Love the Lord; Hate Evil

- God hates evil. God hates sin. Those who love the Lord are to do the same. The more we love God, the more we love what God loves and hate what God hates. We should abhor evil/sin to utter disgust, shun it, avoid it, renounce it, and have nothing to do with it. We should stay away from any sinful/evil thoughts, intentions, conversations, and actions. "Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." (Romans 12:9b) "Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil (abstain from all appearance of evil)." (1 Thessalonians 5:21b-22) "Hate evil; love good." (Amos 5:15a) Hate all sins, not just some sins. Hate sin not just in others but also sin in ourselves first. Do not make excuses for sin. Love truth; hate lies. Love justice; hate injustice. Love righteousness and holiness; hate wickedness. Love humility and meekness; hate pride and arrogance. "To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech." (Proverbs 8:13)
- Do not play around with anything evil (including witchcraft/sorcery/magic arts). Some Christians think it is not wrong to celebrate Halloween (which tends to glorify death, fear, witches, ghosts, and spiritual darkness) and dress their kids up as witches or wizards. In my opinion, if the Lord is so strongly against magic arts/witchcraft/sorcery, why would we think we can play around with it? Why would we act like we know better than God? He loves us and wants to protect us from harm. You may think a little magic here and there is harmless, but anything that is against God is sin. Of course, Satan wants us to think magic (I'm not talking about illusionists' tricks here) is harmless; he is the master of lies and deception. He likes to fill our minds and hearts with things that draw us away from God. You can read a great article regarding Halloween at http://www.equip.org/hank_speaks_outs/halloween .
- "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20-21) Do not sugarcoat sin. Abortion is murder. Homosexual relationship is an abomination to the Lord. It's neither love nor compassion when we ignore sin or call sin "choice" or soften/minimize the seriousness of sin because those who live in sin will continue to be lost and dead in their sin and see no need for repentance or for a Savior. Do not sacrifice God's truths on the altar of "grace". Let us never abuse grace. May we never become desensitized to evil or comfortable walking in darkness! Stand up for what is right in God's eyes. Obey God's Word, not what the culture says and accepts. Be Biblically correct, instead of politically or culturally correct. Speak the truth in love with grace, gentleness, and respect!
- God guards/protects the lives of His godly/faithful people and delivers/rescues them from the power of the wicked. God's got our back! God preserves the souls of His saints. He preserves us and delivers us from being destroyed by our enemies, Satan, sin, and the world; we're kept safe to His Heavenly kingdom and glory. "Love the Lord, all His faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to Him." (Psalm 31:23a) "He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones." (Proverbs 2:8)