Eating Liver is a Sin

Yesterday I heard a message from a Pastor and it dawned on me, I hate eating liver. It’s gross and nasty. If all of the liver disappeared from the store shelves for the rest of my life, I think I would crack a smile. I really don’t like it. Did I mention I hate it? Ya, I did. I really dislike it.. a lot.

Eating liver has taken place many times in my life. It looks good when cooked, it smells fantastic, and that all familiar pleasing sound from friends and family, “..but you haven’t tried MY liver, I make a great liver!” It always ended the same, “Eww! Why did I do that?!?”

Now, I’m to the point in life where I won’t even try liver. You can make it look great with the onions, it can fill my nose with that great aroma, and you can tell me how great your recipe is, and I will not try it. Pile bacon on it, bread it, deep fry it, make it Cajun style, and put every spice in the world on it, and you will not deceive me. I just won’t partake in tasting liver again. I learned the lesson of liver and I do not plan to retake the liver test. Do you want to know another thing I hate more than liver? Sin…

This brings me to a predicament. I hate liver and won’t eat it. In the same breath, I say that I hate sin even more, but I eat the forbidden fruit of sin. See, this Pastor was answering a question, “How do I not sin in a world where I am surrounded with sin?” Here is a paraphrase of his answer  –

It’s not about behavioral modification, it’s about heart transformation. If we are trying to modify our behavior, we’re really going to struggle. If your heart changes.. like, I don’t like green onions very much. Some one can bring out a big tray of green onions and even if I’m hungry, I’m not attracted and I’m not interested.  If I don’t have a desire for it, it can be all around me, it doesn’t matter..

Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

The NIV says, ‘teaching us to say no to ungodliness’. Jesus Christ shows up on the scene, His grace brings us to salvation and then His grace teaches us to live lives that are Holy.

This hit me. I try to not sin. I try to adjust my behaviors. I try to analyze and examine. I try to figure it out with scripture (notice the “I try..” statements?). God says “You can’t Joseph… Only my Son is righteous.”

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Romans 3:23-26 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

But, eating liver is a sin? I’m comparing physical things (liver) to spiritual things (sin). I say that I hate sin more than liver. Man, this is hard but the confession is good. When I’m truthful, I find that at the moment of sin, I choose to sin (again, at that specific moment) because I do not hate it as much as liver. The truth is, at the moment I choose to sin, I’m choosing to love the sin. I mean, not really.. but really. I’m surrendering to it. It becomes my master.

Right now, as I type this. I can say for a fact that I despise sin and hate it. All that is within my soul hates sin. That’s true. At this very moment, I also hate liver. Now, if someone laid <whatever> sin in front of me, as well as a plate of liver, what would happen? I know for a fact I wouldn’t eat the liver, there is no doubt whatsoever. I cannot say with this certainty that I wouldn’t eat of the forbidden fruit. It’s an issue of heart..

When things that are pleasing to the eye, the aromas, the sounds, desired by the flesh, etc., I get deceived, tempted, and sucked in just as I have with liver. Like the example above with friends and family, the sounds: Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. Deceptions of the flesh.. Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. Eating liver is a sin.. :)  I have learned the lesson of the deceptions with liver and do not eat. If I hated sin as much as liver, I wouldn’t eat. Again, it’s an issue of heart..

Learning the liver lesson has assisted in not partaking any longer. I’ve been transformed. Within sin, it is the same scenario as when I was in the midst of retrying liver over and over again. I spoke words, had knowledge, a desire to not do it, but then deception came in via the senses of the flesh, and I would partake in eating liver. I have repented from eating liver, but I have not repented on certain sins in my life. Thus I end up in the same boat, “Eww! Why did I do that?!?”

Lord Jesus, forgive me… I come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy. Help transform my heart to hate sin just as I hate liver. I don’t want to partake any more. I don’t want to desire it any more and I want the attraction for sin to be no more… I seek your grace in my time of need.. In your name, amen.

Hebrews 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

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