I am Paul; We are all Pauls.

Because you sin every day, does that make you unsaved or a bad Christian? Do you have to ask God for forgiveness every time you sin?

If we sin all day long, in our thoughts, our words, our actions and deeds, we would have to constantly be asking God to forgive us. Thankfully, we are already forgiven if He lives in our hearts. Our goal is to sin as little as possible, but because we are human, we will always make mistakes. As much as we try to be LIKE God, we can never BE God. For there is only One and you and I are not it.

The more you chase after God, the more likely you are to be attacked by Satan. The liberal, unsaved, world loves to see a Pastor or a man of God fall into sin in a very public way. Maybe the very public pastor had a very long affair with his secretary. And when the affair came to light and hit the news, people questioned the pastor's love for God and whether or not he was really saved. No matter how much we love the Lord, we will always just be "man". At his best, man is still a man. Remember when Paul said that he hates when he does things he knows he shouldn't and doesn't do the things he knows he should? We all have those same issues. The same is true for both men and women alike.

It was Adam's fault that man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. Yikes...you say? You think it was Eve's fault. I say a big, fat, NO! Eve was deceived by Satan, while Adam willfully chose to sin. I believe that if Eve had eaten of the forbidden tree and Adam had chosen to obey God, we would still be enjoying life in heaven on earth. That's why it is important to realize that women are more easily tricked or deceived than men and men are supposed to care for us and protect us from evil.

My Rossi .38 and Taurus .22 protect me just fine, but when I grow up, I hope God sends me a wonderful, God fearing man to help me to better discern when I'm being deceived. It would keep me from appearing in so many episodes of "COPS". But, that's a whole other story.

My sister always told her husband not to put her on a pedestal. If he did, then she would have farther to fall. We should never esteem anyone higher than God. A church pastor is still a man. He may be a very Godly man, but he's a human and is still likely to sin. If you've ever seen your pastor in a grocery store, were you amazed that he would visit such a place? Wow....do they really eat food? I thought they were just nourished by some random manna directly from heaven. I remember, as a teenager, seeing one of my teachers in the grocery store. I asked him what he was doing there, as if a teacher didn't buy groceries or shop for themselves. They, like Santa, had their elves do it for them.

The next time you're tempted to sin, think about not being tempted. Choose not to sin whenever possible. Do you gossip at work? Do you ever tell a lie...even a white lie? (And why is it white and not blue?) Do you make up stories to make your life sound more exciting than it really is? Well, STOP IT! That reminds me of a very funny Bob Newhart skit. You can see it on You Tube and it is appropriately called, "STOP IT!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1g3ENYxg9k) It doesn't really have anything to do with this discussion, but it's still funny, nonetheless.

One day while teaching my Sunday school class, I passed out stones to the children in the class. I told them the story about the woman who had committed adultery and because of the laws of Moses, she was to be stoned, to death, for her crime. Jesus told the Pharisees that he who was without sin should cast the first stone. If you are without sin and you think you are in a position to stone someone who sins, you cast the first stone and let me know how that works out for you.

If you know the story of the adulterous woman, found in John 7:53 - 8:11, you would see that there was a double standard even in the time of Jesus. Why did the Pharisees not ask that the man, with whom the woman had the affair, be stoned to death? Why was it okay for the man to sin, but not the woman? Isn't it the same way in today's society? We seem to better accept that a man can run around town with every Jan, Rita and Susie. But a woman can't run around with every Tom, Dick and Harry without being called a very bad word. Be an anti-NIKE commercial and heed the words of Chris Rock - Just don't do it!

No one, except for God, has the right to judge anyone else. So, I say....JUST STOP IT! Before you become too concerned about the speck of sawdust in the eye of your neighbor, maybe you should get a plastic surgeon to remove that 2x4x10 from your own eye. Ouch...that's got to hurt and it's probably gonna leave a mark!

I hope you always keep on LAFN, and as always, that's my opinion and I welcome yours!

Have a God Blessed day!

Nancie