Sin and Decay

I know - what a topic for this coming weekend! So thankful Christ defeated death, sin, and the grave - for HIS Father's glory and my salvation and justification!
I've been dealing with some serious back pain this week. This isn't a new problem, just an aggravated problem. A few weeks ago, on the girltalk blog - the girls were talking about how we (as women especially) use certain things to justify sin: PMS, menopause, postpartum depression, etc. I have been thinking much about this this week. I have been reminded of things in Scripture to read to comfort me or to get my minds on other problems in the world and not look at my back pain as the end all be all. (Read almost the whole month of Feb - they were talking about all these issues - very insightful in light of the gospel)
So, I thought about it in light of pain too. Does being in pain allow me to have a sinful attitude or to act sinful in anyway? No, of course not. We use that as an excuse. I have no right to be rude or short or sarcastic with people just because I'm in pain. Excuses - there is never any for sin - because sin is an affront to God's glory. God's glory never diminishes, so our sin will never be allowed.
But, then I need to apply this thought to when people cut me off in traffic and I talk back to them or get mad, or when I get impatient because the line at Kroger is too long, or my excuses of working in a Christian place for not witnessing to people - all are excuses!
None of them are acceptable.
Praise God He sent His Son to die on a cross for ALL our SINS where we wouldn't have to be enslaved to them any longer. I love Rom 6-8 and 1 Cor 15 in light of the glorious weekend we are celebrating!
Celebrate happily! :)
In this pain though - I have found comfort in this:
2 Cor 1.3-11
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.