For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds four-footed animals and reptiles.
Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.   Romans 1:21-24 HCSB

God created us to be like Him.  We were made in God’s image.  We were made to have dominion over the other creatures in the world (Genesis 1:26-27).  God gave us free will, however, and this is where we get into trouble.  We are free to worship God or not worship God.  We are free to indulge in every sinful desire that comes into our minds.  We are free to pray to God to deliver us from temptation and from evil.

I am free to devour an entire party-sized bag of M&Ms in one sitting if I want to.  It will probably make me really sick, but I am free to do it.  So you see where I am going here?  Indulging in our fleshly desires whether it is sexual sin, idolatry, unforgiveness , lying or any other sin brings us to a place where we don’t want to be.  The old saying is that sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.  So you are free to indulge in sin, but the end result is not good.

Praise God, he is not like us.  God is a patient God, a loving God, a merciful God, but he is also a wrathful God who is righteous and just.  God wants us to be saved.  He wants us all to go to heaven, but the choice is ours.  If we refuse to listen and refuse to give up our sinful ways, God will eventually give us over to our sin.  We can go to hell if that is what we choose to do.  We can spend eternity in the lake of fire.

If you are caught up in a sin that you just can’t see your way out of, then call out to God.  Trust Him to save you and provide the way out of this sin.  Trust Him to strengthen you to resist the devil.  If you know someone that is caught up in sin or even someone that just has not trusted Christ as their savior, talk to them.  Encourage them to seek God and put Him first in their life, before it’s too late.

Working with Probation and Parole I saw people who seemed to have no moral compass, no conscience.  Somewhere along the line, God gave them up to their own sin.  He gave them up to indulge in their own moral depravity.

This is why today I urge you to be so careful.  Sin starts off like a beautiful stream.  It looks so cool and inviting and you take your shoes off and step in and bam!  Before you know it, you are thrust over the waterfall and into a raging river where you are swept away by the current.  There is no such thing as just a little sin or just dabbling in sin.

Heroine is a big problem in our country today and the big problem with heroine is that it is instantly addictive from the first time someone uses.  It is physically and emotionally addictive.  First time users experience an emotional high that can never again be attained with repeated use so they use more and more trying to get that first high. When users go without heroine they become violently ill.  Sin is like that, you think just one time won’t hurt, but you are wrong.  It will pull you in. It’s highly addictive.

So today I encourage you to look at your life.  Are you doing things God’s way?  When we do things God’s way, we bring glory to Him.  We secure our eternity in heaven.  When we do things our way, we usually just make a mess of things and we end up being miserable.  Has God been dealing with you about the sin in your life?  Cry out to Him to help you remove that sin.  He is faithful to forgive you.  He will cleanse you and strengthen you against the devil’s temptations.

Have a great day!