the other day, i got an email from PayPal telling me i needed to verify my account. i’ve gotten them before. you have too. you know already that it was a fraudulent email, but i have to tell you… this one looked very convincing and although i am usually really, really smart about these things, i was tired and decided to click the link and check it out.

click…

and wouldn’t you just love firefox when it popped up the following (click the image to enlarge):

soon after this glorious little bit of salvation by firefox — i thought about sin and how easily we walk into situations that we know to be dangerous. we know they’re dangerous because either we have been warned before — or for some of us, have even walked through a situation a time or twelve.

we click the button on the mouse of our temptations, thinking the outcome will somehow be different…

this time i will…
be strong enough to say no to that sexual encounter…
be strong enough to say no to that drug being offered to me…
be strong enough to say no to that lie i could tell…
be strong enough to say no to that test i could cheat on…
be strong enough to… fill in the blank, you’ve been there…

but we end up broken, our memory overloaded and we crash because we just weren’t strong enough. our identity cluttered with the identities of a person we soon don’t recognize. in a place we know is dangerous, we know is stealing from us and know is pulling us farther and farther from freedom.

Hebrews 10:26-27 says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”

we all sin and fall short of the glory of God…we know that. but how easily we forget our greatest weapon. the Holy Spirit within us. no, really think about that… the very Spirit of our Savior within us, as our warning message against the things that kill, steal and destroy us.

John 16:12-15 speaks on this Holy Spirit and the role it plays in our lives against sin, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for he will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that he will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

for those of us who are Christians, the Holy Spirit is like a built in identity-theft system. but sometimes we just need a good rebooting.