In search of God

Mark 9: 43-48 “And i f your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed, than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye makes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” How can your hands make you sin you ask, by taking things that do not belong to you or writing things that are untrue about someone online. What about your legs you might ask, by taking you to places that you know you shouldn't be going. What about your eyes, looking at things ...

Ezekiel 18:20, ‘The soul who sins is the one who will die.’ The world has led us to believe that so long as everyone is doing something then it is right, that corporate sins remove responsibility from us. But this is a lie; everyone will pay for their own sins. If you do not live a life dedicated to loving God and your fellow man, only you will be guilty of your rebellion. No one can and will share your guilt. Your righteousness will be credited to you as your wickedness will be credited to you. God is just and will not punish you for the sins of another, therefore rebuke generational curses that have been laid upon your family for in the new covenant you are free from them. Believer, you are covered with the righteousness by faith, therefore through your faith this righteousness will be credited to you. Do not allow yourself to be deceived by the world, just because everyone is doing it, does not make it right before God.

Exodus 33:3, ‘…But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.’ On my own I am nothing but a wretched sinner not worthy to be in the presence of the Lord. I try to live a right life but I do what I do not want to do and do not do what I want to do. Left to myself, to my own devises, I face certain death and am doomed to destruction for the Lord is not with me. I am arrogant, selfish, all alone. I deserve death, my full pay for my scorn is eternal shame. I thought I had nothing to look forward to but doomed to burn in the lake of fire, that is until I was told about Jesus, how He set aside His divinity and came to live like a lowly creature He had created, how He faced scorn and God’s righteous judgment at the cross for all my sins, how He had redeemed me, how He had interceded on my behalf finding a ransom for me, how he had lifted me out of my death pit and lifted me to heaven and how now I have a received a gift, something that ...

Psalm 53:1-3, ‘The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt and their ways are vile; there is no-one who does good. God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no-one who does good, not even one.’ The human nature is carnal in nature; that is to say that it is ruled by selfishness, arrogance, pride, jealousy, envy where we are more or only concerned with ‘number one’ than with the needs and feelings of others. Still unconvinced? Just look at the selfish behavior of small children that have not yet been socialized with a sense of right or wrong and you will notice that are only concerned with their own needs. This is the sinfulness of the human nature where we justify many a great atrocities in the name of the meeting our needs or ‘rights’ as we like to call them. Some of these ‘rights’ that we say are inalienable and fundamental are sim...

Psalm 51:1-13, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to yo...

Isaiah 42:5-7, ‘This is what God the Lord says – He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breadth to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness…”’ This is the good news to the world, that we are no longer slaves to sin, we are no longer captives to Satan, sitting in the darkness of sin but have been called to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He calls out to us, asking us to place our hand in His in trust and let Him guide our steps, to be the master of our lives. Jesus Christ is our light, lighting the path for us so that we may be credited in righteousness for His name’s sake. Through Him we have access to the th...

Psalm 32:1-2, ‘Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. Under the throne of grace, God promises to not only forgive us for our sins but to also blot them out from memory. Our slate is wiped clean as though we had never sinned. Isn’t that a great blessing my friends? This now gives us the confidence to approach God’s throne because we are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ and we can ask for anything from God and expect to receive it.

Mathew 5:28,29, ‘But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Jesus gave us the real interpretation of the law against adultery that He gave to us at the mount through Moses. Even looking at a woman lustfully is adultery because as a man thinks so he is. Most of us try to legalize sin and for those of us in marriages do the same in regards to adultery. We call it ‘cheating’, and say if I flirt or if I admire or if I only touch am not cheating, after all I did not sleep with him/ her, it was only harmless fun, yet we do not realize the harm it is doing to our marriage. Pornography and to some extent strip clubs also damages the relationship between couples in a marriage as we start to fantasize about the people we saw and what they were doing and event...

Jobs 35:6-8, ‘If you sin, how does that affect Him (God)? If your sins are many, what does that do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.’ Most of us tend to think that by not sinning we are doing God a favor but to think of it, how does it affect Him if we kill, steal, rob, commit, adultery and all manner of sins. It only men like you that you are causing harm to that are feeling the effects of your sins but God loves each one of us immensely and it grieves Him when we hurt each other. There is no way that you can claim to love God yet you hate your fellow man, it is just absurd and duplicitous because you cannot harbor both feelings in your heart at the same time and a true testament of a believer of Christ is love for your fellow man.

1 Peter 1:13-15, ‘Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;’ When Jesus was crucified at the cross, He saved us from the penalty of sin which is death. Our sins were forgiven not because we were righteous or we deserved it, but we were credited righteous by the Father because we placed our faith and hope in Him. On His resurrection, He has given us power over sin, we now have the power to overcome and resist temptation. Most of us who believe do not however appreciate this and we continue to live as we did in our former lives, cowering and despairing, feeling hopeless and succumbing to temptations all the while having the power over all things of this world that we access through Him who was given this authority. Our holiness is...