Daily Verse: 1 John 3:6

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Sin is a nasty beast. Sin destroys relationships, crushes marriages, brutalizes friendships…places parent and child as adversaries, husbands and wives and enemies, brother and sister as foes. Sin causes one person to strike another, beat another, take the life of another. Sin causes us to lust for things that are not ours…to embrace jealousy, envy, and desire…to always think the grass is greener on the other side. Sin crushes our confidence, leaving an insecure pile of mess in its wake. Sin breeds hate, judgment, ridicule, and scorn. Sin causes us to judge, persecute, and hate first instead of accept, love, and embrace. Sin causes arrogance, pride, and haughtiness…where we see the wrong in others but are blinded to the blemishes in our own lives. Sin strangles, stomps-out, smashes, consumes, suffocates, separates, and defeats. Absolutely nothing good comes from sin. It may seem good initially, but the good is false…it will eventually be followed with darkness, a downfall, a defeat. Now check Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”….and 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”. How’s that for a reality check? We are all prisoners to sin…prisoners to all the nasty mess described above. Susceptible to the pain and anguish that comes from a life consumed by the darkness of sin. Where’s the hope? Where’s the solution, the rescue, the ability to overcome the head lock we find ourselves in? It comes through one Man…through the one Savior…Christ and Christ alone. Literally a lifesaving gift we have found in our Lord Jesus Christ. For through him, we have rescue, salvation, hope, strength, security, power, mercy, and grace. With Christ, we can be the ones to overcome, defeat, and destroy…we can extinguish, crush, and smother the nastiness of sin in our lives. Before Christ, we were helpless, weak, incapable of overcoming sin. After Christ, the tables have turned…for he defeated sin and death for us…he paid the price, took the punishment, and rose victorious. So that no matter what darkness we may find ourselves in today, there is a light that we can cling to. No matter what we did wrong yesterday, there is renewal, restoration, and hope for today…through faith in him we can change our lives, moving from sin to righteousness! To God be the glory!