Sin’s Reality
This image illustrates the earthly penalty for sin. This man, blind, tied up with barbed wire and 
screaming in agony, shows the natural result of repeatedly giving into the Devil’s temptation.
What horrible fruit!
In John 10:10 Jesus said Satan “comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” His successful temptation of Adam and Eve is a good example. After sinning, every blessing they enjoyed from God’s hand was striped away, defiled or cursed.
Please don’t be deceived; choosing to live a sinful lifestyle will make even a Christian’s life on earth hellish.
Satan’s Strategy
With each temptation he offers, the Devil has one goal: to destroy us.
So the slower sin enslaves us, the better he likes it. Sometimes we won’t feel the pain of our “barbed wire prison” until decades later. This bondage happens because we’ve forgotten one key truth Jesus taught us.
In his heart, the Devil hates and despises us.
So all his offered “gifts?” Each one is a horrible trap. In the natural, the Devil makes sin look fun, exciting and fulfilling.
But in the end, it’s none of those things.
Look once more at the man entwined in barbed wire. That’s what Satan is really attempting to do in our lives. Unfortunately we stupidly help him, by choosing to sin.
Humans are a gullible race; very easily fooled.
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16 NIV)
One Day We Will See Our Sin Clearly
The ugliness of sin is very clear to the angels and the demons.
But not to human beings.
We make excuses for ourselves. Our own sin is never “that bad.”
But it is.
One day, standing before Jesus, our holy and righteous Judge, we will see the ugliness and bad fruit of our own sin clearly, both In our lives and in the lives of others.
Everything we did in this life will snap into sharp focus.
I also believe that Christians will see all that the Holy Spirit did through us when we obeyed Him.
Both images came from Pixabay.com
Resources:
One of my favorite posts is “The Sweet Taste of Poison Apples.” I first wrote it as a devotion for a website called Christian Devotions and later re-posted it on my blog with their kind permission. These Christian editors actively encourage new writers to submit a devotion. I did—and it was accepted! Without that encouragement, I do not know if I would be a writer today.
Executive Editor Cindy Sproles and her team also put on a writer’s conference in Asheville, North Carolina every February. In fact, I will be attending the Asheville Christian Writer’s Conference for the sixth straight year, later this week.
If you want to try writing a devotion, go to the website christiandevotions.us and click on the “Write for Us” tab.
