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“This people honors me with their lips,         but their heart is far from me.” --Matthew 15:8 I heard a story about a couple who were on a date at a restaurant. The two were finished eating so the man asked for the waiter to bring him a to-go box. This was a nicer place, so the waiter took the food back and boxed it for him. He put the box of food in a paper bag and rushed out to give it to the man. On the way home, the woman happened to peek in the bag and gasped. Instead of a to-go box, she counted nearly $2,000 in cash! Apparently, the manager had a bag of petty cash sitting around, and the waiter, in a rush, accidentally grabbed it instead of the to-go box. So the two turned around and headed straight back to the restaurant. When the man ran in and gave the money back, the ecstatic manager told him, “I’m going to call the newspaper and let them know you’re the most honest man in town!” The man looked at the manager and said, “No, no, no. You see, I’m married… and the woman I’m with isn’t my wife.” Sometimes, what people seem to be on the outside isn’t who they are on the inside. In fact, to find someone who is honest through-and-through is a rarity these days. So in a world full of people who are consistently inconsistent with their morals and values, be the exception! REPRESENT CHRIST WELL BY BEING CONSISTENT IN YOUR VALUES, WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCE. Unchecked Sin Monday, October 21, 2019 by Dr. Paul Chappell “If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Romans 7:16–19 The Apostle Paul was a greatly used and spiritually fruitful Christian. But even Paul struggled with the power of sin in his life. He recognized that even after his conversion he still had the fleshly sin nature that he was born with, and that unless sin was put to death, it would triumph over his will. He wrote to the church at Corinth, “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). Satan comes to us with the message that we do not have to completely give up our sin—that we can hold on to the things that we enjoy as long as we limit them. Like all of his temptations, this is a lie. Sin never remains under our control. Only when we utterly defeat it in the power of the Holy Spirit can we be safe. A. J. Gordon wrote, “Has the body of the flesh become so kind and so helpful to the Spirit, that we have no need, like Paul, to keep it under and bring it into subjection lest we be castaways? If there were no answer from revelation to this question, there is one from universal experience. None has ever yet found untempered self-gratification compatible with strong spiritual growth. None has ever yet discovered how to give nature all it asks, without defrauding grace.” Today's Growth Principle:  Sin never stays small. Unless we stamp it out, it will grow until it gains the victory over us.