Humans were created as eternal beings. In Genesis 1:26a and 27 we read the words of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “Let Us make humans in Our image, in Our likeness. So God created humans in His image. In the image of God He created them. He created them male and female” (God’s Word).
Adam and Eve, however, listened to the lies of Satan, disobeyed God and brought about both the spiritual and physical deaths of all human beings. Their sin has affected every generation that ever existed.
Still today, no person sins without affecting other people. The drug addict. The pornography addict. The alcoholic. The adulterer. The liar. The thief. Even the glutton and the smoker. Think about it.
I recall so vividly hearing a friend years ago tell me that her smoking was only hurting herself. Yet her son ended up with asthma and he and the rest of her family watched helplessly as lung cancer took her life.
Another friend I’ll call Darrell worked a mediocre-paying job but was entrusted with a special employee fund from which he started “borrowing.” It took a couple of years for the company to figure out what was happening, but when they did, Darrell was prosecuted and sent to prison. As the Bible says, “Be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23b). The price paid by his wife and children is another story in and of itself.
None of us lives a life without influence; our lives affect other lives. That’s why it’s imperative that those of us who profess to be believers be ‘fessed up, clean-living, dedicated followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can’t afford to send mixed messages. We can’t afford to allow sin to get us in its grip and destroy our good witness.
Church attendance is at an all-time low. Why? Because so many professing Christians don’t go to church. Beloved, if Christians don’t use the privilege of public worship that we still have remaining, we’re going to lose it all – and if you’re one of those Christian non-churchgoers, you’ll get to take part of the credit.
As I said, none of us lives a life without influence. What is your life telling others about Jesus?
“We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming” (Hebrews 10:25, God’s Word).
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