Cleanse Your Heart of Sin

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a wonderful devotional today
that I highly recommend to you.  He has given
me permission to copy his e-mails, and I'm sure
he would be happy if you would share this with
people you know as well.

Would you rather be wrapped up in sin . . . or
in goodness?  If you're not sure, this message
is for you.  If you would like to be focused on
goodness and don't know how, this message is also
for you!

Please read on.

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL   MONDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2006
(Jeremiah 17:9, Mark 7:20-23, 1 Corinthians 10:13,
Psalms 51:10, Romans 12:2)

How do you wake up in bed with someone.....who is
not your spouse?  Or, how do you find yourself with
a straw in your nose snorting lines of coke?  Or,
how do you start talking to someone and end up
telling horrible stories about someone else?  Or,
how do you walk into a store and leave with an
item you didn't pay for?  Or, how do you tell your
parents you are going one place and actually go to
the exact place they told you not to go?  How
does a person come to that place where they are
actually COMMITTING sin?

I can assure you that you didn't wake up and just
"end up" in bed with someone who isn't your spouse. 
I love the great line people use, "I didn't mean
this to happen," or, "it just happened."  No,
actually you DID mean it to happen and NOTHING "just
happens."  Sin is the ultimate act of selfishness
since by its very definition, sin is rebellion
against God.  Even though satan, the great justifier,
will give you lots of reasons you sinned to help you
ease the guilt, the fact is sin is literally you
saying to God, "not thy will but MY WILL be done!"

It would be nice if we sinned in a vacuum and we
were the only one we hurt, but that isn't the case. 
As we just learned we hurt God when we sin.  You
should know by now that when you sin you hurt
yourself.  Sin costs, and it costs you much more
than you ever expected to pay.  Sadly however, in
addition to hurting God and yourself, your sin
hurts others.  Let's just look at the sin of adultery
or fornication for example.  In addition to hurting
God and yourself, you hurt the person you sinned with,
you hurt your family, you hurt the family of the other
person, not to mention people in both of your lives
that may be affected by your sin.  This notion that
you only hurt yourself when you sin is just another
one of satan's lies!

Please be honest enough to admit that when you sin,
it was because you WANTED TO!  The reality is, you
had more than enough opportunities to NOT sin if you
really didn't want to.  Sin starts in our heart. 
Jeremiah the prophet proclaimed, "The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?"  It was our Lord and Savior Jesus
who said in Mark 7, "That which cometh out of the
man, that defileth the man.  For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All
these evil things come from within, and defile the
man."  That is why David prayed, "Create in me a
clean heart, O God" in the 51st Psalm.  The Bible
talks much about having a "new heart," a "clean
heart."

From the heart, sin then travels to our mind.  It
is in our mind where we "think" about our sin,
whether consciously or not.  This notion of running
out and sinning is sheer folly.  If you think back
on your sins, you will clearly remember those times
of actually thinking about or dwelling on your sin. 
The deeper we get into sin, the more time we spend
thinking about it.  Initially, our thoughts are about
the consequences of sinning, about whether we should
actually go through with it or not.  After we
physically commit the sin a few times, our thoughts
are more about the sin itself than stopping.  Again,
this is why the Bible talks to us extensively about
the "renewing of our mind."

This takes us back to the questions I asked you in
the very first paragraph. Once sin is born in our
heart, travels to our mind and is not stopped, the
physical act is inevitable.  If you let sin into
your heart, if you let it fester in your mind, the
chances of you having the "will power" to not
commit the physical act of sinning is very unlikely. 
The reality is and what you need to understand, is
that you have already sinned even before the physical
act occurs.  What happened in your heart and mind
is already sin.  That is why Jesus said if you lust
in your heart after another woman you have already
committed the act of adultery.  All the physical act
is, is the culmination of the sin you already committed.

I love you and care about you so much.  Now the good
news!  YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIN!  Let me say this loud
enough for the hard of hearing and even satan to hear, 
YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIN!!!  God CAN give you a new
heart.  God WILL help you to renew your mind.  God
DOES give you many opportunities to escape sin and
say no along the way.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIN!  Don't
let the enemy lie to you that you are too weak, YOU
DON'T HAVE TO SIN!  The fact is, God will give you
everything you need to live your life in obedience
to Him. Say it with me, I DON'T HAVE TO SIN!!!

This is why I share with you often how important
your daily relationship with the Lord through prayer
and the Word is.  The closer you are to the Lord,
the further you are from sin.  That is why it is so
important to "die to self" each day.  Again, when
it is Christ living and not us, sin has no part of
our life.  Also, never forget the great promise God
gives us in 1 Corinthians 10, "But when you are
tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it."  I can guarantee you without
any hesitation that if you think back on the sins
you have committed in your life, you can point to at
least one, maybe dozens of "escape routes" God
provided that you ignored.

I will be praying for you today.  Praying that you
realize you don't have to sin. However, if you want
victory over sin in your life, there are things
YOU must do.  A football team can't show up an hour
before the first game and expect to win.  They have
to put in hours and hours of hard work and practice
before the game to have any chance at victory.  The
same is true if you want victory over sin, you have
to work at it.  If you will spend time each day with
the Lord in prayer, if you will spend time each day
renewing your mind through His Word, if you will make
that commitment to die to self each day so that it
is Christ in control of your life, if when confronted
with sin you will take the escape routes God gives
you, you can live your life in obedience to God.  YOU
DON'T HAVE TO SIN!

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

***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

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(C) Copyright 2006, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved


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May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2006 Donald W. Mitchell