Daily Devotional for Wednesday January 16, 2013

Sin Costs More than You Want to Pay

(Romans 6:23)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, what does "don`t give pearls to swine" mean.

ANSWER: It means that we don't need to tell people who have rejected the Truth of the Bible, the Truth of the Bible. That is because their heart is hardened and they don't want to hear or accept what the Bible says.

As I have watched the various high-profile-legal cases in the news, I can hear Paul standing before the people of his day declaring, "The wages of sin is death!!!"

A reoccurring point I make many times every week is that sin has a HUGE price tag. Sin is like having a Platinum American Express card with no limit and spending all day shopping on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. You can buy anything you want no matter how much it costs. You come home with new clothes, shoes, jewelry, appliances, furniture, artwork, and anything else you wanted to buy. Then one day, the bill comes in the mail.

You open it and all of a sudden the reality hits that YOU NOW HAVE TO PAY FOR ALL OF THE THINGS YOU BOUGHT! Your sin will always cost more than you ever wanted to pay!!!

When you open your life to sin, one sin begets another sin, and you end up doing things that you would never imagine doing. Never forget, sin is a choice and always costs more than you ever wanted to pay. Never forget, sin is a choice and always costs more than you ever wanted to pay.

One of the beautiful things about the Bible is that it does not hide the sins of even those men who did great things for God. It documents the consequences of their sins, showing that even those of great faith, who do great things for God, must pay the price when they make the choice to sin.

I love you and care about you so much. I am warning you that sin is not free . . . it costs! I am sure we can all look back at the sins we chose to commit in our own life and see the high price we paid for those sins. Don't forget, sin is a choice. You CHOOSE to sin. The next time you are confronted with the choice to sin or not, remember, it is not a matter of if you will pay a price for your sin, only a matter of how much of a price you will pay.

In the end, it is never worth it. Whatever temporary benefit you received from your choice to sin is quickly replaced by the permanent scar that sin will always leave!!!

I will be praying for you today. Praying that you choose NOT to sin as you are confronted with that choice each and every day. It simply is not worth it. Also, never forget that you don't sin in a vacuum. There is a ripple effect from sin that touches many innocent people.

When you choose to sin, it is like the performer on the old Ed Sullivan Show who would spin the plates on 8 poles. He would get all 8 plates spinning at once then have to go back to the first one and get it going again then the next one and the next. Eventually, all 8 plates would end up crashing to the floor broken into many pieces. You can only sin so long before you have to deal with the consequences of your sin.

My word to you today is simple. You have choices to make every day. You choose to sin or obey God. Let me leave you with the last part of Romans 6:23, "But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The choice you make is literally one of life and death. The choice to sin brings death, the choice to follow the Lord brings life!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller