God has always taken sin seriously, both in the Old Testament and the New. As God led Moses to begin the system of temple worship, two of Aaron’s sons attempted to carry out their new priestly duties with sinful, perhaps prideful, attitudes and were killed instantly. The text says they “offered profane fire before the Lord.”
In the book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira lied to Peter about their offering and dropped dead. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul said some believers had died prematurely because they failed to take seriously Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus Himself called us hypocrites when we fail to examine our own lives instead of pointing out the wrongs in everyone else’s.
These were intended to be strong warnings to the people of their day and ours. And speaking of warnings, Proverbs has plenty of them, too. Today’s reading exposes an invitation that is repeatedly sent out to us all. But it’s one to which only a fool RSVPs.
Jesus gave a pretty serious warning in Matthew 7 when He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven …” There are people, sitting in church every Sunday, who believe they are headed for heaven when they’re really in danger of hearing the words, “I never knew you, depart from me …” In today’s post, you’ll find out what does and doesn’t save you so you’ll never hear those words.
Also, read about the importance of making sure we see clearly before we can be of any help to others and what it really means to build your house on the Rock. Finally, from our Old Testament reading, we’ll talk about how some sins like homosexuality cry out for God’s judgment and what God expects of us in the meantime.
Last week I shared about something that happened almost 20 years ago that rocked my walk with God and my husband’s, as well. The change that God did through it eventually rippled out into every part of our lives. Today I’m going to talk about a principle that will not only rock our lives personally but will lay the foundation for understanding and obeying the other principles we find in God’s Word.
