It's A Mistake

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners ?"  But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. "But go and learn what this means : 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  Matthew 9:11-13

With only a couple of weeks into 2019, I have made my first big mistake at work for the new year.  I am certainly not proud or boasting here, just accepting the fact that I am only human and make mistakes; in fact, I make a lot of them; all of the time, daily it seems...

One of the most common misconception about Christians in that all believers should be perfect.  Many of us go to extremes to pretend that we have every facet of our lives in order, but the truth is that while we are all forgiven, we all  still have many shortcomings.

Salvation through Christ doesn't change the fact that sin is still present in our lives.  When we become believers, God forgives us and sees as righteous.  We must continue to renew ourselves and fight the ongoing battle against sin while we are on this earth.

We must be careful not to put up a facade and cover up our shortcomings so that we appear to be “good Christians” to the outside world.  Instead, we must recognize and confess to God, our sinfulness, so that we can be forgiven when we do screw up and fall short of his glory.

Pure

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth!  Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.  Psalm 86:11

We received quite a bit of citrus fruit for Christmas and in my humbled opinion, there is nothing better than a fresh grapefruit or seedless orange for breakfast.  We left an over-ripe banana on the counter near some of the oranges and grapefruit, so a few days later,  some of the fruit had spoiled when we came home from all of our holiday travels.

Sin works in our lives much the same and just like bad fruit, it doesn’t take much to spoil the whole bunch.  The good news is that Jesus’ death on the cross served as an atonement for our sins-past, present, and future.  When we accept His love offering, we are made clean and pure again in God’s eyes.  Keep in mind, that this is something we simply couldn’t accomplish on our own.

When you humbly ask God to forgive you, he removes the contamination of your sin and purifies you once again!