Patrish

Sin has such a power over us because it is our first nature to sin. I understand that, that is why we must be born again. To deal with sin we need the help of the Holy Spirit, who guides us into all truths, etc. We call on God to come to us, He does!! Near to us as He is, we may think it us doing it, but often times I believe by default, the WORD living in us causes us to literally turn away or quietly ignore or sometimes boldly charge against sin. When we fail, we are drawn into repentance which is such an intimate encounter with our LORD. We remain His bride, His child, His friend. We must go on and "live for righteousness" which again is the LORD in us doing it. Ps. 23:3 He guides me in the paths of rihteousness for His names sake. That kind of righteousness is, to me, when the LORD has His way in us. Often times it appears to be a circumstance that is a bit uncomfortable in the flesh. When I recall scripture, I see that it was HIM AGAIN!! PTL!!!

God will use our good deeds to speak to the unsaved. It blows them away to see us walk to our car carrying the Bible, etc. A bold statement is in us by simply living for Him. They know why we do good deeds. That's why it is difficult for some when we speak to them about Christ. Our simple actions (us unaware) are so-o loud, our light is so-o bright and our salt is quite tastey. They don't know what to think of us. It is imperitive that they see some measure of consistancy. Since our bold actions leave them speechless yet watchful, "blending in" actually disappoints the unsaved in their WATCHING phase.

What does Peter tell us to combat these lies? In 1 Peter 1:13 he says to prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled...We are like lambs -- we may not be aware of our enemy. Jesus has revealed to us our common enemy. The adversary lures us with an alterior motive, to cripple us and bring us to its level. Remember the curse given to it was 'you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust'. We must prepare our minds for action before we encounter this belly crawling, dust eating creature!! Often times we shut our eyes (powerful), we turn from evil and do good!! We simply say 'no' and we command it to STOP speaking to us with its' lies. Then we must 'set our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is reveald.' Meanwhile, the Carpenter and living Stone is building us like living stones!!