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New Years Repentance

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Hey guys, I hope you all had a blessed Christmas! Now that Christmas is over we have another holiday on the way, New Years! In fact, 2017 is tomorrow! It's crazy to think it's already a new year so soon. I know that as I go through my old blog posts, I'm astonished as to how far I've grown in the year. I've obviously had my ups and downs on my art and on my blog posts. I started a comic strip series, and God is gradually restoring my talents! But there's something I've realized as the year is ending. Every so often I would deal with my secret sin. What is it? I can't tell you, it's a secret. That's how bad it is.

Throughout the whole year this little secret sin has popped up every so often and messed me up horribly. I don't know why I fall to it every time. I know how to defend myself against it, and sometimes I've been able to run from it, but somehow I keep falling back. Sound familiar? It maybe a bold statement but I believe that everybody struggles with a sin that is so dirty that they keep it a secret from everyone they know, sometimes even God. Not that God doesn't already know, but you still act like it's not there and continue on with your daily routine. You read your bible, do a little worship, go to work from nine to five, endulge in a little sin, read your bible before you go to bed, apologize for your sin, and repeat.


As 2017 aproaches, I think about my personal relationship with God and how much I've grown over the years. I want to continue growing, but I don't want to bring this baggage with me. I realize that this secret sin is holding me back from recieving more of God, but when it comes it's so tempting. I even convinced myself at one point that it wasn't sin, but it was. I thought that so long as I wasn't hurting anybody else or it wasn't bad, that it wasn't sin. But it was a lie that I convinced myself was true. So as new years comes, I decided it's time to put this secret sin in the past, a thing of 2016 that's supposed to stay there. But just how do I do that?


One of the most popular things to do during New Years is to come up with New Years resolutions. I've been preached at before that you shouldn't have your heart set on a New Years resolution because you can have a good day or two, then when a bad day occurs you can quit. You shrug and say 'well I broke my streak no going back now'. But is there a way that you can make a New Years resolution stick? Is it possible that there's a way to take this popular activity and make it work? I believe so.


To start, let's take a look at the enemy. I'm trying to ditch my secret sin. But what is sin and how on earth could I have convinced myself that my secret sin wasn't really sin? The most popular answer defines sin as an action that is bad. In fact, Google defines sin as 'an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law' (look it up). But that's not entirely accurate. Sin is when we ignore God's direction and do something our own way. In Genesis 3:1-6, "The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord had made. One day he asked the woman, 'Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?' 'Of course we meay eat fruit from the trees in the garden,' the woman replied, 'It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'' 'You won't die!' The serpant replied to the woman, 'God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.' The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too."

You know the funny thing that I realized about the sin of Adam and Eve, is that they ate from a tree. Because they ate from a specific tree, it was considered sin. It's not like Adam and Eve murdered one another, or called each other sexist names. Would eating from one tree really be considered 'an immoral act'? Not in our eyes. But it was the fact that they disobeyed God, decided to do things their own way, that in the end titled it sin. And that little act ruined paradise for us all. That's what sin is. I personally think it's interesting that the majority of sin just happens to be viewed as immoral in our eyes. We can collectively agree that murdering someone, disobeying your parents, being mean to pepole around you, or stealing can be viewed as bad. But it's surprising that there are things that are viewed as socially acceptable that are sin. For example: Smoking weed, homosexual marriage, sex before marriage. And yes, I mean to step on some toes.

So sin is to disobey God. Now that we fully know what we're dealing with, what do we do about it. We repent. That may seem like the obvious answer, but what is repentance? Google will define repentance as 'sincere regret or remose'. Close, but not quite there yet. Repentance is a sincere regret or remorse, and turning to God instead. It's a constant endeavour after God and his ways. Psalm 51:1-12- "Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you."

This is a Psalm David wrote in the story of David and Bathsheba. If you don't know the story, David stole one of his soldier's wife and had the soldier killed. Not only had he committed adultery, but he also committed murder as a cover up. He was about to just continue life like nothing happened, but a prophet named Nathan came and set him straight. After realizing the depth of his mistake, David wrote Psalm 51. What's interesting about this Psalm is that David doesn't just apologize for doing something bad. He apologizes because he realizes that he's done something against God. He realizes that God sees his sin. And David begs him not to do so. David begs for a clean heart, he begs for forgiveness. What's more, is that he begs God not to leave him. You see, the king before him named Saul disobeyed God too. And Saul acted like nothing happened, even after a prophet came to tell him otherwise. Because of this, the Holy Spirit left Saul and went to David as well.

I say all this to point to the fact, that David was genuinely scared of losing his connection with God. He realized that God would leave him because of his sin. And in his fear, he apologizes and asks God to 'renew a loyal spirit within him'. He asks to draw closer to God and for the power not to leave God for having things his way. I think the biggest lie I've told myself when handling my secret sin, is that I have to do something about it. I have to avoid things that make me fall to that sin. I have to keep praying. I have to keep reading my bible. While all of those things will help assure my safety from falling into sin, it doesn't save me from that sin. David didn't start with promising God that he would pray more, do more for God. David begged to keep his relationship with God. He recognized that nearly losing his relationship with God was significantly more important than making promises we don't have the power to keep.

God cannot be near sin. He's perfect, and he's the opposite of sin. He's light, and when light comes darkness runs away. Life is basically an exchange between the light and the dark, an exchange between choosing God's way and ours. We have a choice to choose to draw choose God's way and to be close to God, or to choose our way and stay away from God. If God was really just an inactive guy upstairs the choice would be easy: go our own way and do whatever the heck we want. But that's not who God is. He's active, he loves us, and gave his very best for us. Not only that, but the closer we are to the light, the further away the dark is. The closer you are to God, the further away you are for sin.

So the fruit of the message is simple: if you want to get rid of your secret sin and grow further with God 2017, commit to just that. Commit to being with God and humbling yourself when you fall. Repent and ask to be clean of that sin, and be with God. Don't limit his connection to your daily bible reading or sunday service. Be with God all the time! And by a process called sanctification (check your bible for the correct definition), you will slowly grow to be more like God.

If you liked this post please give me a thumbs up and if you have a question or a comment please email me at fire.time.rsmith@gmail.com. I also have an announcement. For the whole month of January, there will be no FireTime or Church of Valatie. Instead, every day I'll do a sketch from Proverbs in an artsy version of the Proverbs 31 Challenge. This will give me some time to delve into something new and fun while taking a refreshing break from a weekly and monthly routine. So join me for the Proverbs 31 Challenge! Until then, God bless, and keep your fire for God, blazing!
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BluuMaskedBandette10's avatar
I so would want this for a Tshirt!!