The Affections of Sin - Part III - Salt Your Fields of Sin

Let’s look at one more use for salt in the times of the biblical period. When a city was destroyed it was sown with salt as a token that it would not be inhabited again. When a land has been saturated with salt it becomes sterile and a product of barrenness. When it comes to our lives have we sown salt on the fields of sin in our soul to make it barren to the reaches of sin? Think to yourselves about that one sin that so easily entangles. How can you soak it with the salt of God’s Word to destroy sins reach upon you?  For when sin reigns, it not only enslaves the sinner but also places shackles of pain on the loved ones.  How many of us have said that our sin affects no one else but ourselves. Have we filled our own ears with this bitter deception that we have become fools to believe it? Think back to the last section in which you thought of those who have been a warning to us. Do you think that no one was hurt except the one who had fallen? If we believe that then we will fall for even more deceptions that chain our soul to sin. How many men and women in scripture sinned against God and no one else was affected? But does not scripture states that it will visit the third and fourth generations? It does more than visit; it comes to stay as it did for Lot’s wife. She disobeyed God and her whole family paid the price. Do you think that the family was not affected by sin? Let’s see what happened to the family after her absence. “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father." So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father." So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.” [Genesis 19:32-38 (ESV)] The sin of incest committed by the two daughters of Lot created a long history of trouble between the children of Abraham and the children of Lot. 

Has your family been ravaged by alcoholism, drug addiction, or other forms of dysfunction? Maybe your family has not discovered those in past generations but maybe something smaller as a degree of separation between relatives. The effects of slander, malice, anger, strife and jealousy can even destroy a family just as much as an addiction can. Seen and unseen sins destroy the character of a family if left unchecked. So look at your own family’s history, has there been a sin that has entangled the generations of your family? Or has there been a consequence of your own sin that has brought deep division in your own relationships. I don’t think that there is one family in this world that sin has not affected down the line of the generations. But the idea is not to point the finger and blame others for our lot in life. The idea is to take a look at how sin does affect our lives and the lives of those who we deeply love. How it has cut off the true nature of love within our own families. And how we need to take responsibility for our actions and look to God to help us to change. We can be a godly influence to bring God’s blessing upon our family instead of a curse that will entwine our loved ones into a deeper life of regret. We need to look at the consequences, not just in our immediate lives but in those that we will hurt by what we do and don’t do for them. Just as love covers a multitude of sin, sin can cover a multitude of love by separation, hurt and a growing sense of despair. Don’t listen to the whispers of the deceiver that says, “no one else will get hurt.” Because if that were true then why are there so many broken families and relationships in the world today. We are called to love one another, to be tender hearted and to forgive one another as God does for Christ sake. Maybe it’s time that we also remember the ripples in the water that one-drop makes. And know that each life, whether good or bad effects those around them. If we truly love those around us we will treat them as we say we do. Looking before we leap into the den of sin, what will you pass onto the next generation, your salvation or your sin? Are you ready to Salt you fields of Sin?

The Affections of Sin – Part II - Monuments and Direction

“Now I saw, that just on the other side of this plain, the Pilgrims came to a place where stood an old monument, hard by the highway-side, at the sight of which they were both concerned, because of the strangeness of the form thereof; for it seemed to them as if it had been a Woman transformed into the shape of a Pillar.”[1]

When we look at the times of our lives in this world do we see monuments that are warnings to us about the effects of sin? Warning signs posted on the road to give us apt instruction to what we need to avoid on the way. Maybe they are old stories of those whom have fallen away from the faith by being turned out of the way of righteousness. Could these signs be friends or family members who have allowed their lives to be controlled by sin in such a way that you see it as an example in which you desire not to tread. And have you been a warning to others by the scares of what sin has done in your own life during your times of turning away? When you think of Lot’s wife we need to remember that she didn’t disappear, but the pillar of salt was a warning to those for generation on of what happens to those who turn away from God’s will. Maybe not as a physical monument but a monument of words written and read by generations who knew of her story. I am sure we all have heard such stories in our families, churches, and or our communities about people who have turned from what is good in their life to what would later destroy them. Some might want to forget about them but I think we need to remember them, not to look down on or laugh at, but to listen to their warnings that whisper to us in the dark times of our temptation. A bad example sometimes can be a better teacher then those who have never fallen away. Because they show us that sin has a terrifying affect on the lives it comes to take and destroy. A sign of what will happen if we decide to follow the same path that they chose. They are all monuments not of great accomplishments but signs that scream “STAY CLEAR”; ones that help us see the pitfalls that await our souls if we would not listen to their counsel.

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[1] John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Oxford University Press, New York, Copyright 1984, 

The Affections of Sin - Part 1 - Our True Affection

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.  Genesis 19:24-26 (ESV) 

When we think of disobedience in our own life, do we see what it turns us into? Or do we see it as something that we tolerate in our Christian walk? How many times do we turn from the wisdom of God unto another path that looks more desirable? Much like Lot’s wife who looked back to sin affectionately and long for its return. Think about the one sin you allow in your life that you wish were not there. The one that plagues your existence and that you return to often. The one you desire to rid yourself of and to no longer associate with. We all have one, it may be different from person to person but its there, waiting for us, in the dark. We may not admit it to others but if it where not so then why do we allow it to pull us back so often. Our desires have two ways to be pulled, we will have an affection for God or we have affection for sin.  While the Spirit desires to serve the Living God, the flesh desires to serve the throne of sin. The question is which one will we call Lord. Let’s take a deeper look at our entangled dance with sin.

It is very interesting when we think about Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt when we see how salt was viewed by eastern cultures of that day. It seems she was turned into a product that had the qualities that she lacked in her own character. Salt was used to purify, to sustain and as an antiseptic in ancient times. As we look back at Lot’s wife we see a woman whose heart was not pure because when she looked back, she did it longingly a desire for the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. When we see Sodom and Gomorrah we see the sin of sexual immorality, one that scripture calls us to flee from. But when it comes to that sin, how many times do we flee, and when we do are we just as guilty as Lot’s wife, looking back affectionately? As with her is also true with us, she needed to rely on God to sustain her through her temptation of looking back, and to cleanse her heart as an antiseptic cleanses the mouth; and to keep her pure from future temptations that she might struggle with. She most likely lived as one that was double-minded, desiring to move past the problems of life but not enough to change. She walked forward to a new life but looked back longingly to her old way of life. As we read in James 1:8: (ESV) “he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” If we live as she did we will also be unstable in all we do, never getting past what desires to destroy us the most. We can look at her example and look at our own lives and see how we are in the same position as her. Ask yourself, where do you look back and long for sins return? Maybe you don’t look back at all but look forward to it. Are we still drawn away by its allurement and deceitfulness? Do you still listen to its promises of abundance with little returns of pleasure? I think we are all guilty of this in our lives. We need to be honest with God and ourselves to what extent we are drawn into sin and see how it really affects our relationship with God. 

Another quality that salt was seen as in ancient times was that it was an emblem of fidelity. We see how Lot’s wife was not faithful totally to God’s call. She went with her husband but her heart was still in Sodom and Gomorrah. I believe she looked back to what she desired the most. She was still longing for her old home even if it would mean destruction. Like us, she was one whose heart wanted two different things at the same time. But one of them has a high price to pay. What in your life will you give up for everything? What will you allow to destroy part of your life? Will it be sin to alienate your relationship to God? Or will it be a relationship to Christ to destroy your longing for sin? Only you can answer that question.

The Cross of Brokenness

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalms 51:17

When you hear the word brokenness, what comes to mind? When you think of going through it, living in it, and accepting your brokenness in your life how do you handle it? Do you want to run from it? Avoid it? Or accept it and walk through it? It would be safe to say a majority of people want to avoid it. Very few of us want to embrace the brokenness in our lives. We tend to avoid the hurts, pains, and disappointment that comes with life. All of us have a choice when it comes to a time of brokenness. That is when we must decide what to do when it comes upon us. We can blame others for it in our lives. We can run to sins that can become an addiction and pleasures to escape the hurt that is connected with our brokenness. We can also  blame God for it. When we do run from brokenness we also run from the One who has the power to help us through it. In my own life when I have ran from brokenness it has returned over and over again, because I didn’t learn from the experience. God desires for me to walk through it with Him, but I choose not to. I needed to accept the brokenness but also to embrace them.

I want to look at three things we can do with brokenness. First, what are the consequences when we run from brokenness. Second, what can we learn from from our brokenness. Third, how can we look to and depend on God in our time of brokenness.

Consequences may be a hard word to swallow when we think of the brokenness in our lives; some brokenness is not from our own doing. People hurt us, they use us and they leave us. They also disappoint us and unintentionally abandon us. So how can we use the word consequences with brokenness? Before I go any further let’s hold that thought for a moment. Let us also acknowledge that there is also brokenness that we cause. Through sins of selfishness, desires to protect us emotionally, hurting of others and keeping God at bay. One or another of these areas can cause our brokenness. Sometimes it can be a combination of both. We get hurt and disappointment and we give it back to them, whether it is intentionally or unintentionally. Hurt can be like a Ferris wheel that keeps going around and around. It doesn’t usually stop until one gets out, stopping the cycle of hurt and disappointment.

Now go back to the word consequences. We can suffer from the consequences of others hurting us or by our own consequences of our own self-centeredness. We can suffer from revenge, envy, strife, jealousy, abandoning others and abandoning our relationship with God. These all are consequences that we can and do suffer from. I do understand them from my own life experiences. However, these are not the consequences I want to discuss. I want to look at the consequences we have in our lives when we avoid our brokenness. Think about a time, and that time might be right now. How you didn’t face a broken time in your life. It may be a brokenness of emotions, brokenness of loss, or a brokenness of living without the love you need or desire in your life. Did avoiding such brokenness through busyness, avoidance of feeling the emotions, or running to someone, or something besides God for comfort really work? Maybe you don’t see brokenness in your life, or that you didn’t run from it, I am not saying that you have. Only God knows the truth, ask God to show you a time when you ran from the pain.

For years I ran from my brokenness in my life, not that I still don’t but in one area of my life I kept blaming others, blaming God and running to other pleasures to fill the emptiness. Emptiness is what brokenness brings us too, whether the emptiness is already there or it is filled with things that we use besides relationships with others, and our relationship with God. Brokenness in our lives brings this emptiness to the surface. It has always showed me how empty and bankrupt I truly am in my pursuit for things besides God. The reason I was made aware that it was a serious problem was I kept having this issue happen over and over. May be the word issue isn’t the right word to use, but the word lesson. God allows this lesson to happen to me over and over again. Every time the pain came up and the feelings of abandonment happened, I felt God gently say to me, “you’re the one running away.” I could feel my blood pressure rising and my fist clinching. Saying to Him, “It’s not me, it is them.” Even though I felt convicted in my spirit, I violently opposed the idea that it was me. Year after year I would be brought to the same point and never get past it. The relationships would end at the same point and I would place all the blame on them. God and I would have the same conversations over and over again. I would go through the same pain, the same hurt, and the same disappointment. So what did I do about it? I am sure you probably know. I avoided relationships all together. It was an easy way of avoiding the pain I had suffered before, the removal of the variable that I believed caused it. Did it work? Well I thought it did. So instead of disappointment, I traded it in for loneliness. Instead of hurt from others, I turned it in for the hurt of isolation. Instead of emotional pain, I swapped in for a loveless numbness. This went on for three years until one day, I found myself interested in someone. All those fears, expectations and desires came back which I taught I had covered up and concealed so well from myself. I was brought back to the same lesson once again. The “what if’s” ran wild in my mind. This will happen if we choose to cover anything up; it comes back even stronger than before. The difference this time was that I saw my brokenness and didn’t want to live in the same cycle anymore. Through the grace of God I finally admitted to God, “your right.” I am the one running, I run from you God and real relationships with others. It was as if I am in school failing the same grade over and over. I am put back to repeat it, and blaming the teacher for it. Now I am sick of it and want to learn how to pass. After many years of suffering from consequences of running from this brokenness I want to walk through it with God.

In no way am I saying I have figured it out on my own. Because I didn’t, God spoken to me through His Word, His Holy Spirit, experiences and friends. Think to yourself about the areas that you suffer from, that you desire relief from? Are you willing to accept the truth and the consequences of denying the cross of brokenness? Or will you with the help of God’s Holy Spirit ask for strength of picking up your cross of brokenness.