The Uncorrupted: The Watch Letter
Ephesians 4
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Almost every day, for the last several weeks, our Pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, has been sending us scriptures from Ephesians and other books in the Bible to soak in and feed on so that we are a ready people. He is strengthening the body, by all means, just like the word says. He uses text messages, phone calls, letters, radio broadcasts, the preached word, and of course the way he lives, to reach as many souls as possible.
When you strive to live an uncorrupted life, being a light and encouragement to others becomes a part of your everyday fabric, and I learned that by watching my pastor, who, along with Apostle Felicia, has also adopted me as a daughter. So, I am so grateful for the spiritual and parental teaching I receive daily. He has shown me and all of those under his care that the darkness of sin can not dwell among the light of Christ. We must choose whose side we are on and stand on it with faithfulness and confidence.
In going over the most recent radio broadcasts and messages from Chief Apostle Gunn, there is a question I must ask everyone reading this, including myself.
DO YOU HATE SIN?
Here is the way I believe God showed me we can determine if our answer to that question is sincere. It is very sobering.
If you hate the taste of pickles, onions, tomatoes, or mayonnaise, for example, how hard do you work to avoid tasting them? Most of us would make sure that, when we order at a restaurant, we emphasize to the person taking our order that we don’t want those things included with our meal and we would double-check the meal when it is given to us to ensure the things we didn’t want are not there.
How often do we avoid sin like the way we avoid the foods we despise. Do we go the extra mile to ensure sin does not become a part of our lives? Do we double-check things, activities, situations, relationships, thoughts, feelings to ensure sin is not hidden in the midst?
Do we hate sin enough to not touch it?
When we say we hate sin as people who profess to follow Jesus, do we really mean it? Do we distant ourselves completely from anything that even looks or feels like sin? Do we want nothing to do with any ounce of it or do we accept some fragments of it as long as it's not too obvious that it is sin? Or are we just suppressing the sin or speaking in vanity just to sound like we hate sin?
I have a lot of work to do. We all do. I am going to work harder and examine my life and strive to clean out any semblance of sin, even the things that seem innocent but are not pleasing to God. I invite you to join me!
The scriptures below show us that if we hate sin we will do everything we can to ensure it doesn't capture, captivate or corrupt us. God promised us in his word that he would always give us a way of escape, but any person who wants to be free has to be willing to run away from the thing or person that is trying to cage them in.
2 Peter 2:19 - While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
Galatians 6:8 - For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
2 Peter 1:4 - Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
For my birthday, my husband, Apostle Wayne, gave me a beautiful bouquet of roses. As the days went on, they began to wither as most flowers do. But we noticed there was one yellow rose that did not wither. So, I kept all the roses in the vase over the next weeks because I wanted to see how long it would take for the yellow rose to die alongside the others. It never did. It was still standing tall. In fact, the photo for this blog is a photo my husband took on our patio because we wanted to document how this rose thrived despite the decay and death around it.
The water in the vase was murky and messy. The roses around the yellow one that was still alive were bowed over and dried up. Yet, the yellow rose maintained its softness and color. There was a lesson in this bouquet of roses. Just because everything around you is corrupted doesn't mean you have to be. You can stand out and stand up. You can maintain your salvation and your commitment to live in God. You can keep yourself from corruption no matter how close it seems to get to you, no matter how surrounded you feel by the temptation of sin. It's called grace.
Chief Apostle Gunn sent us several scriptures about grace and reminded us to ask God for his grace. Grace is more than you think. It is not just God giving us another chance by showing mercy or showing us unmerited favor -- it is also the strength to endure and the strength to not be sold out to sin.
2 Corinthians 12:9 - And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Watching those roses die and the yellow one continue to grow reminds me of when Chief Apostle Gunn once preached: Don't die here. No matter how dark, dirty, or in despair things around us may be, we can choose to thrive and live in Christ. We know that sin is death. So, when we choose to hate sin and turn away from it, we choose life.
Chief Apostle Gunn taught me that the ways and fashion of this world and the devil and his army make suggestions to your subconscious with the goal of those suggestions leading you to sin. I am going back to see what suggestions have I not dealt with or not stopped because we have been called to not let sin have dominion over us.
Listen to this weekend's FORREAL RADIO BROADCAST "What Do I Do With Myself Part 2" here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=4787355113363462&wix-music-comp-id=comp-kjfzbgmx
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