Riding Shotgun

Sin is an interesting word…

Idea…

Concept…

This word paints many pictures in our minds, probably as many images as the minds that paint them.

What do you think when you hear the word sin?

My mind more often than not plays a game of hopscotch, jumping from concept to concept, analogy to analogy, verse to verse. It’s no longer a single image, but a symphony of images, a collage. It’s a sobering collage, and yet, in Christ, it’s not as disturbing as it used to be… and at the same time, it is.

We have lost reverence for God.  We have lost an appreciation for His holiness and His inability to participate with sin.

God is not our bro, our bud, our wing man, or the dude riding shotgun in our lives.  

He is either God, or He is not.

If he’s your bro, your bud, your wingman, or you have placed Him in the passenger seat of your car, he’s not God, he is a god of your own making. He is an idol, and you therefore, are an idol worshiper.

This may sound really judgmental, but for years and years, He was in the passenger seat of my car. He went where I wanted to go, and He went there silently because I never asked for his input.

Oh man! LORD help me, here I go.

I am a human. I am not God, obviously, however, there are places I will not go, things I will not do, and activities I will not participate in because I know that I’m called to be holy as He is Holy.

Stay with me…

I am not self-righteous.  I am fully aware that apart from Christ, if I were to stand before God to account for my life, the decisions I make, the places I go, the things I watch, the things I say, and for sure, the things I think, I COULD NOT stand.

It is only by the redeeming blood of Christ that any of us can stand before God justified. I love that word, justified. I once heard that it meant, “Just as if I’d never sinned.”  That is the power of the blood. It has the power to cleanse us of all unrighteousness and enables us to come boldly to the throne of Grace as God‘s children to receive help in our time of need, just as if we had never sinned.

We have perverted (pervert = to twist, distort, or turn away from God’s standard of truth, righteousness, and proper design) the idea of sin to mean, “something God suggests I don’t participate in, but won’t necessarily do much about if I do.” 

I have heard many people say things like, “I’m young. I can do what I want now and when I’m older, I’ll get more serious about walking in obedience.”  I’ve heard many people declare confidently that they don’t “feel” like God is going to judge them, so they are free to live how they choose.

Friends, tomorrow isn’t promised, and even if it is by Grace that we are saved, not of work so that no man can boast, the Word is clear!  God cannot and will not participate in sin, and He cannot and will not bless disobedience.

I don’t want to be content with the idea that I’ll be saved from hell for eternity. I want Jesus to say of me now, “Donna is my friend because she does what I command.” (John 15:14) and when I breathe my final breath, I want my first breath in eternity to be standing before God and hearing Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into the rest of the LORD.”

You can spend your life asking questions like, “How much can I miss the mark and still go to heaven?”  As for me, my only question is and will remain, “LORD, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?”