The Bible has a lot to say about sin. Jesus was outspoken on the subject. He used the word "leaven" as an analogy of sin, which rises and expands like leaven. He also paralleled it with tares or weeds in a field, that seek to choke out the good grain.

PRIDE, which makes one feel superior to others is totally wrong. This sin was Lucifer’s downfall! The Bible says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”. (Prov. 15:8)

GREED has caused more wars and created more gangsters and promoted more theft than any other sin.

The Bible says, “Thou shalt not COVET...” (Ex. 20:17) “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” (1 Tim. 6:10-11)

LUST is the desire for something not lawfully yours. A sensual desire for the forbidden fruit! It includes an inordinate desire for power, control, sex, substance abuse or wealth. Lust always brings spiritual death, in the end!

The Bible says, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15)

ANGER or HATRED causes high blood pressure, ulcers, violent confrontation and even murder!

Jesus said, “But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 2:11; 3:15; 4:20-21)

GLUTTONY is an over indulgence in eating. A phobia or inordinate desire to eat food, even when one is not hungry. A good rule is: Eat to live, not live to eat! A day of fasting & prayer each week does wonders for us - spiritually & physically!

Let’s use the extra money we save through fasting to give to the poor & needy and to support the poor and the orphaned!

ENVY will also cause the blood pressure to rise and the demons of jealousy and pride to fabricate lies and even fantasies in a person, given over to this wicked sin!

The Bible says, “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” (Rom. 13:13-14)

SLOTH goes hand in hand with laziness and poverty. St. Paul stated, "Be not slothful in business". (Rom. 12:11) “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Heb. 6:10-12)

The Newsweek report stated, "Adam was supposed to be the first environmentalist - the caretaker in Paradise, even a vegetarian. His fall doomed us to repeat his sins, time and again despoiling the garden, and casting ourselves into a more imperfect world".

Here are their SEVEN DEADLY SINS: despair, gluttony, temptation, hubris, neglect, envy and hatred.

1) Despair: For the poor in the large city ghettoes of Third World nations like Brazil, the only real concern is getting enough to eat, staying alive and using whatever means to do it!

With open sewers and inadequate clean water supply, speaking to them about pollution control and global warming, is totally irrelevant. They are filled with worry and despair!

2) Gluttony: Americans have an insatiable desire for raw materials. They can consume anything. The European immigrants cut down all but 5% of their forests, since arriving in the New World. Ecologists are blaming the rich Americans for consuming more than necessary, further polluting the planet!

3) Temptation: Polluters cannot resist the temptation to dump raw sewage in the rivers, lakes and streams of the world. The greatest offenders are nations like Mexico and US companies which have moved their operations there, to take advantage of lax pollution laws.

4) Hubris: (insolence or arrogance caused by inordinate pride; exaggerated self-confidence)

For years the Soviet Union tried to play God with nature. In 1960, it diverted two rivers that fed the Aral Sea in order to irrigate the arid lands of Central Asia. The chickens have come home to roost and the water level in the Aral is down two-thirds, leaving boats and towns stranded and drifting salt storms.

5) Neglect: The pollution caused by decades of communistic rule in the East-Bloc nations - with their disregard for human life - has severely retarded these nations, affecting the health of millions. Unsafe nuclear plants - like Chernobyl - and the virtually unchecked dumping of raw, hazardous wastes into waterways like the Elbe River has turned them into "sewers of death"!

6) Envy: In her rush to catch up to the west economically, China has thrown caution to the wind and also endangered the population with deadly gases from hundreds of factories. In Benxi - the world's most polluted city - 200 factories spew out more than 87 million cubic meters of gases each year. And Beijing is so smoggy that at times it vanishes from satellite photos!

7) Hatred: When Saddam Hussein - Iraq's cruel despot - retreated from Kuwait - he deliberately ordered the destruction of 700 oil wells. Black smoke hung over that nation for nearly one year, polluting the entire region, until the fires were put out!

1. Taking the conditions of contract employment lightly. The hourly rate for contract work can seem irresistible. But as security consultant Robert Ferrell says, read and digest the contract in its entirety before you sign. “The number of ways in which a legally binding document of this sort can come back to bite you in the tender regions may surprise you,” he says.

2. Taking project management responsibility without authority. An app-dev project is a locus where business stakeholders and various sectors of IT meet, including IT management, compliance officers, and network teams. The result can be a battle zone where project managers are held responsible for the outcome, even though they lack the authority to get all the parties on the same page.

3. Just saying yes to expanding requirements. Your average IT manager is no stranger to tall orders. But when project requirements keep changing, inexperienced managers often avoid the anger of higher-ups by agreeing to the impossible. Just saying no -- or at least pushing back with realistic adjustments to the time or resources required -- can avert failure or 11th-hour contingency plans.

4. Falling behind on emerging technologies. Staying current can prevent embarrassment at the very least. One good example is the emergence of virtualization as a means of server consolidation to save on hardware and power costs and to increase overall server utilization. “Being unaware of new technologies is more of a missed opportunity than a pitfall,” Wells Fargo’s Gauchat says. “The pitfall is ignorance of technologies that upper management is getting the buzz on.”

5. Failing to detect competing agendas. Stay alert for conflicting priorities that could derail your best efforts. If stakeholders are at odds, make them iron out their differences before the work starts. Golden Gate University’s Hill recommends implementing a project charter that documents all the elements of a project, who the stakeholders are, who the sponsors are -- and defines the roles of the business project manager and the IT project manager. “We deal with the issues of competing agendas beforehand,” he says. “If we can’t get agreement, we don’t start it.”

6. Underestimating your importance. A common lament among workers with specialized skills of vital importance is that they get passed over when advancement opportunities arise. Instead, work that only they can do piles up relentlessly.

7. Saddling your department with bad hires. One of the hardest things to get right is hiring and firing. “Hiring correctly is the most crucial because delivering IT is about the people,” Golden Gate University’s Hill says. “You’ve got to have the right people and the right skills. I look for a fit that involves three areas: technical, experiential, and cultural. If there’s a misalignment with any of those three, you’ll spend a lot of your managerial attention dealing with people problems.” Hill says he won’t let people go for making a mistake or for a skills gap if they’re willing to learn. “I let people go when people don’t want to do what they need to do to be successful.”

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