The Penalty of Sin

I remember once when I was on the bus I over heard part of a conversation. It was hard not to hear it because the lady speaking was quite loud. She was complaining to another lady about her father. She was saying he had this horrible disease but that he deserved everything he had and more for things he had done in the past.
My first thought was we all deserve death. We all do. The penalty of sin is death and we are all sinners. If you don't believe we are born in sin hang out with a room full of two-year olds for 8 hours. You will see it. You don't have to teach a two-year old how to be bad or do wrong things. It's in their nature as it is in all of us. Their reaction to everything is anger, fear, jealousy, disobedience, rebellion. They react in kicking, biting, pushing, hitting, temper tantrums. We have to teach our children what is right and how to respond in obedience, kindness, gentleness, patience, love, etc. So, knowing we are all sinners - we all deserve death.
All through the old testament (before Jesus) the penalty of sin was death. When the high priest entered the Holy of Holies they had to tie ropes around his ankles because if he entered with even one unholy thought he would fall down dead. They tied ropes around his ankles to drag him out. You may say well that was before grace & mercy. Well, in the book of Acts, Ananias and his wife sinned, lied, and tried to cover it up and they dropped down dead. And this was after Jesus died and grace and mercy entered the world.
The penalty for sin is death. It's only by God's grace that we live.
We must be so careful not to presume upon grace. It is only by the grace of God that we are here. Jesus died on the cross to protect us from God's wrath. And God loved us so much it pleased Him to crush Jesus for us. His love for us is incredible.
But do we love God enough to give up the things that offend Him? Can you honestly say to yourself I would have Jesus sit next to me and watch my favorite TV show with me or that movie? What is coming out of our mouths? Are we complaining, gossiping? What are our actions showing people? Are we trying to keep one foot in the world and still serve God? It can't be done.
I think about that line in Casting Crowns song, "Somewhere in the Middle" -
the God we want and the God who is.
In America we try to fit God into our worldly ways. We want what God has to offer in grace, mercy, unconditional love, healing, but we still want to keep all the comforts of the flesh. We want to be able to watch anything we want, have all the entertainment we want, eat all the junk food we want, we want popularity, status, power, we want to keep all our money & time to ourselves and yet try to fit God in there.
It doesn't work that way. If you truly love God you will hate what hurts Him. You will hate what offends Him. You will want no part of it. What He has to offer is so much better then what the world has to offer anyway. This world is fading away. It's temporary. Eternity is forever.
Lord, help me to never be a stumbling block for someone else!!! Help me truly run the race and only do what you call me to do. Help me be all you created me to be.
May we all truly understand the fear of the Lord. He is holy!