mike adkins | grace•ology

Happy New Year

Hope you had a great new year's celebration. We did. Which means we snuggled with our new-born daughter in bed (the boys had long since given up the ghost) and watched the ball fall in Times Square.

Is anyone else with me that Dick Clark should be allowed to retire with some dignity? Every time they went to him it was too sad to watch. His stroke has left him almost unable to speak.  700 years was a good run. Time to pass the torch. GEEEZ.

When Sin Seems More Appealing Than God

Of course, I know this doesn't apply to you, but try to bear with me anyway.

I'm tired of listening to pastors who tell people they should just stop sinning as if this never really occured to people. If stopping were enough, then we'd all have done it by now. It's a lot bigger than that. It's bigger because sometimes what is wrong is more appealing to us that what is right. I'm not saying ALL the time, just sometimes.

So here's some advice. Don't ever try to stop something without starting something else. Don't stop smoking, or overeating, or looking at pornography, or being greedy without first starting something else. That might seem like weird advice, but I promise it will be easier to stick with the changes if you follow it. When we try to stop something it's all about what we are losing. "Oh, no, I can't eat that eclair anymore. This stinks." Starting something on the other hand, is all about what you're gaining. "I'm going to be more healthy."

The Bible says, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-23

It boils down to this. If you're getting rid of something, it probably belongs to the "old self," and needs to go. However, in its place you need to build the "new self," which is like Christ. The problem of leaving nothing in the place of the "old self," when it goes is that this creates a vacuum which will pull you right back in. That's why so many people go right back to the same old thing. They didn't fill the hole.