Our Greatest Offense: The Watch Letter

"It's about to get real!"

These are the words our Pastor Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn told the youth of our church family just before the fall semester of school reconvened. He was telling them that the commitments they made to God and the changes they made over the summer, or when they were going to school virtually and weren't around friends and classmates, would be tested. And indeed they were.

I believe the Lord reminded me of this for a reason earlier this morning and then when I listened to today's FORREAL Radio Broadcast by Chief Apostle Gunn I understood.

Before I get into the Broadcast, a few questions and thoughts:

• When the warning came about how the children's decisions for God would be challenged, how were we prepared as adults to help our children navigate the temptations of life?

• How did we strengthen the children, back up the word, and encourage them to resist being like the world and not to take on today's culture of lewdness and twistedness?

• And finally: Were we even in the position to strengthen them? Jesus told Peter after he denied him: When you are converted, strengthen others.

These questions beg more questions: How can we strengthen our children when we have not been converted (to turn around, to transform, or to change)? What do we adults do or have we done when it gets real like Chief Apostle Gunn said, and we are faced with temptation, faced with an opportunity to blend with the world, the wrong people, or wrong thoughts?

Sometimes we don't want to correct our children or others because we know that we have not ceased from sin or have compromised ourselves. Is that what is holding us back from strengthening our families?

All have fallen short of God's glory and all have sinned, and this blog post is not just for those who are raising children in their homes but for all of us adults. Because, no matter who you are, we are required of God to be an example to the little ones - both the physically young and the young in Christ.

Matthew 18:6-7

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

7 Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!

What is an offense? A breach (violate, fracture, transgress, neglect) of a law or rule, a cause or occasion of sin, a cause of stumbling. While offense also can mean "annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult to or disregard for oneself or one's standards or principles," today, let's focus on the offenses we make and have made against God.

What are the breaches we have made and laws we have broken against God by first sinning, allowing sin, encouraging sin, doing things that lead to sin, covering the sin of someone else or our children, maintaining or passing down a lifestyle of sin to our children and others, etc.?

During today's Broadcast, titled "What Do I Do With My Self?," Chief Apostle Gunn said it is time for us to stop what we are doing and cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The filthiness of the flesh and spirit is not just what we do with our physical body but what we think, how we feel, how we respond, what we don't say, what we do say, what we listen to and who we listen to, etc. He asked what are we doing with our minds and our bodies? He reminded us that our whole body (including our physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental makeup) is supposed to be God's temple. Where have we defiled it? Have we kept God's temple clean? What and who have we allowed to sit on the throne of God's temple in us?

My 9-year-old nephew Mr. Solo (we call him that because he acts like an old man sometimes :)) helps to read the scriptures during service sometimes. He often seeks the scriptures out on his own and reads them with such care and reverence to God. He does not take his assignment lightly. He seems to never complain about doing it, which is a blessing, and is always ready to share the word. He read the following scripture last Sunday and it tied right into what Chief Apostle Gunn has been teaching.

Ezekiel 36:25-29

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

We need to look at the company we keep and the company we desire to keep. We need to look at the patterns and habits we have and what we are drawn to and prone to. We need to look at things on TV, the Internet, Games, Devices, Music (yes, even Gospel music and rated PG films), and the Places we go that we find acceptable or think are "ok." We need to check the word, ask God, and ask our Pastor: Is it clean? Is it right? Is it acceptable to God? It it a breach of God's law?

Chief Apostle Gunn basically asked on the Broadcast: What are we going to do with the sin we are in and the things/people/lifestyles we won't let go of (which are idols)? Sin comes in by invitation somewhere down the line. He broke down Galatians 5 and it is exactly what we need for these times.

He said the world is in a downward spiral because of its sin and we are going to go down with it, if we don't come out from among it and be separate and be holy. I have placed some definitions in between the words in Galatians 5 to help us break down what the Lord is saying to us today through this powerful scripture and the teaching of the man of God!

Galatians 5

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery (unfaithfulness, infidelity), fornication (unmarried sexual activity of any form), uncleanness, lasciviousness (lewd behavior, lustful)

20 Idolatry (extreme admiration, love, worship, or reverence for something or someone other than God), witchcraft (sorcery; enchantments; intercourse/engagement with the devil, divination), hatred, variance (discord, infighting), emulations (jealous competition or ambition driven by envy), wrath, strife, seditions (rebellion, insurrection, rioting), heresies (dissent or deviation from the law, word, teaching/way of God)

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness (under the wrong influence of any substance or thing), revellings (going wild, turning up, overindulgence in pleasure), and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Sometimes we can be so consumed about how people have offended us but this scripture is a wake-up call because it's time for us to stop offending God. The one thing about sin is that it is a choice. We may be tempted but Chief Apostle Gunn always teaches us it is about what we do with the temptation. We can rebuke it. We can confess it. We can choose to stay away from it.

Is our greatest offense wanting the sin more than we want God?

Listen to the Broadcast "What Do I Do With Myself" here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=9954947965252284&wix-music-comp-id=comp-kjfzbgmx