"Heart to Heart"

"They also do no iniquity: they walk in His ways." (Psalms 119:3)

 As I was saying, By any means possible; which is what we should be asking God to do in us, at all cost! When Jesus spoke of following Him, what kind of road was He talking about? I think it had more to do with sacrifice of our own lives, more than anything else. It was not so much about death, as in being crucified as He was; but it was about dying to ourselves and giving up all those things that cause us have iniquity in our hearts. There are three levels of sinning against God; there is plain old sin, which is missing the mark, there is trespass, which is crossing the line, and then there is iniquity, which is saying no to what God says, and intentionally, almost gleefully, doing what you want to do. If I say that I have not done iniquity, I would be lying! I might have committed iniquity every single day of my life, in one form or another. Iniquity is really not that hard to commit, but it sure is hard to admit. Nobody likes to admit when they have committed iniquity, because iniquity is by intention; everyone would rather have say they made a mistake or that they had no intention of doing what they did, it just happened. I recall reading a book back in the late eighties, "Counter Attack," where the author spoke about how we set ourselves up to do iniquity, by making it seem like it is a mistake or a coincidence; by saying in our heart, I know this is wrong, but if this happens or that door opens, then I will count it as right for me right now. To make matters worse, if that does not happen or the door does not open, then we will force the thing to happen or we will pick the lock on the door. That is what iniquity looks like; where we know God is giving us a way out, but we do it anyway, and by any means possible. There is another way to practice, By any means possible...

"We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts." (1 John 5:18-21)