Seduction in the Body of Christ

I’m not afraid to tell you that I believe the body of Christ is being seduced, particularly sexually. Almost monthly I hear of another victim who has had a life devoted to Christ fall into a relationship outside of marriage. I believe we are experiencing something like we never have before.
I feel that one reason for this is that we are avoiding this issue in our Christian circles and pretending it’s not as bad as it really is. Most of us pick and choose what sermons we are going to listen to, or choose books to read based on what our itching ears want to hear. We don't want to take an honest inventory of the conditions of our hearts and the evil sin within because we might actually feel some healthy conviction. We want to believe God is okay with our sin because we believe He would want us to be happy! For example, how many times have I heard the excuse, "I just wasn't happy anymore with my spouse. We fought all of the time. Surely God would not want me to live the rest of my life in an unhappy marriage." So with that excuse in mind, we justify breaking our covenants with God. God never once said to leave your marriage if you are not happy! We have become so selfish. It is all about us and not about Him. Why are we governing our own lives and telling the potter what we think is best for us?

Something else I realize we are guilty of is doing a cut and paste job to our bibles to create our own personal version to fit our needs! Why do we do this? Because it makes us feel better about our sin. How do I know this? I've done this! However, God loves me so much that He unveiled my eyes to show me this so that I might repent and turn back to the full truth of the Gospel. While our God is a God of mercy and compassion, He is also a God of justice. We can't just listen to sermons about His love and forgiveness, and ignore God's anger against sin. What happened to teachings on the fear of the Lord and costly grace? By focusing on what our itching ears want to hear, we've cheapened God's grace! We deny what we truly deserve because of our sin--death! Jesus' death on the cross for all sin was costly. It's through denial of Christ's death for our sin that we are able to continue our pattern of betrayal.

May we humble ourselves today and thank Him for the costly grace He chose to give us...What a gift!