I believe lies

Often times I find myself joyless when I give into sin. The satisfying pleasure I receive from a sinful action, thought, word, or deed is like grabbing a stick of dynamite with a “micro fuse” and attempting to throw it to see it blow up. The idea is thrilling, exciting, new...but short lived. The short fuse doesn't even travel a foot from the hand before it blows up in once face, "burning" them badly and potentially causing collateral damage to anyone around.

In my mind this is how sin often times works and how the enemy seeks to use sin to his advantage. Sin is seemingly appealing because it’s, in its most basic form, a power trip for the “user.” Whether sin manifests itself through lying, pornography, stealing, or humiliating someone else the act is appealing or “tempting” because the user, i.e. the sinner, of whichever "vehicle" of sin it might be, is ultimately seeking to receive power by elevating themselves above someone else, or something else to maintain or review a status or affection – power.

Lying for instance, if a woman lies to her husband about where she really was yesterday, she is withholding information from someone to position herself to continual receive a perception that fills her ego or consciences with comfort. The power in this case is contingent upon her husband believing something that she knows is otherwise less that true which intern grants her power to not have to face the consequences of her actions, her husband’s perception of her having the potential to be altered by the truth of what she did. And while she may be able to deal with the lie for now the question is “can she live with the power she wasn't intended to have?”

Pornography is just the same. A man watches porn, believing that something is being withheld from him, some type of beauty, love, affection, or gratification is hidden from him and porn will be his remedy to feel what he is lacking. Porn is like a bird with a crocodile mouth and a parakeet ass. It has a loud mouth claiming to satisfy but having little body or depth to follow through with its words. Men feel powerful when given the ability to sexually feel sought after and satisfied; porn gives that power to a man, temporarily of course. The power brought by porn has a short lifespan that needs a consistent refill in order to be maintained.

The power that sin holds surely is real. Its deceptive, and does not live up to what its users believes it would be, but none the less has the ability to create a large, thrilling, boom. Sin tempts the man and woman to look only inward at theirs self not realizing the effects of what is about to happen in the following seconds. Sin leads its users to have tunnel vision right before its user’s pulls the trigger. The thought is only about the possibility of experience the power, the magnificence of the act, word, deed, thought, or whisper.

Then after the explosion come the burns...

After eventually coming to an sense of reality and realizing the depth of what just happened, that the thing that one thought would work in their favor blew up in their face burned them and hurt the people around, was not what they actually wanted, the shame, the guilt, and the joylessness sets in.

 From then on out a glance in the mirror tells you that you are burned and those burns are noticeable. The burns are deep and scar your body and everyone can notice, or so you may think.

This is the biggest way I find that the enemy uses sin. It’s not to hurt other people, but to remind the user of sin, the one who threw dynamite- or took part in it, that they are now set apart, ugly, worthless, unlovable, and simply dumb; that the burns shout the event to the world define the person. The lie is crafty and cunning it numbs the mind to the truth of Gods reality. 

Truth:

In Christ, there are no burns that define you. In fact the burns that should be on you from sin were placed on Christ on the cross. Not only did someone take the dynamite from you right when you lit the fuse, but they placed in on their heart so you would not be damaged by its effects. 

The lie of the enemy that you are marked because of your short comings or burns exist only to take Joy of the true present reality out of your life, which is the Cross of Christ. While the sins greatest effect is not just burning you, but making you believe that you’re burned beyond repair. Likewise Christ’s greatest gift is not just taking those burns away from you and placing them on himself, but allowing you to live in the reality that those burns were completely healed through his Resurrection. That the wounds that should be on your body, were placed on his, healed in just three days and now they have no place in your life because you live in relationship with a friend, brother, and King who has the power to continually set you free from every explosion, power trip, or temptation that you partake in or cause.