allergic – sensitive to, affected by

allergy – reaction, aversion, hypersensitivity

antipathy – hatred, opposition, ill feeling

When she began to light up her cigarette, before I knew it, I told the lady I’d been casually chatting with from the train station, “I’m allergic, so I’m gonna cross the street here.  Have a good day!”  I don’t know if I’m really allergic to tobacco smoke, but I have such a strong aversion to it that I try to steer clear of it at all costs.  I’m not judging anyone, but I have a personal preference to be in a smoke-free environment 24/7.  When I see someone on the sidewalk ahead of me with a cigar, I’ll go out of my way to avoid walking through the revolting cloud.  At the very least, I’ll hold my breath as long as I can, so as not to get the ickiness in my lungs, throat, and nasal passages. Cigar smoke repulses (and literally nauseates) me.

As Christians, we should be the same way with sin – but are we?  Not just what we think of or categorize as sin (i.e., what we label as “the biggies” – though God doesn’t categorize sin), but what God Himself calls sin (unrighteousness; whatever doesn’t line up with His Word).  Not only the outwardly apparent stuff, but especially those inner matters of the heart that no one but God sees when we try (and miserably fail) to hide them.  The effect of sin (including our own!) in our presence should be an automatically righteous response – but this comes by disciplining ourselves with (and submitting consistently to) the Word of God.  We must constantly desire to walk in light and truth instead of getting comfortable in darkness and “grey areas” of compromise.

Do you hate sin – in yourself as well as in others?  Since sin blocks, pollutes, taints, and contaminates the flow of relationship with our Creator (and consequently impacts our relationships with our brothers and sisters), ask God to give you a hatred toward the things He hates.  As we 1) humble ourselves in His presence, 2) honestly admit the (numerous) areas we come up short, and 3) genuinely repent (evidenced by a change of heart and behavior), He is faithful to cleanse us so we can experience unbroken fellowship with Him.  Run (don’t walk!) to His refreshing well of pure, life-giving water and be cleansed today!

“Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.”

(Ezekiel 37:23)

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

(John 4:14)

© Copyright 2011 by Kayren J. Cathcart