1 Peter
When I was a kid, I had a hard time telling the truth. I would often resort to lying because I thought I could avoid being punished. My dad came home one day and found out that once again I was fibbing. Now as a parent I understand how my deceit was detected, then as an eight-year old I could never figure out how my parents knew I was guilty!
Faced with the reality I’d been caught, I admitted my error. Dad took his belt off and I grimly awaited the spanking I’d earned. But this was not to be a normal punishment. For next he removed his shirt. He picked up a paddle once used for bouncing a rubber ball on a string. Then he explained how much it hurt him that I would lie. He said that this time he was going to take my punishment for me. He then handed me the paddle, bent over the bed and told me to hit him. I couldn’t do it. He implored me again--firmly leaving no doubt that I was to administer the blows to his back.
After two blows to his back I was crying harder than I had ever wept for any pain I’d ever felt. I also learned a profound lesson that permanently changed my outlook toward lying.
God looked down from heaven discouraged with a world bent on doing evil. He sent His Son to earth so that we might see what holiness looked like. Jesus chose every time to do what pleased His Father. Innocent of any wrong doing, He willingly allowed Himself to be killed in the most shameful manner to rescue us from our most shameful condition. Why? Because God loves us. He loves us! He loves ussssssss!
If my reason not to sin is to be good, I will sin. My selfish nature is too strong. Holiness does not come by hating sin. Holiness comes by loving God. Why would I want to do what is wrong and hurt the One who sacrificed His Son to save me? That is truly something to think about . . . in
Inspiration
The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin: Jesus Christ deals with sin in Redemption. The conflict is along the line of turning our natural life into a spiritual life, and this is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be done easily. It is done only by a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense of character; He makes us holy in the sense of innocence, and we have to turn that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices.—Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest
