The Devotional – 1435 – Conduct

The Devotional – 1435 – Conduct

A quote from Billy Sunday - I believe that a long step toward public morality will have been taken when sins are called by their right names.

Comments and challenges

Proverbs 14:34 – Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach (shame or disgrace) to any people. As time pushes forward it is as if the tines of plow of the wicked are digging in deep. Proverbs 20:4 – Paraphrased: The prideful look on the face of worldly people, the contempt and arrogant acts of undisciplined men and women is a visible picture of our world today. I found it interesting that the word for “plowing” means a lamp, this means to me that if the righteous take the time to look into the eyes of the unbeliever, the light in eyes will reveal Romans 1:18-23.

This is a serious issue, as many so called believers and unbelievers fall victim to the remaining words of Romans 1:24-32. It is easy for us to allow the world to gloss over the issues of sin; recently I heard of a believer in Jesus Christ who thought that same sex marriage was nothing more than the trend of another minority movement that would soon be accepted. STOP! It is already accepted! The issue is serious because once sin is accepted into a society; the nation’s integrity (infrastructure) begins to crumble.

(Let me stop for a moment – just out the window where my office is that faces due east is today’s sunrise and it demonstrates the “Awesomeness of the Creator” – Thank you LORD for eyes to see Your Beauty).

What is infrastructure? Roads, power plants, transportation, military, government, communication and so on! As simple as I can say it – our roads are filled with rage, our power plants fail daily and demand more revenue, public transportation is filled with terror, crime and the rising costs of fuel, our military is weaken with sins of immoral conduct; (hetero and homosexual), our government is full of corruption and public communication is full of commercials that drug the listener and into a comma of moral unrestraint.

Yes God is in control and truly I am so thankful that He is. But it is a bit aggravating, when I hear comments from believers that are in neutral or reverse when it comes to the issue of national SIN. I do believe this happens when a person’s mindset is, “well you know, I am not affected by what the world does and if it is of God Will, who can stop it?” Bosh Humbug! First; God is in control as I said earlier, He has a Perfect Will that often overrides the will of mankind, but the LORD God also has a Permissive Will that will give over mankind to the abominations of his heart.

Even the believer is subject to both Wills of God, we certainly do not have a seating in the grandstand to watch as the angels do – 1 Peter 1:12; we are active participants in the world to do good and to be a witness of Jesus Christ who personally bore our sin and the sin of the world. Both national and personal sin is covered in the Blood of Christ, therefore the apostle Paul should not stand alone with the following words.

Romans 1:16-17 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed form faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith. 

Today, we as believers, we are too cozy with the world and today we only agree with the words of Paul and what is our common reply when we get the chance to tell the old, old story? “Yes, I had the opportunity to mention to that person that I have faith, but…” you can fill in the results and if you are like me, you have little comfort in the results because you failed to use the power of the Holy Spirit and that would be “confidence in the power of God that brings salvation to all of mankind”. God has done His part, we on this side of Glory; well… maybe you are an exception!