Words are great things. When reading the Bible, I am continually amazed at how a section that I am very familiar with reveals something new to me. This week I came across the word "obvious" in the book of Galatians. If I were to ask you the meaning of the word "obvious," most of you would define the word as something that it is simply spoken, in plain sight, easily understood or something that even a fool would see, understand and be able to act upon.

However, the point is that for something to be obvious it needs to be devoid of any sort of obscurity. There is no question about what is meant or what is implied, there is no question about what is seen and understood--it is obvious.

Lets take a look at this passage of scripture in Galatians. In Chapter five verses nineteen through twenty one, Paul gives us a list: "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of heaven."

Ask yourself if these things are obvious when they try to creep into you life? Do you see them on the horizon before they get a chance to infest and infect you life or are you so entrenched in some of these things that you don't even realize that you have become a slave to the sin? It is easy to do, and I don't think that there is a soul on the planet who can say that they have not let the acts of a sinful nature crawl into their lives at some time or another.

Look at the things on this list for a moment and take some time on each word thinking about what, if anything, in your life could be a part of this act. Starting with the first one, sexually immorality, some of you may have an issue with pornography on or off the internet. In fact, some of you reading this may have just come from one of those sites. For others that say to themselves "I don't do that, only perverted people do that" ask yourself, what kind of media choices do you put before your eyes and ears? Do you watch movies that have steamy love scenes in them all the while telling yourself that it was an interregnal part of the plot, or do you ogle over women (or men) when they don't know that you are watching?

Each one of the acts listed by Paul have many possibilities in our lives and each one can trip us up faster than we would care to admit. But the here is what struck me. As Americans many of the things on this list would be considered normal everyday behavior. But as Christians--followers of Christ, people who have been changed by the Holy Spirit to live a life of not worldly freedom that only leads to and ends in death but eternal freedom that only comes from Christ--these things listed should be obvious to us to the point that when we see them on the horizon we ovoid them at all costs knowing that the true cost is much more than we will ever be able to bear on our own.

Final Thought: This week, I would encourage you to take some real time and see what things on this list have moved into you life. See what areas in your life need some "spring cleaning" and take it to the God who loves us unconditionally and sent his son to die for us. Once you have dealt with these things, make the effort to learn from your mistakes so that the items on this list will continue to become more and more obvious to you.