Is the glass half-full… or half-empty? Which does God call it? Does He say you’re half right, or half wrong? What does the Bible say?

Does God encourage you while you are yet sinning? Or does He tell you to remove the sin? Even a cursory glance at what God said through His prophets will tell you that He ALWAYS sent His prophets to tell Israel where they were sinning.

But let’s look at it from a different angle – let’s say someone gives you a piece of paper with many errors in it, and you will get $1,000 if you can get rid of EVERY one of those errors… how would you find the errors? Would you concentrate on the words that were spelled correctly – because you don’t want to look at the ones that might be wrong? Is that the best way to get this reward? Certainly not!

You would read the paper many, many times and look for every flaw, and you would look up everything that even MIGHT be a flaw… because you want that reward. Well, God does the same thing with you. He wants you to be perfect. The only way to achieve this is to CHANGE the FLAWS.

Now, this isn’t nearly as “comfortable” as thinking about your strengths, and all the things you’ve got right. But if you want to become GODLIKE you must accentuate the negative… not to dwell on it… but to CHANGE it! Repent of it, and it won’t be there anymore… in other words, if you don’t want to be told that you’re wrong, DON’T BE WRONG.

You see, God walks with you. He walks in your home, and He is with you constantly. But He WILL LEAVE if your home… and your life… are not clean enough. Not righteous enough.

Deuteronomy 23:12-14 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and TURN AWAY FROM THEE.

If He sees an unclean thing in your life, He WILL distance Himself from you. He doesn’t like sin. If you want to have Him closer… “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh unto you” (James 4:8). That means get more like God, get closer to want He wants, and He will get closer to you!

The Israelites didn’t take this seriously enough. How much does it take for God to be displeased with you? How many sins can you “get away with” before He gets mad? Look at what happened to the entire NATION of Israel when ONE person sinned.

Joshua 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

Because of this one man’s sin, the nation ran from their enemies – God wasn’t with them to deliver them. EXACTLY as He said would happen in Deuteronomy 23.

Verse 6, 10 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?

Look at God’s attitude! He said WHY are you lying on your face? YOU KNOW what’s wrong! You know there is only ONE THING that could have caused this to happen – SIN! Uncleanness in the camp!

Verses 11-12 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. THEREFORE the children of Israel COULD NOT STAND before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, EXCEPT ye DESTROY the accursed from among you.

ONE man brought this curse upon Israel. The rest of the country knew nothing of his theft – and yet they were cursed along with him. Because “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). And God took it so seriously, that unless they got rid of this ONE chunk of leaven, He said “I will not be with you ANY MORE”. That is deadly serious.

Revelation 12:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Even IF you’re not sinning, if you put up with sin in your life, in your home, and in your church, you WILL partake of the curse it brings!

God ALWAYS says the glass is half-empty. He didn’t concentrate on the good the other 99.9999% of the country was doing. He always tells you the bad side, SO THAT YOU CAN FIX IT! Would you honestly want it any other way? You will need all the help you can get to fix all the errors in the “document”… only, if you can fix THIS document, the reward is infinitely greater than a paltry $1,000.

It only takes one sin to bring a curse, and to make God distance Himself from you… perhaps just a little bit at first, but as one sin leads to another, and another, soon He’s not there at all. He won’t be there to deliver your enemies into your hands.

Believe it or not, this is already happening to you. God is farther from you than He’d like to be. He’s not able to work in your life dramatically. If you want to correct this, it starts with YOU – NOT HIM! Get rid of all of the errors – flaws – sins that you can see. ALL of them. Then look for more. You, and you alone, control how close God is to you. God will be as close to you as He can possibly get, but He will NOT tip-toe around the sins that you know surround you, and cover His eyes when He looks in certain directions!

Don’t think for a second that because you go to church once a week that you’re immune to the penalty for sin. Don’t think that you’re “special” to Him and that He won’t punish you for it.

Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

This has been a recurring theme throughout history; a church, or a nation, that thinks it’s “God’s Chosen People” and therefore that “no evil can happen to us!” – “After all,” they say, “THIS IS GOD’S CHURCH!”

Jeremiah 7:3-4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. TRUST YE NOT in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.…

YOU in whom the spirit dwells are the temple of the LORD, but that will NOT save you if you don’t fully eradicate sin!

Jeremiah 7:9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are DELIVERED to do all these abominations?

The church today believes it is SPIRITUAL – it can’t be affected by Dreamcatchers, or pictures of Angels, or Demonic shows in their homes – after all, they don’t actually BOW DOWN to it! They think that they’re ABOVE keeping the letter of the law – that they’re delivered to do this! If this describes you, read on!

Verse 12 But GO YE NOW unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to IT for the wickedness of my people Israel.

The modern church is not the first group of people to act this way; we have examples in history! So go look at them! Because God will treat you no differently!

Verses 14-15 Therefore will I do unto THIS HOUSE, which is CALLED BY MY NAME [The Church of GOD] wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

The priesthood made that mistake. So did Israel, and Judah. And the first century churches. Eventually, this happens to all churches. They all eventually start to think they can thumb their noses at God because they are “His people.” Where are they now?

IF you REALLY want God in your life… Helping you… Blessing the work of your hands… Hearing your prayers… You absolutely MUST judge yourself (1 Corinthians 11:31). You MUST search out and remove your errors. If it even MIGHT be a sin, GET RID OF IT!

Not knowing about a sin just isn’t good enough. A common attitude today is “Oh, I wish you hadn’t told me that, because now I’m expected to do it!” That attitude is DEAD WRONG! If this is the attitude you take to this way of life, YOU MISSED THE POINT.

Luke 12:47-48 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, SHALL BE BEATEN with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

If you commit a sin of ignorance, you won’t receive the same punishment as you will when you commit a sin willfully… BUT you WILL still be punished! This should make you WANT to be corrected! To THIRST to be told that you’re wrong. To BEG God to show you your flaws. This is not about how LITTLE you can possibly get by with, but how MUCH you can possibly get right! If you approach it in the wrong attitude YOU WILL FAIL!

Lamentations 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

How close do you REALLY want to be to God? Do you REALLY want Him near you?

PROVE IT. HE’S WAITING.