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Saturday, April 16, 2005
As a kid, I had an affinity for baseball. In my hometown, there was a storied minor-league team that played in an historic stadium. Willie Mays, one of the greatest players of all time, was raised in a suburb of my town. Cable came along and gave me a steady dose of the major leagues, showing me every game from the Cubs and the Braves.
This naturally led to an affinity for baseball cards. You know, the little rectangles with pictures of professional players on them? Like everybody else, I started out trying to get the ones of my favorite players...which is like a drug addiction, because then you try to get all the cards in each year's "complete set." Don't even get me started on the "updated" set that came out in September with the new rookies and traded players in their new uniforms.
Anyway, in March or April, the new cards would come out and I'd start saving dimes because I wanted to get new packs and such. Well, one Saturday morning, my dad had to run to a local hardware store to get a part for the lawnmower so I went along for the ride. When we got in there, for some strange reason, the hardware store carried baseball cards and they had the first box I'd seen that early spring.
And I didn't have any money.
My dad and the sales clerk had headed to the back of the store to find the part, and I really wanted the cards. My brain said, "Just take a pack or two. No one will ever even know."
I was saved at a young age and I've always had a real sense of right and wrong, and it's possible that it was the Holy Spirit telling me my next thought, "Don't take them. That's stealing. It's wrong."
We've all had those moments where it felt as if there was an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, each vying for our undivided attention. Most everyone, I think, has that "Jiminy Cricket" to our Pinnochio.
But then we have to make a choice...which is where Romans 6: 11--13 comes into play.
"Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
So, how do we make that choice to honor God?
The first thing is that we have to THINK. We "consider ourselves" dead to sin. It also has a positive side, too, that we consider ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. The idea here is pretty simple: Before we were saved, the "devil" on our shoulder seemed like a pretty good idea. It was "alive" to us. It seems like the best "life" would be making that particular choice. So, we're to remember that Christ came to give us an abundant life. The best life. We're to think that the "sin" is the lie, and make that "consideration."
The second thing we should do is realize that obeying our lusts is presenting yourself for unrighteousness. Our "mortal" lusts usually have to do with our senses. Those things that appeal to us are usually selfish...and we're not loving towards God or others. We can't control the thoughts that pop into our brain, which usually are our "mortal lusts" but we can control HOW we think about them, and realize they're unrighteous is a good second step.
Finally, there's a positive as well...that we make a choice to yield ourselves to God as an "instrument of righteousness."
That choice could be a pack of baseball cards.
That choice could be to keep your eyes on your own paper during a test.
That choice could be to take a drink at a party.
That choice could be to have sex with someone who isn't your wife or husband.
That choice could be to hit the website you know you shouldn't.
That choice could be to do what your parents asked of you.
That choice could be to drive faster than the law calls for.
Sin is fun. It appeals to us. It appeals to our lusts, whatever those might be.
But it's a lie.
And we have to make the choice moment-by-moment every day to yield to God or to please ourselves.
So, when you think about it, the ability to choose is another element of walking by the Spirit. For today, tell us about a time when you had a choice to make with the "devil/angel" on your shoulder and what you learned?
Brent 6:03 AM
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