KINGDOM STANDARDS CALL FOR SURGERY, NOT COSMETICS!

BAPTIST Daily Devotional
KINGDOM STANDARDS CALL FOR SURGERY, NOT COSMETICS!
Rev Enoch Thompson | FEBRUARY 4, 2023 | MATTHEW 5:29-30

KEY VERSE:

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. Matthew 5:29 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

You can imagine what is likely to happen to a person who badly needs some surgery done on a leg or an arm, but who chooses to buy the most expensive clothes to cover those parts and stay away from the doctor. In the end, the diseased part will get worse and worse and may lead to the death of the person.

When the Lord Jesus Christ taught against the sin of sexual misconduct by Kingdom standards, He went further to underline how serious the matter was. Sexual misconduct is a serious disease that calls for a surgical procedure, but which the world treats with flippant cosmetics.

The world calls sexual sin fun and invites the believer in Christ to come and experiment. Sexual perversion is described as an alternative lifestyle. The original divine design of our maleness and our femaleness is subjected to redefinition which is not biological but sentimental and psychological. Our mishandling of human sexuality makes us look like creatures that are moving backwards as we advance in our knowledge of science and improve our political sense of freedom. It is politically incorrect to say that some of the choices that freedom leads us to shout from the rooftops are actually violations of the intentions of God as communicated in the Bible.

The life of the Kingdom requires of the citizens of the Kingdom radical and irreversible turning away from the things that make us sin against God, ourselves and our fellow humans. The things and people who drag us into sin must be removed by ourselves from ourselves in ways that will make it impossible for them to get re-attached to us, like the eye pulled out, or the hand cut off.

Certainly, the Lord was talking figuratively, and we must understand Him as such. The pain of self-denial or separation from a certain company in order to stay pure for the Lord is compensated for by the bliss of experiencing the presence of God in this life and enjoying His presence forever in Heaven.

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:
What are the factors that move us to sin? Let’s identify the offending elements and consciously, deliberately, and voluntarily remove them away from our lives, even if the action will give us some pain.

PRAYER:
Dear Lord, who suffered pain to attain my salvation. The surgery of the cross separated you from the Father so I may be healed of sin and Hell, restored to God forever. Please grant me the courage to undergo the necessary surgery. Heal your Church of the spirit of political and moral cosmetics! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.
SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!