still there?

Okay good. The reason we need revival to make a mighty sweep across America is because she long ago became a harlot to the world. When I say world I mean it in the Biblical sense that Jesus used: human society organized without regard to God. In John 17, Jesus prayed for His disciples because He knew He was leaving them in a wicked world:

    “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” (John 17:15-18)

Next week I want to spend some time on John 17:17: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Of course the word truth, as is the case when Jesus used the word, is aletheia. But before we get to the Bible being aletheia truth, we need to look deeper into the causes and effects of sin on the life of our nation and more importantly, the church.

Have you ever heard the old saying, “You reap what you sow”? Many adages are wrongly attributed to the Bible, such as “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” That one came from Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” However, “You reap what you sow” is from the Bible:

    “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Too many Americans, chief among them Christians, are living hellish lives and expecting heavenly results. And when they do not get their way, they blame everyone and everything except themselves. I want to share a quote from my pastor that became the impetus for this week’s newsletter at Aletheia Group (http://tinyurl.com/3wyyzbf). Yesterday my pastor said in passing:

    In today’s society we are seeing people suffering the consequences of sin and they hate it.

As they say here in the South; “that’ll preach it!” And it did! How did we get to this point? Our pastor preached about the good and reasonable lies of Satan that Christians believe that always lead to some level of compromise. And with compromise always comes sin. You see, when you give into the desires of the flesh then you are going to suffer the consequences. However, if you will allow yourself to be lead by the Holy Spirit then you receive the eternal gifts Christ promised. It is part of the reaping and sowing:

    “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.” (Galatians 6:8)

You see beloved, whatever you plant in your life will eventually be harvested. Our nation is beginning to reap a wicked harvest because it has for too long sown wicked seed. Materialism in and out of American Christendom has been the present day snake oil salesman, promising us an abundant harvest if we will just compromise for good seed rather than excellent.

And it is only the beginning. If you think our nation’s debt problems and credit rating downgrade are bad, then as they say, “You ain’t seen nutin’ yet!” It is an eternal truth that bad sowing brings bad reaping:

    “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, ‘Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.” (Revelation 14:14-16)

Why are churches sinful, and are they actually sinful? If you are talking about the building, of course a building is not capable of committing a sin. The church of which I speak is the Body of Christ, and it is this church that is sinful. We have compromised on every major spiritual issue in the modern era and we, the church, are responsible for the state of affairs in America.

So what do we do? First, we need to clean up the junk in our own trunk.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2011 David Jeffers

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