Cutting off From Sin

"Repentance is a definite turn from every thought, word, deed and habit which is known to be wrong. It is not sufficient to feel pangs of remorse or to make some kind of apology to God. Fundamentally, repentance is a matter neither of emotion nor of speech. It is an inward change of mind and attitude towards sin which leads to a change of behaviour.
"There can be no compromise here. There may be sins in our lives which we do not think we ever could renounce; but we must be willing to let them go as we cry to God for deliverance from them. If you are in doubt regarding what is right and what is wrong, what must go and what may be retained, do not be too greatly influenced by the customs and conventions of Christians you may know. Go by the clear teaching of the Bible and by the prompting of your conscience, and Christ will gradually lead you further along the path of righteousness. When He puts His finger on anything, give it up. It may be some association or recreation, some literature we read, or some attitude of pride, jealousy or resentment, or an unforgiving spirit.
"Jesus told His followers to pluck out their eye and cut off their hand or foot if these caused them to sin. We are not to obey this with dead literalism, of course, and mutilate our bodies. It is a vivid figure of speech for dealing ruthlessly with the avenues along which temptation comes to us."
-John Stott

Nancy Leigh DeMoss was talking about the verses in Mark 9:43-47 where it talks about gouging out your eye if it causes you to sin and cutting off your arm or foot if it causes you to sin. Of course, Jesus didn't mean to literally cut off your arm or foot or to gouge out your eye. He wouldn't tell us to mutilate the bodies He gave us. What He means by these verses is to cut yourself off from everything that causes you to sin. Yeah, you may have to give up your favorite TV show. Yeah, you might need to stop listening to your favorite kinds of music. Yeah, you might have to stop going where you love to go. Yeah, you may even need to give up friendships. But you know what? It is so worth it to give things up for God. At the time it may not seem worth it at all, but it is. It is so worth it. Jesus died for us [and rose again, breaking the power of sin and death for us!] so why can't we give up things for Him? It makes you feel so free when you give up things for God. It feels so refreshing to obey God.

That explains my new Blogger. My old one got deleted as I was deleting something else that I knew I needed to get rid of. God had prompted me to get rid of the thing, and I didn't want to do it at all. I was about to just not do it because I knew my Blogger would be deleted and I had posts on there that I didn't want to get deleted. But I did delete it. I knew that I had to. And I felt so free afterwards. And guess what? As I was trying to log in with my other email address, I found my old blog [the one where I have some of my articles and devotions on]! I thought that had gotten deleted or lost somewhere when Blogger changed. But it's still there! If you want to look at it, click on my profile, and the blog should be listed there.

I posted all of my other posts from my old blog onto here, so read them if you want to. I have been learning so much lately and I wanted to share it with you. So please, read them if you have time.

The Beauty of God
Knowing the beauty of God is sunshine on a cloudy day,
to know that a living God sits upon the throne and guides my way.
God never promised that life would be easy all the time,
But He did promise that He would hold my hand during the rough climb.
And His promise gives me hope - even if just a ray.

Getting through life is no easy thing,
but God promises His Bride - the Church - a wedding ring.
I hold His promises deep in my heart - they are mine.
And knowing the beauty of God is sunshine on a cloudy day.

Losses, pain, and hopelessness; I can only pray
that God will deliver me - and if not right away
then I need to learn to trust - God knows best.
Though life is hard to understand, yes, God knows my stay
on earth is hard; it's no easy thing.
And that's why knowing the beauty of God is sunshine on a cloudy day.
-Me