Monday August 20th Ezekiel 23

What does your sin look like?

If someone were to ask you to give a visual depiction of your sins, to paint an accurate picture of your sins how would you describe them?

Would you paint a picture of you and Jesus at a campground by the lake playing tug of war with a watch because you spend your time on things that build your kingdom and not God's?

Would you paint a picture of a giant U-Haul truck full of material things that you desire and want to use to fill and make comfortable the tent that Jesus has set up at that campground but he is trying to guard the entrance to keep it clean and tidy?

Maybe for you it would be a picture of you sitting around a campfire with Jesus who is holding an intervention meeting for one of the many addictions that one can take hold of and not know how to let go of?

Or maybe even yet the picture would be of Jesus roasting marshmallows at a campfire and stuffing smore's into your mouth to stop you from gossiping about others.

There are so many pictures we could paint because there are so many different sin struggles in the world we live in. You may be wondering why I choose to use a "camping" theme in these four pictures.  The name that God gave to Judah was Oholibah which in Hebrew means: woman of the tent; the tent is in her.  Judah (whose capital is Jerusalem) is the dwelling place of God's Temple built by Solomon.  Prior to the temple being built God dwelled in the "Tent of Meeting" located in Judah.

If you are a child of God then guess what?  You are Ohlibah!  You are of the tent (a part of God's family).  The tent is in you (you are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit).  God has set up camp in your heart. 

1 Corinthians 6:19
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?  You are not your own."

What does this mean?  It means that when we read today's very graphic depiction of God's view of Oholibah's sin we better pay attention.  Judah; despite watching the demise of their sister nation; failed to see their sin the way God did.  They knew they were the nation with whom God chose to place his "Tent" and it is possible that gave them a false sense of security; an inability to see the extent of the filth from their sins that filled their hearts.

As Christians I think we too can feel "safe" in our sin.  We are, after all, forgiven from all our sins.  We paint pictures of God not "liking" our sins or being "sad" for us because of our sins.  But the truth of the matter is this: our hearts belong to God.  They are a place, a tent, for his spirit to dwell.  Whenever we allow our hearts to long after something else we are allowing that other thing to take up residency in our hearts, in the "tent" of the Holy Spirit.  We are asking God to move over and share us with another.  Truth of the matter is we can often invite several different things to take up residency in our hearts.  We end up committing spiritual prostitution, spiritual promiscuity, spiritual immorality, spiritual adultery.   The ugly and uncomfortable picture God so graphically painted of the sins of Oholibah is the same picture he paints of our sins.  No tug of war, no roasting marshmallows, no yellow smilies portraying an array of cartoon emotion , no candy coated pictures.  Our sin left unattended is graphically offensive to our Holy God.  He is a jealous God (Duet 4:24). God wants us all to himself and he is unwilling to let sin dwell next to him.

Thankfully He is also a God of mercy, grace, love and forgiveness.  God's desire for Oholibah (Judah) was not complete destruction but a repentant heart and freedom from the destruction (the guilt) of their sins.  He desired for them to clean out the tents of their hearts from the lusts and sinful desires and to rest next to him in peace and satisfaction, in trust and in truth, in faith and in hope. He wants us to treasure Him, our relationship with Him, to make Him the priority of our lives.

Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart (tent) will be also.

So next time you are tempted to invite sin into your heart put on God's glasses and reread Ezekiel 23 with your name in place of Oholibah and see clearly the picture God would have of that sin.  Then ask yourself; "Is that really how I want to be portrayed?"  Sometimes it isn't easy to clean house or to say no but God loves us and is there to help us.  He is our portion and our strength and with him we can keep the tents of our hearts clear and clean. 

He isn't going anywhere.  He will never leave you nor forsake you  (Josh 1:5, Heb 13:5).  He does not abandon that which belongs to him.

Philippians 1:6
"being confident in this, that he who began a good  work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

You are his masterpiece and the picture he is working on in you is more beautiful then we can ever imagine.