"There's a Big Difference Between Mostly Dead and All Dead"

I was cleaning mildew the other day. For a long time, I used bleach to clean the gross black growths I'd find on my walls or around the windows. But it always came back, and it never took very long to do so. Bleach apparently only partially kills mildew, and so, not long after the cleaning, more mildew grows back. As I began to research my problem, I found a helpful Facebook post from a man whose job was to clean houses between tenants. Bleach, he said, doesn't thoroughly kill the spores. It does a partial job. 

We constantly have mildew issues; it grows especially on the drywall around our bathrooms, due, no doubt, to the fact that five people live here who love scalding showers, combined with the poor quality of our bathroom vent that doesn't do a great job of clearing the condensation from the air. 

Also, our windows don't have the highest quality seals in the world, so condensation and build-up have been an issue for a while, and I just noticed the other day that we had mildew on all the window ledges.

Back to the helpful Facebook man. He had recommended Concrobium -- a mold-killing cleaning agent. My husband and I invested in this miraculous stuff and we set to work. I sprayed all the mildewed areas, and then began to clean, and voila! Even the hardest-to-remove most minute black spot was wiped away, and we all rejoiced greatly. We didn't want to leave a single mark, because then it would quickly grow back.

This morning, I read a post on social media that said this: "We may look back in fifteen years and discern that the messaging which taught young Christians to manage their sin (instead of killing it) was the primary factor which robbed an entire generation of Holy Ghost power."

Let that settle for a second. 

When we don't root out sin from our lives in its entirety...
When we make room for sin in the corner of our living rooms, or on our nightstands...
When we tell ourselves it can't be a sin because we're born this way, or it feels too good...
When we eradicate the easy parts but let the hard part remain...

It grows. Sin grows. It doesn't sit like a nice, easy, single spot, and stay that way. 

Take Lot, for example. You know, Biblical Lot, Abraham's nephew Lot, who, when his herdsmen and Abram's herdsmen couldn't get along, chose to part company with his uncle. Abram offered him first pick of the land available to them, and Lot picked the fertile green plain of Jordan, where he could easily feed and water his flocks and herds. It was a place where five cities had settled, and surely, it would prove to be a wonderful place to live. "Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar... So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord" (Genesis 13:10).

So, to summarize, Lot pitches his tents near the wicked city of Sodom.

The next time we hear about Lot, there was a battle, and a bunch of kings got together and they attacked the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and a few other places. The enemy kings won, so when they did, "[they] seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom" (Genesis 14:11-12).

Lot has had a change of residence. First, he was living near Sodom. Now he's living in Sodom.

The third time we see Lot is in Genesis 19 when two angels arrive in Sodom to destroy it. "The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city" (Genesis 19:1).

Lot has had a change of position. He's gone from foreign sheepherder... to city leader, since political affairs were conducted at the city gates (Genesis, Ruth, 2 Samuel, Esther, and more).

Lot didn't kill the sin in his life, and it grew and expanded. When we don't kill the sin in our lives, we first allow it, we nudge over to make room for it, and eventually... we celebrate it.

Without the boundaries that the Lord gave us in Scripture, we end up moving to Sodom and sitting at its city gates. Without Concrobium, unkilled mildew quickly grows back. Without heat, yeast expands. Without uprooting, weeds choke out good plants.

If you're like me, you love a good re-watch of the movie The Princess Bride. My favorite scene in the whole movie is when Fezzik and Inigo take an inert Westley to Miracle Max's hut to ask for a miracle: They want him brought back to life. Miracle Max, after investigating, pronounces this pithy detail: "It so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead -- and all dead." 

Westley, given this particular evidence of life (and a chocolate coated pill), lives to fight another day. ("Drop. Your. Sword.) :)

If this concept is true in so many parts of life, why would it be any different with sin? 

Jesus said, in John 8:32: "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Truth... (Jesus, Who IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life: John 14:6) sets us free. Lies, deceit... SIN... traps us in bondage. 

Kill it. Eradicate it. "See if there is any offensive way in me" (Psalm 139:24). Ask Him to remove it, completely. 

And then, enjoy the freedom that comes with God-given boundaries.