As white as… By Hillary-Beth Koenig

As white as… 

By Hillary Beth Koenig

The month of December brings to mind snow.
Bringing that deeper: to me, snow brings to mind purity.
Someone once made a great analogy. As God’s children we should be pure, not exposing ourselves to temptations to sin when we could avoid the tempting situation.
If someone exposes herself anyhow, it is like a she wears a beautiful white wedding dress into a coal mine. Of course the dress would be, very likely, completely ruined. What a picture that is!
Satan says:
“One _____ never hurt anybody!”
(insert: lie, morsel of gossip, drink, questionable movie)
He’s trying to convince you that you should just go along even though deep inside you at least kind-of know that what you are thinking is wrong.
Don’t believe that lie. Any sin is impurity, and we are called to be pure like Christ. So even “one time” is sin, and sin that you recognize is always sin you can avoid.
Satan says:
“Don‘t worry about later, what do you want right now?”
He wants us to think about this moment and this moment alone, not matter what the consequences for the future might be. Sometimes those consequences can be devastating! Can you think of a time that, if you’d known what would happen because of your actions, you made a mess that you could hardly believe? Then don’t believe that lie; the lie that right now is more important.
You may think:
"I‘m not bad; I believe in God, I don‘t need Jesus.”
Just believing in God isn’t enough, because all of us have a problem.
James 2:19 says “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
That problem is sin, specifically that sin is pride if you say that you do not need Jesus. But Jesus knew our problem! He is our Redeemer; it is because of the sacrifice of His life for ours that we can be God’s children.
Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Romans 3:23-24
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
A few reminders:
Don’t put a “but” behind a principle of God. That is, if you read something that God has told you, don’t let yourself think, “But this doesn’t apply to me and my situation.”
The world’s crowd: 1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
Don’t be fooled by your own “wisdom” God’s ways are higher than our ways.1 Corinthians 3:18
Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.
Let your life be as white as snow!