December 6 – Mourning Over Sin

        2 Peter 2:7, 8 – "....Lot, a righteous man, was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)...."

        We get a sense of Lot's predicament from reading Genesis 18, but we don't get the impactful statement above, until the Apostle Peter spells it out. In 2016, the Western world has grown to resemble Sodom and Gomorrah more and more. Even more so, society keeps drifting further from God as it doesn't take sin seriously any more, except in a few aspects. We, as children of God, should know better, however. If we have been saved out of our sinful states that were preventing us from drawing near to God, then we should constantly be growing to hate sin in our own lives, as well as grieve over the blindly sinful lives of the people around us.

        It is interesting to note that the righteous in Jerusalem who were sealed in the days of exiled Israel in Ezekiel 9:4 were those who "grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." Since the nation of Israel was a foreshadowing of the body of Christ, the direct correlation, then is to sinfulness within the church, the body. Also, from the hard-hitting book of James in chapter 4:8-10 , we are instructed to "come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Master, and he will lift you in due time."

        Wow!  It's time again, for me to examine myself, to see if my heart and attitudes align with God's desires above. May God change my heart to be broken for the sinful behavior in my life and in the lives of those around me who are blind.