Hey Everyone,

This is just a very quick post before I go to bed. I know it's been a long time since I was last active here and I'm sorry for that. It's a long story  really, one that I'd rather not get into right now. Just wanted to let you all know I'm still around and doing okay, just very very busy right now.

Which leads me to a exciting announcment. Some of you may remember my 'Weekly Praise' project that I was doing last year. Well, one of the things I'm currently so busy with is a website for it.  I'm so very excited. God has been inspiring me over the past year a lot in regards to this. I'd started a site for it on Wordpress back in February, but never completed it. Now I'm well on my way to finishing a completely self-built website. It's going to be so awesome. I can't wait till it's done.

For now, please check out the following links:

http://www.lettherebepraise.com - The official website. It's still coming soon, but the entry page is up with the logo and such.

http://twitter.com/LetThereBPraise - The official twitter account for it.

I'll try and post here on occasion and also will keep you all posted on what's happening with the website. Already have a lot of interest towards it and it's not even done!

I hope you're all blessed and doing well.

Blessings and Love,
Sarah

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to explain why I haven't been around the past while. Especially with my weekly praise thing. It saddens me each time that I think I've neglected it.

I'm very much struggling through mourning over the loss of my very close friend recently. One of the side effects seems to be that I don't really want to socialize. Talking to people, especially online, is so much effort these days. Sadly, this extended to blogging too. There's a lot I have to deal with, which God is helping me through. It's just taking a lot longer than I'd expected, and seems to have hit me harder than I realized. After 3 other deaths the last 2 years, you'd think I could get past this easier.

Anyway, I don't know when I'll be around as much again. Just sort of going with the flow on this one. He really meant the world to me, and it's still near impossible to imagine him not being in my life anymore.

Hope you all are blessed, nonetheless. I might still be around from time to time, and I will more than likely read comments or messages received -- just might take awhile before I reply.

Thanks for understanding.

Blessings and Love,
Sarah

(I speak from my own experiences with sin here, what I struggle with, and what God is showing me.)

Have you ever thought of what happens when you sin? What effect it has on your relationship with God? Sure, we all know that we can repent from sins and be forgiven -- but what other, possibly lasting, effects does it have on us? Also, how much different is it for us verses the original sin of Adam and Eve?

When someone sins knowingly, they are building a wall between them and God. You know you are hurting Him, you know you are disobeying Him, you know you have done something wrong. So, how can one face their LORD of whom they have disobeyed? Unlike with humans, you can't simply act like it didn't happen. God knows everything, and He knows what you did or thought. There's no hiding it. The closest thing a human can do is to run away -- to avoid God, to not talk to Him, not associate with Him. Yet He's still there, still knows you did it. You just don't have to think about it. This is the worst aspect of sin, it causes you to turn from the only one who can save you. Shame, guilt, fear, not wanting to let go of a certain cherished sin or admit you were wrong for it -- these are all major blocks that build our wall between God and ourselves when we sin.

This, however, must pale in comparison to what Adam and Eve felt when they sinned. We can hide, we can forgot about God and go on about our daily lives, pushing Him further away. They couldn't, though. They lived face-to-face with Him in the garden, and it was impossible for them to avoid Him. Imagine how much greater the fear and shame must have been! To not only know you were caught in the act of something very wrong, but to know you have absolutely no way out of the consequences! How lucky we are that He is forgiving and patient, and that we have many chances to change and repent from our sinful ways. One sin does not throw us out of the "garden" unless we let it.

Does this mean that our sins are less important than those of Adam and Eve's? Less harmful? Not in the least! "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 6:23 NKJV. Paul didn't say that any one sin does not cause death, rather that all do. The only difference between that of Adam and Eve's sin verses ours, is that they were living face-to-face with God at the time they did it. We are born in a world already separated from God, into a world full of sin. Thusly our punishment may hold off until we are judged, because we simply have to blend in with the sinful world of which we live.

This does not mean that we won't see God's blessings less in our lives if we continue to sin, though. As I said before, with each sin we are building up a wall between us and God. It is not Him who builds it, it is us. Every sin we commit requires true repentance and a real desire to change in order to knock down the bricks we have places from it, otherwise it may still be present when we try to commune with God. Whether it is a lack of faith that we will be able to fight temptation next time, some remnants of guilt as we don't fully believe we are forgiven, or some feelings that we still want to commit the sin again in the future -- it still can play an effect on us, even after repenting.

So, next time you find yourself giving into temptation in some way, try and consider what damage it is really doing. Think of how much bigger its effects are on you and your relationship with God, beyond a simple moment's sin that you can later take back. Do we really want to risk putting one too many bricks on that wall, that it causes us to be unable of turning back to Him one day?

What have you noticed sin do to effect your life and relationship with God in the past?