Am I free to do as I please?

1 Peter 2: ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

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After many drinks we decided to play a game. Everyone huddled in our room and one person was blindfolded. The person was asked a number of questions about their dream mate, one of which was “what would you take off first?” This was our trick to see if a drunken girl would take off their clothes. The answer of course is the blindfold.

Now I imagine myself trying to tell this person about CHRIST or her parents or any of the ogling guys or women in the room. It just doesn’t seem very effective for GOD’s kingdom.

• No matter how I slice it, sin is sin and GOD does not like sin.
• Salvation "from" sin doesn’t give me the freedom "to" sin.
• Justifying my sinful actions only leads to more sin and less GOD.

Somehow GOD made me with ‘”free will” or the ability to choose between good and evil. When I believed in HIS SON as my savior from the consequence of sin, I became eternally saved.  Does this mean “on with the party?” Emphatically NO!

• GOD is to be feared and never taken lightly.
• GOD is love AND HE is the judge of every human.
• GOD desires me to love and respect every human as one of HIS creations.

Let’s face it my evil plans are my evil plans. I can try to justify my evil actions saying that my salvation has removed my sins, but it is clear that my attitude towards sin should be different. GOD says even the demons “believe” and tremble fearing HIS power. They know their plan has failed and wish to ruin as many lives as they can before their judgment.

Sin cannot be totally removed from my life until I am transformed by GOD, but until then I can live with love for others, respect for authority and fear of GOD as I am supposed to.

• Are you trying to justify your sinful living?
• Is GOD pleased with how you are living?
• Can you sacrifice your sin for one day to serve CHRIST?
• Will you apologize to “that” person you have evil thoughts about?