Thoughts for another day

Feb. 13, 2008

Today's verse: James 4:1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

After you’ve fought with somebody and later having regrets and reflecting on the kind of grotesque person you turned into when fighting, you may end up thinking ‘What the heck was I doing? Was that I, fighting? Am I like that? Do I have such venom that turned me into that hateful figure that was screaming at my wife (if you were fighting with your wife)?’ And so on…

Now, what happened that turned you into that loathsome person from otherwise being, cool and calm? It’s what James says, ‘the lusts or the passions in you, make war within you’. There are tremendous forces of evil operating in the world that impact you. If for a moment, God were to show you the evil that the devil has spread on the earth, you would shudder in fright. But thank God for His Lamb and the shed blood of the Lamb, the evil stands conquered for all those that believe on the Name of Jesus. Nevertheless, by our siding with the evil one, who feeds on the passions we harbor and abets our sinning, we join with him in sinning and offending God.

The evil we see in the world is deep-rooted in the heart of man. Jesus says, “For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'” Each one of us however clean we think ourselves to be, harbor sin, deep inside; this is because of the first sin committed by man whereby, the nature of man is to sin. God tells Cain that sin, is a demon lurking at the door, but in doing well he could be his master. This is relevant for us too. The question is our ‘doing well’.

Now, the wages of sin is death says Paul in the letter to the Romans, but Jesus in His mercy, has obliterated the bond that was being touted by the devil in possessing our souls as a legal claim. Jesus has given us total redemption and made us once again children of His Father and our Father. What a glorious privilege to be called ‘Children of the Most High!’ How great this Jesus, the lover of our souls!!!