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Guest
Guest
Hebrews 12:1-3 said:
I sit here tpying this post with poison ivy on both arms and on both legs. Having worked outside on Saturday cutting weeds and moving brush, and might I add not wearing the appropiate protection (Eph 6:11) for the job - I am not covered with poison ivy.
As I awoke in the morning with the intense 'need' to itch, I quickly took a Benadryl to relieve the itching sensation. Later in the afternoon, as the medication wore off, I was reminded of these verses from Hebrews and how my current desire to itch was similiar to our sinful desires.
You see, I could have easily given into the desire to itch my poison ivy. It would have provided for me the relief that I was longing for, it would have eased the tension of not wanting to give in. Just this once, if I itch it - the 'itchy' feeling will go away and I will 'feel better'.
But while it would have provided temporary relief - the itchy would be back. And, if I had itched, opening up the little blisters, that fluid would have gotten on my hands, it would have spread along my arms - thus spreading the 'poison' the prolonging the infection.
Sin - operates very simliar. It want's to be 'itched'. The desire is strong, the temptation is very real, and oh how it 'entagles us'. Once itched, sure there might be temporary relief, but then it spreads. It needs to be itched again and again and again.
Hebrews tells us that we need to 'lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us." Rather than 'itching the sin itch" - we are to set our eyes upon Christ - who "for the JOY set before Him, endured the cross..." That's right, Christ looked to the pain of the Cross as JOY - knowing that through HIS enduring of the Cross, WE might be set free from the 'itch of sin'. He did this for US!
After having endured the Cross, Christ "sat down at the righ hand of the throne of God." It is finished. It is complete - the salvation that is fouind in Christ Jesus alone, is completely finished. He "sat down." There is no more work that He needs to do or that we need to add to - Christ did the work to secure our freedom from sin. It is by fixing our eyes upon Him - that we can navigate through life's course. In Him is the Victory - keep your eyes fixed on him.
Do not settle for the temporary relief of 'itching the sin' - it will merely come back and spread to other areas. Rather, accept the work of Christ - to heal you of your sin - to provide pernament and everlasting victory over sin! (1 John 3:9)
The itch of the poison ivy reminds me that the freedom is found in Christ Jesus, not in the temporary relief from 'giving in."
