Daily Devotional for Wednesday May 15, 2013

Consequences of Sin

(Proverbs 11:21)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, when attending church last Sunday I found out that my church is promoting Rick Warren's "40 Days in the Word" program for our church home study groups, After hearing all the New Age heresies he's bringing to the churches this got me pretty upset. Then I was watching Jack Van Impe and he showed a news report about Rick Warren calling God Allah and cozying up to Muslims. What should I do?

ANSWER: I have been warning people for the past decade about Warren's man-made Purpose Driven marketing scheme and subsequent "plans" that have destroyed many churches and is designed to fill pews with warm bodies, not converts. I have also detailed over the years his unGodly associations to enable him to pursue his global social agenda, including his fear of telling the truth about Islam. I find it sad that ANY church has to use materials from someone else. It simply tells me the pastor and staff are too lazy to get their own vision from God for their church. A church is NOT a McDonalds franchise, though people like Warren would like you to think so, and that they are the owner of the franchise! Pray, I know God will guide you what to do.

Consequences of sin. The destructive nature of sin is that it does not happen in a vacuum. I hear many say that it is my sin, my problem. Unfortunately, that is not true. When you sin, it is like throwing a pebble into a still pond. There is the initial ring it produces, but slowly the ring spreads out, and it gets bigger and bigger and produces more rings inside it.

The initial pebble may not have been that much and the initial ring may have started small, but in the end it has grown to encompass a very large area. The point I am trying to make is that sin is not just your problem. At the very least, your sin is against God first and yourself second. Almost always though, it involves other people that you are either sinning with or sinning against.

I do not have to tell any of you about the pain, heartache, and problems that evolve from our sin, the lives we injure, the lost trust from those we care about. The damages are great. On top of everything else though, we end up missing the blessings of God. God has blessings beyond our ability to imagine for each one of us.

He loves to bless His children. But God cannot and will not bless disobedience. On top of everything else, your sin is keeping you from enjoying the blessings of God. We are so stubborn, so full of ourselves, that we usually try to do things our way, ignoring what God has to say. We accept at best some very little, temporary pleasure from our sin, and miss the greater blessings God has for us if we had been obedient. The Bible tells us that to "obey is better than sacrifice."

I want to encourage you today to pray about whatever sin there may be in your life today. I want to pray for you as well, for God to strengthen you and give you the courage to walk away from your sins and into obedience to His word. I want to encourage you to leave behind the temporary pleasures of sin for the eternal joy of obeying our Lord.

There is no greater joy than when you are in obedience to what God has asked, knowing that He is as proud of you as a father or mother is of a child who is obedient. Being obedient is the ultimate act of a child of God saying not my will Father, but thy will be done. As a believer, our ultimate objective should be to enter heaven one day and hear God proclaim, "Well done thou good and faithful servant."

I love and care about you. Thank you all for praying for this work. We are seeing God move in people's lives daily. I am praying for you and believing God for your needs. Never hesitate to email me if I can help in any way. May his richest blessings be with you today as we work to become the obedient children God has called us to be.

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller