At 9 something this morning, Joseph and Ben swung by and picked me up on their way to Frys. They needed external hard drives, and I needed to return two gigs of notebook RAM I bought a while ago at Best Buy. We ended up taking many more hours than necessary because we were perpetually lost.

The three of us couldn't seem to find our way around Sacramento. First we went down the wrong freeway, and then after finally getting to Frys, we drove around for a really long time before we found the Best Buy a few blocks away.

Twas a fun adventure. We were going to eat at Ikeas, but Ben had to make it back to davis by 12:30, and we were late already.

In the evening, I didn't have any pictures aside from the four random ones I took during our trip, so I looking around for stuff and found matches and a candle that we used when we lost power for a day during the storm a few days ago.

Devotion time notes:

Romans 6

Christians should not and must not continue living in sin. Though no one is sinless, Christians are enabled and called by God to not live in sin. We all live in a fallen world, like pigs living in a muddy pen. While we cannot avoid becoming dirty in such a condition, what we can avoid is wallowing in mud.

We were slaves to sin, and now that we have been freed, why should we fall back into it?

When we declare our allegiance to Christ through baptism, we also are declaring that we share with him in his death. Since Christ died for sin, we must die to sin. Also, just as Christ was raised to life from this death for sin, we are raised to a new life after dying to sin.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God
Ephesians 5:1-2

Going back to the pig pen analogy, being a slave to sin is like being unable to not wallow in the mud. Though there might be seemingly clean spots on the pig rolling in the mud (just as sinners might be able to do many things that have the appearance of righteousness), the nature of that pig is the mud (just as the nature of mankind is sin). Being freed from sin is like being freed from the mud, and though we cannot keep ourselves perfectly clean, we do not have to live in the mud. When we claim Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are casting off our old selves and allowing God to pick us up out of the sinful nature to which we were slaves. With this view in mind, it would be foolishness to return to and wallow in the mud from which we were freed.

We must not obey and be controlled by sin, for this is what we did when we were slaves to it. Instead, we must reject it and flee from it, being slaves instead to the God who made us and saved us.

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:13

I must be mindful not to offer any parts of my body or life to be used as instruments of sin and wickedness, for I am called to offer all of myself to God for his purposes, and his purposes are never sin.

The wrong of using our bodies and lives for sin is twofold. Besides the obvious aspect of committing what is ungodly and what God has instructed us to not do, we are also depriving God of things we use for our own sinful purposes. If we use our lives for wickedness, we are losing he opportunity to use our lives for godly purposes.

I must be alert not only in avoiding obvious sins, but also in not overlooking opportunities to obey God.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Romans 6:14

If we were saved by works, then sin would still be our master, for none are absent of sin. All have sinned and fall short of God's glory. However, by God's mercies we are saved through grace by a covenant of faith. Therefore, though we cannot be absent of sin, we are freed from it and are not slaves to it.

Given that we are saved by grace, should we then feel free to continue in sin? "By no means!" Paul says. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot claim God as our master, yet still give ourselves to sin. If we offer ourselves to sin and obey sin as slaves of it, then we are slaves to sin and not God.

Being a slave to sin leads to death, but being a slave to obedience leads to godliness, righteousness, and Glory!

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
Romans 6:20-12

What benefits do we reap of sin? Temporal pleasures and worldly happiness, but nothing we can keep. If the the wages of sin were as visible as its pleasures and worldly gains, no one would dare sin. However, sin blinds us and causes us to act in ways that are foolish. The word of God gives us a way to see past the foolishness of this fallen world and grab hold of righteousness. It is our job to keep our grip firm.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23