Today we read the tragic story of Amnon defiling (molesting/raping) his sister Tamar. Such a sad story. It's interesting to note, that he was passionately "in love" with her (or so he thought), so much that he could hardly eat or sleep. However, after he gratified his desires to sleep with her, then he suddenly abhorred her... and he hated her with greater passion than he had loved her. Wow!! This shows that the reality of it all is, he was not "in love" with her, but he was "in lust" over her. And his lust drove him to commit this horrible sin. But as soon as he committed the sin against her, it was no longer sweet, but bitterness. And how true this is of sin in general.
1 Cor. 6 parallels this theme as we see that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost and not meant for fornication or to be used for the fulfillment of sinful lusts. (Sexual, substance abuse, gluttony, and a thousand other ways we use and abuse our bodies!) Sin stinks... it bites back, it hurts... sometimes it might take a bit longer for the bitter consequences to be felt, but the fruit of lusts that is eaten in sin (and outside God's proper boundaries of divine order and protection) will also bring gall and bitterness as a result.
Dear Heavenly Father, helps us not to feed our human sinful lusts for things that merely gratify the flesh. Help us to cling to You, and stay surrendered to You, and please fill us with a greater desire for your Spirit.
[Note: I'm in the Philippines now! I arrived yesterday! So excited to see how God will bless here. However, I'm in a quandary over Internet, and may go a day or two without connection on my computer... so if I don't keep up these postings, you know why. Right now I'm using a hot-spot on my phone to make this post, but I don't know if I have enough data to always do this! Please pray for me as I speak at the Manila Adventist Medical Center church, at the Adventist University of the Philippines, as I do a week of prayer at Pasay SDA church (another big church next to the Adventist medical center here in Manila), and I will also speak this next week to the staff at the SSD division headquarters. As you can imagine, I'm feeling quite inadequate about it all...and need prayers that His strength will be made perfect in my weakness.]
Tomorrow's Reading: 2 Sam. 15-16 and 1 Cor. 7
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