For Nathanael, it all began with those fashion
magazines his sisters would leave around the house. The female body held
mysteries for an adolescent boy. Soon, this gravitated to internet pornography
to the point of becoming a firmly embedded addiction. He never felt good about
himself afterwards. He would pray for forgiveness, but felt God was not there.
*****
Ann goes into the supermarket. When no one is
looking, she slips a bar of chocolate into her back pocket of her jeans. That
evening, she prays to God to help her win the lottery.
*****
Sharon, was an evangelical ‘Christian.’ She would
spend her days making sacrifices by going out preaching. However, at night, she
would call her friends and relate the latest gossip — Gossip that often
gravitated to slander.
There were considerable moments of doubt she often
felt about her relationship with God, but that soon diminished when she had
another day of preaching. After all, God would overlook the bad for the good,
she reasoned.
*****
Sin will always put distance between God and us.
When Jesus cured the young blind man in John chapter 9, in conversation with
the pharisees, the man replied, ‘We know that God does not listen to
sinners.’
How true, at Isaiah 59:2, we read, ‘It’s your sins that have cut you off
from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.’
We
find in 1 John 3:9 that John writes, ‘No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's
seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of
God.’
We will
always find a listening ear with God so long as we put away sin and practice
what is right.
'We know that God does not listen to sinners'
Consider,
For Nathanael, it all began with those fashion magazines his sisters would leave around the house. The female body held mysteries for an adolescent boy. Soon, this gravitated to internet pornography to the point of becoming a firmly embedded addiction. He never felt good about himself afterwards. He would pray for forgiveness, but felt God was not there.
*****
Ann goes into the supermarket. When no one is looking, she slips a bar of chocolate into her back pocket of her jeans. That evening, she prays to God to help her win the lottery.
*****
Sharon, was an evangelical ‘Christian.’ She would spend her days making sacrifices by going out preaching. However, at night, she would call her friends and relate the latest gossip — Gossip that often gravitated to slander.
There were considerable moments of doubt she often felt about her relationship with God, but that soon diminished when she had another day of preaching. After all, God would overlook the bad for the good, she reasoned.
*****
Sin will always put distance between God and us. When Jesus cured the young blind man in John chapter 9, in conversation with the pharisees, the man replied, ‘We know that God does not listen to sinners.’
How true, at Isaiah 59:2, we read, ‘It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.’
We find in 1 John 3:9 that John writes, ‘No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.’
We will always find a listening ear with God so long as we put away sin and practice what is right.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.