Hidden Sin...

As a Pastor, I have wondered what the effects of hidden sin are on a unsuspecting body of believers. Not long ago, I read Achan's story. Achan could tell us how secret sins affect the whole body. In the book of Joshua, Chapter 7, Achan's story of envy and deception is recorded. After the Lord guided Israel to win a battle, Achan kept some war spoils that the Lord had directed to be put in the Holy Treasury. Achan kept them for himself and buried them under his tent. The penalty was swift and just - a demonstration of the Old Testament vehemence of God's wrath. Because of Achan's sin Israel lost a battle - which should not have happened, and they weren't used to this at all; the Lord had been going before them and their enemies were falling like water. In the lost battle, 36 fighting men died and they had to retreat. Then Achan was found out and his whole family paid for his sin.

REAL LIFE FILE UPDATE: A man I know was updating his house, and he and a partner working with him experienced this. "He and I were taking up the plywood in the attic and he discovered under a board two magazines--a Playboy and a Penthouse! I bagged them up, tied two knots and he took them to a deep sinkhole on a farm where he stays!" Throw the sin far from you! Cast it out! Crucify it as Galatians 2:20 says. 

The prevailing thought by one engaged in sinful behavior is that my choices don't affect anyone else. Isn't it ironic how far we will go to keep sin in our lives? Hidden but still there. Under the illusion that we possess it, but all the while knowing, without admitting that Sin ends up POSSESSING US!

If we are honest, like C.S. Lewis has alluded to in several of his writings we must admit that we have... an intimate relationship with sin. I am a sinner. Sin nature is in me. It's in you too. People we know and love are sinners. This experience has led to a rediscovery that without boundaries or guardrails people will often go as far as we can with sin. However, if there are boundaries in place for safety and protection - it is hard to go too far. Without boundaries, (Godly, Parental, Community Laws) many will go as far as they can. I wonder how the lives of the previous owners and others in that home were affected by the sinful pornographic abuse? I'm sure that though the magazines were hidden, the affects of the sin were not hidden.

What is happening in homes near you now? Pray for them and look for opportunities to do more; to be accountability, or to physically walk through restoration with them. Because they need to know that their file of hidden sin, isn't "only affecting them?"
To be more personal - Is there hidden sin, "that is only affecting you?" Let's read it more personal, "Am I hiding sin, that is going to affect others in the future?"

Ephesians 5:11-13 says,
"¹¹Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
 ¹²for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
 ¹³But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light."

EXPOSE IT, ILLUMINATE IT, BRING IT OUT OF HIDING.
LIVE FOR JESUS TODAY!