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Key Bible Verse: "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Bonus Reading: James 2:10-11

It's okay to take a few office supplies from work," we tell ourselves, "because I ran an errand for my boss on my own time." Picking, choosing, and deciding which sins are trivial and which are the biggies is a completely human tendency. A young man once told me, "It's like a heavenly bank account. As long as I make more deposits than withdrawals, I'm in good shape."

I shared the biblical reality with him: The very first time he made a withdrawal, the account was emptied and closed forever. He thought that was a bit harsh. But I explained that I didn't make the rules, God did. And I shared this truth with him not to depress him, but to make him aware and appreciative of God's mercy.

If you're a believer, your account has been closed, and a new one opened in Christ's name. You're wealthy, but you can't make another deposit or withdrawal. As Christians we just get the benefits of this new account, living off the interest—or, to put it another way, living off the blessing granted us by the blood of Jesus. It's a truth that makes you want to look up and yell, "Hallelujah!"

—David Rich in 7 Biblical Truths You Won't Hear in Church

My Response: I'll thank a God who cuts us no slack, but also "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all" (Romans 8:32).

Thought to Apply: Sin is a power in our life; let us fairly understand that it can only be met by another power.     —Henry Drummond (Scottish evangelist)

Adapted from 7 Biblical Truths You Won't Hear in Church (Harvest, 2006) by permission.

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Prayer for the Week

Intensify my grasp of your holiness this week so that I can begin to comprehend the cost of sacrificing your Son.

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