I remember as a young girl being told if I swallow my gum it would never digest. It would sit there in the pit of my stomach in perpetuity. Any new gum added would find its way there and there it would fester until my stomach finally bloated into eruption. A long painful but certain demise. This was enough to keep me from swallowing my gum. I passed this omen of truth down to my children. They don't swallow their gum either. My proof? Look no further than their bedposts. Rocks of solidified molten casts.
A meager price I pay for getting into their heads early. Scared straight sin-proofing.
That is the way sin-proofing happens right? Scared straight tactics. Once a friend told me she was 100% sure her husband would never cheat on her. I asked how she could be so decidedly certain, at least 99.9% was more in order. She said nope 100%. "I have him convinced that cheating is the single unforgivable sin in our relationship. He believes in his every 37,2 trillion cells that I will leave him if he cheats. I probably wouldn't but I have to make sure he continues to believe it. It keeps him coming home to me." Yikes! Sin-proofing.
I received a check in the mail a few months back just shy of $30,000; payment for services rendered as a business consultant. Honest days pay for an honest days work I called it. Well kind of. As it was, this check was the second in the exact amount I had been paid for the same honest days work. It was sent by accident, undiscovered by its signatory. I looked at that check for three whole days. I moved it around my office. Took it home. Put it in my purse. Took it out of my purse. Placed it on the kitchen counter top. Sat it atop of the bible waiting for a sign. My sin-proofing tested in full bloom. On the fourth day, I closed my eyes and I acted.
We live in a world of loop-holes, constantly sniffing out work-around excuses for obstinate behaviors in our life. We strive for air pockets to our sinful behavior. Nobody wants to own the sin. It is a very difficult thing to do. Who wants to admit to being aberrant? I don't. And aren't there just so many times you can lean on the cross after sinning? The bible says no there are not. However, it also says go now and sin no more (John 8:11) after forgiveness is given. How do you ever get comfortable double-dipping at the cross for the same purposeful sin time and time again? At some point, I imagine Jesus saying, "Whoa wait a minute here, you've got some splaining to do!"
My point I think is this. Sin-proofing should not be done out of an act of absolute fear or fear of losing something/someone or fear of being caught. Sin-proofing should be done out of a love of self, a love of Christ and a love of your fellow man.
Post script, of course I returned the money. Was there any doubt? This time at least, I returned the money. When you are given the answer you are seeking it is your duty to abide by the truth in it.
A meager price I pay for getting into their heads early. Scared straight sin-proofing.
That is the way sin-proofing happens right? Scared straight tactics. Once a friend told me she was 100% sure her husband would never cheat on her. I asked how she could be so decidedly certain, at least 99.9% was more in order. She said nope 100%. "I have him convinced that cheating is the single unforgivable sin in our relationship. He believes in his every 37,2 trillion cells that I will leave him if he cheats. I probably wouldn't but I have to make sure he continues to believe it. It keeps him coming home to me." Yikes! Sin-proofing.
I received a check in the mail a few months back just shy of $30,000; payment for services rendered as a business consultant. Honest days pay for an honest days work I called it. Well kind of. As it was, this check was the second in the exact amount I had been paid for the same honest days work. It was sent by accident, undiscovered by its signatory. I looked at that check for three whole days. I moved it around my office. Took it home. Put it in my purse. Took it out of my purse. Placed it on the kitchen counter top. Sat it atop of the bible waiting for a sign. My sin-proofing tested in full bloom. On the fourth day, I closed my eyes and I acted.
We live in a world of loop-holes, constantly sniffing out work-around excuses for obstinate behaviors in our life. We strive for air pockets to our sinful behavior. Nobody wants to own the sin. It is a very difficult thing to do. Who wants to admit to being aberrant? I don't. And aren't there just so many times you can lean on the cross after sinning? The bible says no there are not. However, it also says go now and sin no more (John 8:11) after forgiveness is given. How do you ever get comfortable double-dipping at the cross for the same purposeful sin time and time again? At some point, I imagine Jesus saying, "Whoa wait a minute here, you've got some splaining to do!"
My point I think is this. Sin-proofing should not be done out of an act of absolute fear or fear of losing something/someone or fear of being caught. Sin-proofing should be done out of a love of self, a love of Christ and a love of your fellow man.
Post script, of course I returned the money. Was there any doubt? This time at least, I returned the money. When you are given the answer you are seeking it is your duty to abide by the truth in it.
“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,”
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