"But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:7 (NLT)
One evening when my daughter was about four years old, I was preparing dinner while waiting for my husband to arrive home from work. She was at the dining room table coloring in her coloring book with markers. Or at least, I thought that was what she was doing. When my husband walked in the door she said to him, "Look, Daddy! I changed colors!" I spun around to find that my sweet little darling had colored her face, arms and hands orange. Thankfully, the markers were washable. After a quick bath, we sat down and had our dinner.
I find great humor in telling that story. However, it reminds me that even as adults we can find ourselves taking on the hue of the world. It is so easy to drift into situations and lifestyles that can change our appearance before others and our Lord. It is vital that we use godly wisdom as our guide as we make everyday decisions.
1 Thessalonians 5:22 admonishes us to, "Stay away from every kind of evil." The more we involve ourselves with words or activities that we know are not pleasing to the Lord, the more used to them we become and we start to think of them as acceptable.
Not long ago in the history of this nation, men were careful of what they said around women. It was considered disrespectful to use foul language in the presence of ladies. Somewhere along the line, that ceased. Now that language is considered "normal" and is used by men and women and even some of our children. It is prevalent in movies and is heard more and more in television shows. We have been desensitized by hearing it so much.
The same can be said about sexual depictions and innuendo that are also rampant in our media and literature. We don't even seem to blink our eyes anymore when we hear or see off-color representations of what God created to be holy.
Christians are to be reflections of our Savior, Jesus. For this to happen, we need to align ourselves with Him, rather than the world. I have mentioned only two ways that the world influences our behavior. However, the list is endless. The only way to avoid mirroring the evil of the world rather than the holiness of Jesus, is to spend plenty of quality time in the scriptures observing His actions and reactions and then deciding to turn our backs on situations that lead us away from what we know would be unacceptable to Him.
When I am called home to Heaven, my hope is that whatever memories of me remain point to Him. The Christian music group named Casting Crowns has a song titled "Only Jesus". One of the lines in the song says, "I don't care if they remember me, only Jesus." We were created to bring glory to the Creator. Out of His great love He sent His only Son to die on the cross to cleanse us from our sins. It is my desire, and I hope yours as well, to glorify and honor Him by keeping myself clean in a world of muck and mire. He gave us free wills. We have the privilege of choosing which path we wish to take. I choose His. God bless.
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