Hosea 4-9, "Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint...is with you...Alcohol and prostitution (pornography) has robbed my people of their brains...When the men of Israel finish their drinking, off they go to find some prostitutes... Your deeds won’t let you return to your God. You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the Lord . The arrogance of Israel testifies against her;...Its people don’t realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all...They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust...What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me! Let them die, for they have rebelled against me. I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me. They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail..."
In everything that we do, in every way we live, we are responsible for our own actions. We do the things we do, because we want to. We cannot blame others for the sin in our own lives. I wanted to blame my ex husband for the drug abuse and pornography in my own life, but in reality I was responsible for how I was living. Even today, I want to hold Jason responsible for my emotions, but I am responsible for how I am acting. I try and pass the blame on the circumstance, kids, or time of the month, but that is so I do not have to be held responsible for how I am acting in the moment. We can take the drink, then try to blame the alcohol for what we do afterwards. But in reality, it was our choice to drink that started the whole process. Every sin starts with a desire; every desire directs the choices that we choose to act upon.
I have heard time and time again, "It is my choice and it only affects me." This is not true. It is a lie that we choose to believe, so that we can act the way we want to. It does not matter if we are single, married, have children, or not, every choice that we choose affects others in our lives. Men seem to think that looking at pornography affects no one else, but it affect the very way they talk and act around others. Women seem to think that we can blame everything on our periods, but how we act affects everyone around us. Alcoholics think their drinking only affect them, but it affects their employers and everyone they associate with. College students seem to think this is just the stage they are in and everyone is doing it, but the choices they make now will affect every part of their lives to come. Everything we do matters and every way we live affects others around us. What we have to grasp is that we are responsible for everything we do. We can blame no one else and God will hold us responsible for how we live. Christ gave us His example and asked us to follow Him. Choose this day how you will live. Choose this day to choose life.
"Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first. If Jesus Christ is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize me by erecting a standard I can not attain. What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near? I am happier without knowing it. What is the good of telling me to be what I never can be - to be pure in heart, to do more than my duty, to be perfectly devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition." (O. C) Do you know Christ? Have you turned your life over to Him so that you can find the true peace and joy of living?
http://www.myutmost.org/07/0721.html
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