Yesterday, we looked at the wisdom of our culture, “Are Women Morally and Spiritually Superior to Men?”
We examined God’s perspective and His holy judgment of ALL people as being evil. He says there is no one that is good (Romans 3) He says that our best attempts to be good look like “filthy, bloody menstrual rags” to Him (Isaiah 64:6). Yikes!
Jesus says, “God alone is good.” Luke 18:19
That’s pretty harsh, right?
WAIT A MINUTE! I’M A GOOD PERSON!!!
I used to think that about myself. Actually, I would think, “I’m a GREAT CHRISTIAN!”
- I was always in all honors classes and made all As.
- I didn’t get in trouble at school or at home in middle/high school – except for the one time I was late to lunch b/c I waited for my friend at her locker and we both got detention hall. I was HORRIFIED!
- I accepted Christ when I was 5 years old.
- I studied the Bible almost every day.
- I loved God.
- I prayed intently almost every day. Some days I would pray for 4 hours per day on my days off as an adult.
- To date, I have never even had a speeding ticket.
- I was a perfectionist.
- I practiced flute and piano each for one hour every day in high school. I made it into All State Band and won piano competitions.
- I was extremely active in my youth group at church and later taught Bible Studies and Sunday School classes.
- I was a leader in almost every Christian circle I was involved in. I was one of the “best” Christians there.
- I always went to church unless I was sick.
- I was sure that I was the best Christian wife ever.
- I could see God’s will so clearly – I thought. I was so in tune with God. I was so highly spiritual.
- I knew what was right all the time. If everyone would just listen to me and do what I said… they would be so much better off!
- I only tasted alcohol (a few sips less than a handful of times – usually unintentionally – like the waitress gave me the wrong drink!) I have never been drunk in my life.
- I never abused drugs.
- I never tried a cigarette.
- I never partied in college or high school, or any time.
- I was a virgin when we got married.
- I always tried very hard to follow all the laws perfectly, and all company policies and any school rules – I tried to be perfect at them all the time.
- I never cussed. I never even said, “Shut up!”
- I never said, “I hate you” to anyone.
- I never called anyone names.
- I was never a racist.
- I almost never yelled at anyone.
- I gave blood.
- I volunteered to help with many ministry projects.
- I taught Sunday School classes.
- I knew the Bible VERY well and had memorized many verses. I thought I was obeying God’s Word.
Let me show you just a fraction of the sin that God exposed in my soul in December of 2008
- IDOLATRY – If you read Exodus 20, the 10 commandments, there is no worse sin than putting something else before God in your heart. I suppose that what I was doing may also be called “blasphemy.” Either way – I was committing CONSTANT, HEINOUS sin in my heart – every waking moment – for decades. I set myself up as god in my heart without even realizing it. I had a HUGE picture of myself, living as if I were sovereign and everything was ultimately in my control and up to me. If I didn’t make things happen the way I knew they should – it would be certain disaster for me and everyone around me, I was very sure. I had a TINY picture of God in my head. He was wimpy, impotent, weak and incapable of orchestrating the events in my world and in the universe for ultimate good. I would never have consciously SAID or thought these things. But this is how I actually lived. I did NOT understand God’s sovereignty. I tried to carry God’s responsibilities – and it crushed me. I set my heart on other things above Christ, too. Not consciously – but that is how I lived. I put my feeling loved by my husband and my husband ahead of my intimacy with Christ. If there is something that I believe I MUST HAVE in order to be content or be ok – and it is not Jesus Christ – I am probably committing idolatry. As one of our ministers says, “the human heart is an idol factory.” Idolatry is to God, what adultery is in marriage – a violation of a sacred covenant I have with Him. It is a most wicked and evil sin. The Old Testament is full of descriptions of God’s holy and righteous wrath falling on His people for committing idolatry instead of worshipping only Him.
- I THOUGHT I WAS THE HOLY SPIRIT – I thought it was my duty to tell others what to do and convict them of their sins and make them do God’s will – that has to be blasphemy, me trying to take the place and responsibilities of God’s Spirit! I didn’t understand that God handles all of that – it is not remotely my place to try to do His job. Only God can change people. Only God can open people’s spiritually dead eyes. NOT ME. I elevated myself – a wretched sinner – to the level of deity in my mind.
- UNBELIEF – Jesus describes this as the unforgivable sin. If I trust myself, not Him – that is HUGE. I thought I trusted Jesus, but then I lived as if I couldn’t trust Him and had to trust myself.
- PRIDE – I really believed I knew better than my husband ALL THE TIME. I also believed I knew better than everyone else around me all the time. And, actually, I believed I knew better than God what needed to happen in my life and others’ lives. And I set myself above God’s Word deciding that I was exempt from some things. I don’t know how God measures pride, but mine was off the charts. Probably much like Satan’s. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6 God Himself opposed me all those years. That is why I didn’t see answers to my prayers, even though I actually was praying for things that were God’s will. My motives were evil, selfish and prideful.
- GOSSIP – probably no need to elaborate here. This is ugly sin in God’s eyes, too. It does so much damage to relationships and it grieves the heart of God just like all sin does.
- DISRESPECT OF GOD-GIVEN AUTHORITY – I believed I knew better than my parents growing up. I just knew they needed my wisdom and help to raise my siblings. I believed I knew better than my teachers. I believed I knew better than my pastor and Sunday School teachers. I believed I knew better than my husband. I did not trust God to lead me through the God-given authority He placed in my life. I believed I should make my own decisions because “no one else was nearly as spiritually mature as I was.” I knew it was my place to criticize, condemn and judge those in authority over me if I did not agree with them. I had a critical spirit. I put myself in God’s place to judge other people.
- DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD – I tried to forgive. I knew I was supposed to. But I couldn’t. I held on to resentment, bitterness and unforgiveness. Honestly, I believed I was above having to forgive others. I didn’t see myself as much of a sinner. God Himself would forgive – but I didn’t think I should have to. I disrespected my husband all day every day – unintentionally – but I wounded him deeply, nonetheless. I had no idea what respect even was – or that it was my husband’s primary need in our marriage – or that there was a whole world of masculine respect I was totally oblivious to. I didn’t actually honor my husband’s leadership, as God commanded me to. I tried to force my husband to do what I said. I tried to control him and usurp his God-given authority.
- SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS – I looked down on my husband as being spiritually inferior to me. I thought I was so much better than he was. That is the sin Jesus spent so much time confronting in the Pharisees. He spent WAY MORE TIME rebuking those prideful, self-righteous religious leaders than He did rebuking lust, adultery, murder or any of those “big sins.” To Jesus – this IS big sin.
- HATRED – I held on to grudges and hatred sometimes for years. I John 4:19-21 says “We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (brother – meaning a fellow believer). I John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.”
I was living under the control of the sinful nature. That is why I didn’t have God’s Spirit filling me with His peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
That is why I was full of anxiety, worry, fear and stress. Being a controlling person, thinking you have to make everything work out right and that the world depends on every word and action you say and that you are in charge, not God – is STRESSFUL!!!!!!!!! It is too much weight for a person to bear! Also, trying to control my marriage and husband was exhausting. I buckled under the strain. And I resented my husband because I was carrying all that weight. It was a very lonely way to live.
I owed Jesus BILLIONS of “sin dollars.” It turns out that I am a wretched sinner. That was pretty shocking to me. I TOTALLY deserve hell. My sin debt was MASSIVE. That is what I had earned for myself in the sight of the One, true, holy, righteous, just, loving, sovereign God.
I THANK AND PRAISE GOD that He opened my eyes to this truth, so that I could get on my face and humble myself and repent and ask Him to give me a new heart and a new mind.
JESUS SAID, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME.” (John 14:6)
He LOVES us. We are so utterly evil, yet His love is so unfathomable, that He wouldn’t leave us in our doomed position. He made a way for us to return to Him. He made a way for His justice to be satisfied by allowing all of His holy wrath that we deserved to fall on His perfect Son.
He can rescue us from our sinful, wretched state. He can cause us to be “born again” into His kingdom. He is willing to raise us to new life by the power of the blood of Jesus, shed for us. I can’t earn God’s favor. I can’t earn heaven. I can only earn hell.
But, THANK YOU, GOD!!!!! Jesus paid my debt in full for me. If I will turn to Him in faith, admitting my sin and guilt, asking for His forgiveness, accepting His death for the payment for my sins – He will forgive me and wipe away all of my sin.
Then I surrender myself to Him as my LORD for the rest of my life. He is in charge of my life now, not me. I die to myself- I give up my wisdom, my ways, my desires, my will, my dreams. I pick up His wisdom, His ways, His desires, His will and His dreams. He gives me a new heart that longs to obey Him and that loves what He loves and hates what He hates. All I have is now His. And all He has is now mine. HE IS MY LIFE NOW. HE IS MY GOD. HE IS ALL I NEED. If I have Him, I can be full of joy, peace and contentment. He alone can satisfy.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
You can also check out sermons about having a relationship with Christ, salvation, and many other topics
www.desiringgod.org by John Piper
www.radical.net by David Platt
RELATED POST:
If you want to talk about finding a real relationship with Christ, finding peace with God, knowing Christ, finding out about how to accept His gift for you – leave me a comment. 🙂
seventiesjason
June 11, 2013
Wow. All fall short of the Glory of God! When I was in my addiction, I always…ALWAYS used to say “Well, I am not a child molester. I don’t murder. I don’t have sex, I don’t look at porn, or use porn.” and the very, very abused phrase of “I’m a good person.” because I didn’t do the above I believed that I could say a phrase like this…….
Everyone thinks they are a good person. Even the worst of sinners believe this!
When I held God’s Commandments as a mirror to my own face….once I started attending church….Sunday school, slowly, slowly I realized that, by at looking and studying them, and what Christ said in the Gospel………
I was a sinner. Sin is sin, and this is VERY hard for new Christians, and the secular world to comprehend. Great, I didn’t physically murder someone….but Christ tells us we commit murder when we think terrible thinks on our brother (or sister). Murder of the heart I believe it is called.
Wonderful, I was not having sex! Great! Yet……was I looking with lust upon women? Sure was.
My parents? For years we didn’t speak. My addiction was not bringing HONOR to them.
Lie? Whoa……blown away there. My whole life was a lie while I was in my addiction. I lost a good seven, eight years of my life…..and even after with lies to myself.
So thinking I was a “good person” was a lie in itself if I was going by God’s law, and judgement.
God is so Holy…he cannot be in the presence of sin!
Do I still sin…..yes unintentionally! I pray daily for my forgiveness, and if I have wronged someone. I tell them. I confess it. Even the daily Lord’s prayer reminds us all of this.
This worldly “good person” phrase that is thrown around as an excuse for bad behavior; and lest to anyone who thinks I have a “holier than thou art” attitude, I am still working on many things in my life…..that is what the church has. Broken people who need Christ. ”
“Looking for perfection in a church?” I ask a few of my secular friends
“You won’t find it there. The people there know they are not perfect.”
Great post Peaceful!
peacefulwife
June 11, 2013
Jason,
Thank you for sharing your story! It amazes me how sin can blind us and how easily we can rationalize and justify our sin. “I’m not hurting anyone else.” “I don’t commit X sin, so my other sins are ‘good’ sins.” We definitely tend to rank sin in our own mind.
Some wivess I have worked with judged their husband’s porn use, affairs or former drug use as BIG sins. But they don’t count their own extreme disrespect, idolatry, pride, self-righteousness, hatred, rebellion against God, disrespect towards God, unforgiveness, gossip, control, judgmental spirit, etc… as sins at all.
When we make ourselves the judge of what is sin or not – we will go very easy on ourselves and very hard on others.
Truly only God is qualified to judge sin and to decide what is sinful and what is not.
I am still a sinner. If I allow my sinful nature to take over, if I cherish sin in my heart and grieve God’s Spirit and don’t repent, I am capable of any sin if I am far enough away from God and not listening to His Spirit. If I am not plugged in to Christ, if I take my eyes off of Him or pursue temptation, I can and will crash and burn QUICKLY. I have to ask God to constantly check my motives and to alert me to blind spots. And that will be how things are for the rest of this life on earth.
The only appropriate position for any of us to be in before God is on our faces in total humility and repentance before Him.
Praise God that He can deliver us from slavery to sin and give us victory! 🙂
Thankfully, God did not allow me to continue blindly in my ignorance and sin but opened my eyes to it so I could repent. I couldn’t even open my eyes to see the sin apart from Him.
Everything good in me is TOTALLY 100% GOD.
It is only as we begin to see who God is more clearly that we can see how awful sin is. And the more we know God’s heart and love, the more we will mourn and grieve over our sins and the sins of others – feeling a fraction of the pain God feels when we sin against Him.
Amandinette
June 11, 2013
Thank-you for sharing so candidly your own struggles. It brings about a good amount of reflection to anyone. I find in my own life, that it is especially easy to get overly self-righteous when one, particularly a mature Christian, stays sheltered only in the Christian culture/community, without going out of one’s comfort zone. I just read this article and found it very pertinent, perhaps it maybe of interest if you haven’t read it already: http://community.focusonthefamily.com/b/boundless/archive/2013/06/10/what-christians-can-learn-from-atheists.aspx
peacefulwife
June 11, 2013
Amandinette,
Good point! It is easy to judge that some sins are so much “worse” from our human perspective. And there are different consequences for different sins in earth. But all sin grieves the heart of God. I pray we will all see our own spiritual poverty very clearly and be ready and willing to repent any time God brings us conviction.
Thanks for the article!
peacefulwife
June 11, 2013
Amandinette,
You reminded me to add a few more reasons for my pride and self-righteouesness to my post.
– I never, EVER did illegal drugs or abused drugs.
– I never tried a cigarette.
– I tasted alcohol, a few sips, less than a handful of times. I have never been drunk.
– I was a virgin when we got married.
– I never cussed. I never even said, “Shut up!”
– I never said, “I hate you” to anyone.
– I never called anyone names.
– I was never a racist.
– I almost never yelled at anyone.
– I gave blood.
– I volunteered to help with many ministry projects.
– I taught Sunday School classes.
– I knew the Bible VERY well and had memorized many verses.
All of these things were sources of pride for me – thinking I was so great.
But LOOK at how deceitful my heart was! Look how wicked and sinful I was on the inside.
I think now – HOW could I not have seen my sin? But I truly did not see it.
wykeshialm86
June 11, 2013
April,
I always thought that I was a beautiful and good person that has been a blessing to others.
I mean, I have elderly folks that looked up to me, admired me, and inspired by me saying that I am not like the other girls that were: having babies at a young age, high school drop-out, college drop-out, drug addict, and many things like that. But through it all, I felt like I wasn’t pretty or even good enough because I have been violated, bullied, abused, verbally abused, persecuted and many things I have done that I was not so proud of and embarrassed by everything.
But as I grew older, I looked back at how far God has brought me from. All the time I felt unloved and helpless, it was HIM that took care of me and found great favor with HIM because HE loved me so much. I have to admit, I forget to count all my blessings God has given me because I was way too busy adding and multiplying all my problems.
There so many lessons I have learned throughout my life and it all gotten to the point where my life is just a test that I didn’t even study for. Of course there were times when I lost myself but do you know that old spiritual “Amazing Grace”? “I once was lost but now I’m found” I have found Wykeshia and I am so proud of her (me).
Truth is, it’s not just the past made me who I am, it was God. Everything I thought, everything I am is all because of Him! With that in mind, He’s the one who turned all my mess I have made into messages for me to learn, turn all my tests that I have failed into testimonies for me to tell, turn all my trials that I have been through into triumphs for me to succeed, and turn me from a victim into a woman with victory for me to rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
God is Love,
Wykeshia
peacefulwife
June 11, 2013
Wykeshia,
God is SO VERY GOOD!
I owe Him EVERYTHING!
i love seeing what He is doing in you, too! Thank you for sharing!
seventiesjason
June 12, 2013
What kept me from Christ all this time? A personal relationship with Him?
Me.
I have a small picture of Christ from the middle ages (1300’s) on my apartment door, I don’t know the artist…forgive me. Anyway, there’s The Savior at a door and he’s “knocking” at it.
The symbolic “door to your heart” as many of us know. He’s there. Knocking. The most beautiful thing about this picture is that on the door…….
There is (left off on purpose) no doorknob on the door.
YOU have to let Christ in.
You have to respond to it. He’ll wait. He’ll wait a LIFETIME for you to open it up. For him to fill that hole on the heart that can only be filled by Him.
Our pride. Our shame. Our ego. Us being “found out” by worldly friends and family. Us worried about what the infamous “they” might think. Us being human keeps that door shut.
I teach Bible Study at this Senior Citizens complex I live at on Tuesday afternoons (part of my job requirement). I was discussing holiness today with the ten seniors who came down for the lesson. God commands us to be holy because His word says “Because I am holy”
One old fella in his nineties said “Sonny boy, we can never be as holy as God!”
And I of course agreed. But I mentioned that when we come to prayer to our Father. We ask for forgiveness of sins. We thank Him, and confess our shortcomings. We want to be “blameless” in our prayers when we speak to Him. We want to be holy. Without blemish when we as Christians come to him in prayer. I mentioned this blog and about how God is so holy, he cannot be in the presence of sin. As a child of God, show your Father some respect. Before you ask anything of Him in prayer. Tell Him you love Him. Tell Him you are grateful He sent His son to die for us. Confess sins. Talk to Him. Ask for forgiveness and then bring Your concerns, your fears, your hopes to Him.
In the end your goodness and niceness will never be enough to equal holiness before the Lord.
peacefulwife
June 12, 2013
Seventiesjason,
It is mind-boggling that God allows us to control accepting him or not and that He allows us to limit His Spirit’s work in our lives. We can invite Him to fill us or we can grieve Him and lose so much of His power.
True – we can never be holy in our own power.
But being holy is a command of God! I am amazed at how Jesus allows us to abide in Him, filling us with His Spirit. Yes, we do have to confess sins. But He forgives us and cleanses us and we can approach Him in holiness because of what He has done. SO INCREDIBLE!
I’m so thankful for what God is doing in you and through you for His glory!
m
June 12, 2013
I have a somewhat related question. What do you do when someone is a Christian, but they sin constantly even after being confronted? It could be constant lying or stealing supplies from the office or doing something that you feel scripture is clear about. How do you love them and not judge? I sometimes feel that loving someone as I see them doing something wrong would imply that I am okay with their actions. What do you do if it is one of your parents and they are supposed to be an authority figure in your life, but their actions are more an example of what not to do? I really struggle with that. How do you spend time at your friends house who is living with their boyfriend? I am understanding that I need to let go and not control others, but I always feel tempted to send them books or links to sermons that I think they need to hear.
peacefulwife
June 12, 2013
M,
Matthew 18 describes what to do.
And the Bible actually commands us to have nothing to do with someone who claims to be a Christian but is sexually immoral – not to associate or even eat with them. I Cor 5:9-11. Same goes for idolators, greedy people and slanderers who call themselves believers.
peacefulwife
June 12, 2013
M,
If it is your parents stealing or lying – ate they working for you?
We are to honor our parents. But once we are adults, they are no longer in authority over us.
If someone in authority over us asks us to sin or condone sin, I believe we must resist and stand on the authority if God’s Word if it is a clear sin like stealing or lying.
We can’t control or change people. But there are times we must stop associating with people who claim to be believers who continue in unrepentant sin in hopes they will repent and we can joyfully accept them back into fellowship.
In His Image
June 13, 2013
Interesting stuff: your list of convictions matches mine fairly closely (though not exactly), but your list of virtues is somewhat better than mine! 😉 And even though I understand the goal of this post, I do think it’s wonderful that you led such a decent life in a thoroughly indecent culture — God may have hated your pride, but He was certainly not displeased with the fact that you kept yourself from drugs, fornication, filthy speech etc.. That shouldn’t be lost in all of this, and I thank God that you didn’t stray so far from His path through your youth.
There are a couple of points I’d like to speak about.
You say this:
When Jesus or the Apostles speak of ‘brother’/’brethren’, they are referring to the group to which one belongs, rather than to people in general — and so this passage would be referring to believers. It is simply saying that it is not possible to be a Christian and to hate another Christian. …That’s not to say that we should go around hating non-believers! But it is important to get the correct sense of a passage.
Exactly. We are experts at rationalising our sin: our hearts are deceitful above all things! …And although not all sin is equally serious (yet is equally deadly in eternal terms), deciding ourselves which sins are worse than others is a recipe for disaster. To learn which sins are the most serious — which are ‘motes’ and which are ‘beams’ to use Christ’s terms — we should turn to God’s Word and find out the things which He tells us He hates most. All sin has the power to send us to Hell and we should try to eliminate it all from our lives. But we should never say that all sins are equally serious, since God does not say this: if we listen to Him, then we will accord more effort to conquering the gravest sins rather than being like the Pharisees and swallowing a camel whilst straining at a gnat…
And a quick note to @M:
When Christ tells us not to judge, He cannot mean that we should never view someone’s sin as sinful, nor can He mean that we should simply say nothing if they are engaged in evil. (Were this the case, then how would Christian parents be expected to raise their children?!) We can confront others over sin, and should confront others over sin — assuming that we are not observing a mote in their eye whilst ignoring a beam in our own. Christ confronted others over sin: He bore witness of others’ sin and called them to repent. We should follow His example. But in doing so we must be careful to make sure that we are not guilty of hypocrisy (note that this does not mean we must live perfect sinless lives), and should ensure that we are not exceeding the remit of Scripture.
Lastly, if someone says they are a Christian, yet continues wilfully in a sinful lifestyle, denying that what they do is sin, then be sure that they are not a Christian. And as April has said, we are not to have fellowship with such. But we can witness to them from the Scriptures, so that they might perhaps be convicted of their sin and repent of it. Hope this helps…
peacefulwife
June 13, 2013
IHI,
Thank you for your points. I will correct the one about brother.
All sin is equally serious in terms of separating me from God – but there are certainly different earthly consequences for various sins.
Thank you for the clarification.
To M:
In I Cor 5:12-13 – Paul actually says “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.'”
Galatians 6:1 -“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”
I agree with IHI that we are to follow Matthew 7:1-5 – removing the beam in our own eye first, approaching our brother with gentleness, humility and sober mind, knowing we are easily taken by temptation, as well – whether it is the same sin, or self-righteousness or pride.
There are times we must confront our brothers/sisters (Matthew 18:15-17) and if they continue on in sin, then we avoid associating with them as we pray for them to turn back to Christ and away from sin.
The goal is for the person to be reconciled to CHrist and restored to the fellowship of believers.
In His Image
June 13, 2013
April, I’ve just read this comment of yours and really liked it (the bold type is my emphasis, by the way):
This is exactly it: we are without hope apart from God. Jesus says that we are the branches and He is the Vine — if we don’t abide in Him, then we will not bear good fruit and we will wither away. …And God gathers up the withered branches and burns them.
One really only sees this when one is truly convicted of sin. April, you say that you “accepted Christ” (a popular term which I’m not too keen on — I always think it’s more a case of His accepting us!) when you were five. Did you experience conviction of sin at that time? I’m interested because although I went to Sunday school when I was little, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I experienced true conviction and saw (despite my fairly respectable life) what a piece of rubbish I really am. There are lots of young people at my church who grew up in Christian homes and who say they were saved very young. Yet I wonder how many of them have truly been shown what’s inside them and have seen how vile the contents of their hearts are. It was such a shock to me finally to understand that I am not basically good but basically bad and that I can do precisely nothing to change that — only God can.
This is crucial: it’s not only our own sin but the sin of others which should grieve us. Sin which isn’t necessarily directed against us should grieve us, because it grieves God. True Christians cannot be indifferent to sin — whether it lies in them or in others. And true Christians cannot happily go along with a wicked, worldly society like ours. As James says, friendship with the world is enmity with God. We are not here to be comfortable in the world: we’re here to shine light into its darkness.
peacefulwife
June 13, 2013
IHI,
Yes – I HAVE to constantly abide in Him to be alive spiritually just as much as I have to constantly breathe air to be alive physically.
When I was 5, I understood that I was a sinner. I understood that I had sinned, and that I deserved hell. But I could not understand how vile my heart really was at that point. I agree about the terminology – it is amazing that Christ accepts us – of course, it is all His doing, not ours. And yet, he offers US the choice to receive Him or reject Him.
I agree – as we love God more and more – what grieves His heart will also grieve ours – because His Spirit is working in us. And what brings Him joy will also bring us joy as He regenerates our hearts and minds.
I believe that we as disciples of Christ must seriously consider James’ words – that friendship with the world is enmity with God. There is MUCH in the world that should disturb us and that we ought not to be cozy with. I pray God might help us learn to live as strangers and aliens here, shining for Christ, not becoming like the world.
Thanks!
JC
June 28, 2013
“He was wimpy, impotent, weak and incapable of orchestrating the events in my world and in the universe for ultimate good”
WHOA! Okay, I’m actually thinking of the reverse statement: that he IS capable of orchestrating events in fhte universe for ultimate good.
I love that stuff such as in stories like Joseph, but when you say in those that really sounds like how I like to say it.
peacefulwife
June 28, 2013
JC,
How amazing is our God!?!? Yes – He is SO SOVEREIGN (not sure that is theologically correct to add the “so”, but I like it!) that He can use even what people and Satan meant for evil, death and harm for our ultimate good and His glory.
WE CAN’T LOSE!!!!!! 🙂