That got me thinking about things in our lives. A lot of times, people allow sin to enter into their lives. It acts like a virus or bacteria that slowly affects us and tries to destroy us. People try to do their best to hide it, but eventually it will show itself and affect them and those around them. Remember the story of Achan, in the book of Joshua. His sin affected a group of people. It is the same for us today. We allow sin into our life and try our best to hide it. We keep it from those we love and sometimes we allow other sins to help cover that sin. Then, sooner or later, it comes out and hurts you and those who care about you. Sin is like a staph infection. It comes into your life and slowly it feeds on the good. After a while, it controls more and more of the body.

God has called us to be followers of Christ. Luke 14:33 says, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” A follower means that you hand everything over to him in your life. God wants a total commitment. You can’t just give him the part of you that people see on Sunday. He wants all of you. How can you expect God to be there for you, if you have this sin in your life, that you are trying to hide from him and all the people around you? Thankfully, we have a loving and forgiving God. He loves us unconditionally and sent the antidote for the sin and infection in our life — Jesus. We need to believe in God and allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to come into our life, clean out the sin and strengthen us.

— Rev. Ryan Keltner is associate pastor at Cornerstone Family Worship in Tonganoxie.