faith unfaded

I have had times of great mountaintop experiences with the Lord. I have witnessed, I have ministered, I have used my gifts. I walked closely with Him.

I have also entertained the devil many times. Drugs, premarital sex, lying, coveting, and cursing…I knew I was wrong and I hid from the Lord.

But never, in all those times spent running from God, was I in as bad a shape as I was two years ago when I found myself serving both God and Satan.

“Welcome to the gray,” a friend told me.

The gray is the most dangerous place for a Christian to be. Because it isn’t gray to the Lord…or to Satan. They both know it’s darkness and the only one being deceived is you.

At least in blatant sin, I knew I was wrong. I knew I needed to repent. I knew I needed to get things right with God. Sometimes it took longer than others but there was never any doubt that what I was doing was wrong.

In the gray, I foolishly believed that God was okay if I kept a few sins. Mainly the rebellion. It’s how He made me, I’d said.

God made us in the image of Himself. Any pockets of wickedness are for you to overcome, not to wear as a badge of honor.

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

If you spend long enough in the gray, blurring the lines of right and wrong, you deceive yourself. You will no longer be able to discern the kingdom of Light from the kingdom of darkness. You run the risk of being turned over to a reprobate mind.

The Message Bible speaks harshly of those who refuse to acknowledge the darkness in their lives in Romans.

Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! Romans 1:28-32

There are so many verses that warn us against operating in the gray:

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Galatians 5:9

Can a spring produce both fresh water and salt water from the same opening? James 3:11

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. James 3:10

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. Matthew 6:24
 
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Matthew 7:18

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? 2 Corinthians 6:16

Do not fall into the gray trap! It is merely black with blinders on!