“Baby, it’s cold outside!” Now, if the forecasters are correct, that may not be the case by the time you are reading this. But on the day I am writing, it definitely is cold.  
My family lived 14 years in Indiana and Michigan. Someone said to me recently, “This isn’t really that bad for you, is it?” My response was two-fold. First, I’ve been back here for 8 ½ years, so my blood once again has thinned. And second, when the wind-chill factor is in the teens or below, it is cold. I don’t care who you are, or where you have lived — that is cold.
I watched a little bit of football last Sunday, and at the end of one game a player, who was wearing short sleeves, was being interviewed.
“How did the cold affect you?” the reporter asked.
He responded, “Oh, it wasn’t really that cold…,” and before he could finish his sentence, she said, “Oh, come on!”
Many of the players and commentators tried to claim that it simply was a matter of mind over matter. Cold was only in your mind. You could defeat it.
I have to say that such thought is not true. Cold is cold. I know some people can deal with it better than others, but when the real temperature is minus-5 Fahrenheit, like it was at that game, it is a problem. It is real.
Some people treat sin and evil in the same way that these players attempted to approach the cold. They just prefer to pretend that sin and evil are not real, or if they are real, they are not problems for us. We simply can act as if they are not there, and they will not impact our lives.  Sometimes, we may do that for things in our own lives and, at other times, in the lives of others.
But the fact of the matter is this: Sin and evil do exist in our world. There are things that are right and things that are wrong, and those that are wrong ultimately will cause us trouble. We need to avoid sin with all of our being. We need to choose to walk with God.
One biblical word used to describe this is holy, which literally means separate or distinct. God has called his children to be different and to be separate from the world. We are to be holy.  
That requires that we know and listen with care to the Lord as he speaks to us through prayer, the Bible and worship.
I encourage you to be holy. Don’t deny the existence of wrong and sin, but avoid them by walking the God.
He will meet your every need.