Good morning Bob,

I cannot tell you how touched I was by this post. And I wanted to tell you what I did and apologize for not asking you before I jumped right in and did it. I felt strongly that this needed to be shared but sadly I know of just a handful that do not have a forgiving attitude so I copied it and put it on Facebook with “author unknown.” Obviously I didn’t not pray about what I did or I would have known immediately to ask your permission first. For that I am sincerely sorry.

This is a great read, with much that we can learn from and also how to stay suited up for battle daily. We all sin and there is no “big sin” or “little sin.” Sin is sin! Thank you for writing this as I am going to print it out to keep on hand.

Your God loving friend, Kim Morris

When another minister or other public figure resigns in disgrace, many people ask, “Could that ever be me?” How can we avoid falling into sin ourselves? As a sinner who has fallen and gotten back up again, let me share three ways to avoid falling: 1. Be warned of the seriousness of sin. Proverbs 5 vividly warns the foolish man of the trap of adultery. I encourage you to read that chapter regularly. There is an old saying, “Sin takes you farther than you want to go, it stays with you longer than you want it to stay, and it costs you more than you want to pay.” The devil gets up every day seeking someone to devour, so we must get up every day and put on the spiritual armor of God (See 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:11). 2. Be accountable and have a regular spiritual check-up. James 5:14 says to confess your sins to one another. I believe all Christians should have a fellow believer of the same gender whom they meet with from time to time for prayer and support, a person who will speak truth in love and ask him or her the honest, hard questions to keep them accountable. The analogy of Satan as the lion on the prowl to devour someone (1 Peter 5:8) should remind us that lions don’t attack a herd, or they will get stampeded. They attack an animal who has wandered off or left behind. Likewise, Satan attacks when you are alone. Stay accountable to fellow believers, so Satan won’t pounce! 3. Don’t rest on past laurels; you are either growing closer to Christ or drifting farther away. You are rarely standing still. David Jeremiah said, “Our spiritual fitness is just like our physical fitness; we cannot rely on yesterday’s workout to keep us strong today.” A person can live in the hypocrisy of secret sin for a time, but it always ends in tragedy. Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “No man, for any period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.” The three practices above can help you avoid that tragedy.