Thought, study, and prayer has brought me to another little train of thought that I would love to have your input on, my friends. I have already talked a little bit with Micah and K Marc about this, and whether or not I can make sense of it to you is yet to be seen. And there are questions involved here, so I am still working with this:
I’ve been thinking about our call, as Christians, to holiness. We are all called to be holy. We are called to live a life according to the commands and expectations of our Father. The Word says that we are equipped with all we need to live a life that is holy and pleasing to Him. It also is clear in giving us a guideline in the Word, and an example in Christ.
But there are a couple sins that are so plaguing to me; that I can’t seem to shake off. And everyone seems to have those sins—the ones that have been around on-and-off for a long time. We fight with them often, but have somewhat resigned that they will be with us—a thorn in the flesh, if you like. The Lord has truly shown me a valuable lesson in the pursuit of holiness: 'The focus cannot be on the defeat of sin, but on the Father. If I constantly am in touch with, and seeking the heart of Christ, then sin is a far poorer option, and perhaps isn’t an option at all.’ But my focus on His face is sometimes not very focused. And temptation still comes. So sometimes it comes down to persistence and devotion to a battle with sin.
There was a key line in the movie, The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Well, in the Guy Ritchie movie, Revolver, which I mentioned in the aforementioned June 19th post, one of the key lines is: “The greatest trick he ever pulled was convincing you that he is you.” It made me think about some of the language we use with regard to sin. Things like: “I’m not alone in this. Everyone I know struggles with this same sin,” or “I just can’t seem to shake this one off.” I just said that one. But could it be that Satan disguises thoughts like, “Everyone struggles with this…” so that I will think it and believe that the thought is true because “I” thought it. So I get a slight bit of justification for what I’m doing because lots of other Christians struggle with the same sin. Is that a thought that goes along with the imitation of Christ? It is not, but I don’t stop and think that perhaps that thought should not be allowed credit. Perhaps the King of Deception might want me to think such things?? And it is true, we all struggle with sin. And we are people—we will sin. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. We have to sin in order to need grace. My sin shows me that grace. But here’s where the questions start to brew…
If everything in the second paragraph is true, then can we choose not to sin? As we gain a close walk with the Lord, can we make choices moment-to-moment to NOT SIN? With most sin that I can think of, there is a temptation, an instant of choice, and then an action. Can I, then, make moment-to-moment choices to “merely” NOT DO actions that are sinful?
Clive Staples says, "Indeed if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that the Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased."
And Marianne Williamson said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, fabulous, talented? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.”
I know from the stories of the Bible, that sometimes God calls us to fight some battles with strength that He has given us. And if I am tempted once and deny sin, does that not mean that I can do the same the next time, and the next—one at a time? It seems that I should be able to do that if I just lived in His strength. He has called us to be strong. Are we, as Christians, infinitely stronger than we give ourselves credit for?
Should we be expecting more from ourselves with regard to sin?
If you've read all the way to here, I thank you. Tell me what you think…take a few minutes, and mull it over. I really want to see what y'all think. Wisdom….BRING IT!!
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8 comments:
very interesting indeed!
The funny thing is ...those very same thoughts have been on my mind
lately. God has laid it on my heart to reconsider the heart that I
have...the mind that I have. Let me share with you a verse that I
have been mulling over lately. Hebrews 1:2-3 "he has spoken to us by his
Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the
universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful
word." Now flip over to Galations 4:6 "Because you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls
out, "Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since
you are a son, God has made you also an heir.".
There are several things about these verses that stir me. In Hebrews,
the word is clear about Gods magnanimous being through his son Jesus.
the line about being an exact representation has brought me to state of
amazement these last few days. THEN to combine that with the truth
mentioned in Galations, on how that same spirit that "exact
representation of Gods being" is in our hearts....and we are also to
hide "his powerful word" in our hearts makes us as Christians a
powerful force! With those entities surging thru our being..we should
be able to recognize sin once tempted and then be presented with an
instant knowledge of our two choices....truth/ God, or world/ Satan. I
think we do have the power. Christ did it due to the fact that he was
in the father and the father was in him. the same state occurs with us
once we accept that glorious gift. We too can make the same decisions
as Christ. Why don't we? I believe that we have become lazy. THIS is
what Christ has been speaking to me lately. He had me examine my life
and I have realized that I need to live radically and relentlessly.
What has this world offered me? nothing! So why do I often choose it
over my true nature..over Christ. It boils down to I didn't choose it
because I am still learning to let go of my security blankets of this
world and follow Christ with all that I am. In a world where this type
of behavior is in no way accepted...its hard to keep your mind focused
on the things you do not see. Living radically means giving up a
lot...but you know what. I have decided to do that. The little steps
I have made, have made such a huge difference in my life. How does this
tie into what you have been saying. Well its the temptations in my
life that arise where I have noticed a difference. Before I would be tempted
and give in with out even thinking about my options...but the more I
have drawn near to Christ and shrugged off things of this world..the
more that the choice become glaringly obvious to me and therefore the
right decision a simple one to make. Does this mean that its'
easy..most certainly not. but simple and easy are not the same thing
by any means.
I don't know if this made sense at all to you ...but I said all that to
say that I think you are on to something!
Manda
When I think about sin, I tend to compare my "meager" sins with the great sins of other people I know. I am arrogant enough to think that theirs always seems much worse than anything I do. Of course, God says all is equal, but we forget. I have to, at times, really examine myself, and think about what sin is, and how many times a day I do it without realizing.
So true that our biggest fear is of being great, not of being found lacking. We know we are imperfect, so sometimes we think, why try? Constantly striving for more, to be sucessful is exhausting.... yet I do it at work and at school(maybe for the recognition?)....just not always in my spiritual life.
Steph
Hi John,
I think I agree with the things you are saying.
One of your last questions was should we expect more
from ourselves in regard to sin. It seems like over
the past, probably year and a half, that I've been
learning that the better question may be, should we
expect more from God in regard to sin. If He is
inside of us, and He is the almighty God of the
universe, at the moment of temptation why not make the
choice you're talking about, and go running to Him to
defeat the sin. Greater is He that is in me, than He
that is in the world. I know that in real life
situations when I have remembered that the temptation
is no match for Him, it then seems so small compared
to His power and strength in me. It actually seems
like a mud pie that I don't have to be content with.
I think we are infinitely stronger than we give
ourselves credit for, only because He is infinitely
stronger than we give Him credit for. If I can do all
things THROUGH Christ, then of course at the moment of
all temptation we can follow Him.
I've struggled with the balance of who is doing what
in regard to sin and holiness. However, I think that
the Bible tells us that it's His strength in us. But,
there must be something that we can mess up because we
still sin. I think that the part we mess up is the
lack of faith that we have in His power in and through
us. Because of this lack of faith, we either forget
to rely on Him and try to defeat it on our own, make
the choice to sin because it seems too hard, make the
choice to sin our of selfishness when we know that He
could defeat it, or have just habitually fallen so
many times before that we don't even think about it
any more. The more times we fly to Him in faith to
defeat those temptations, the more we (at least I have
over the past year) see how ridiculously huge and
powerful He is compared to the temptation.
So I agree with you about the fact that we settle for
something much less glorious and holy in our attitudes
of "well I'm just a dirty sinner saved by grace and
I'll probably always fail in this way or that". It's
a pitiful attitude of surrender to sin and mediocrity.
What we need is the holy attitude of surrender to His
mighty strength and power in our lives.
By the way, I have a check for you but I need your
address. I've got to run. Thanks for making me think
and remember how huge and awesome God is and how huge
and awesome He wants to be through us.
LYLAS,
Kevin
Hey Brother!
You have made many great comments. It seems that when we pursue holiness it is very easy to become introverted when we are not meant to. What I mean by this comment is that the way we are called to "examine ourself" is not by theoretically looking into ourself because it is so easy to fool ourself about our own problems. The better way seems to be by gazing at Christ and trusting that He will tell us what is wrong with us and at the same time comfort us with His love.
Amber has given me one of the most beautiful pictures of God's kindness leading me to repentance and also to let this kindness crush me sometimes. I had an older lady come up to me one time and ask me how I was doing. I told her of my ongoing struggles with certain sin issues and she posed a great challenge to me. She said, "How do you know that it is God telling you these things? What I do is align myself with the Word and then if He is rebuking me I always hear Him tell me that He loves me."
What I mean by this is that it seems so important to know of His love. After all...does not His wrath occur from rejected love?
In regards to the issue of "fighting sin" this is a great topic. I have just read an incredible quote that says, "Grace is not opposed to effort, BUT EARNING." Grace is an action word that has given a way to fight. Being able to fight sin is all about grace because we have died to self, yet it seems that we have undermined that we are NEW CREATIONS. It we do not die and then become nothing. We become nothing in order to become something MORE. I was just talking with a friend this past week and I asked him, "Could you imagine how insane it would be to say that we are nothing and keep it that way? This would make God be a lover of nothing which would in turn say that we love a God who is a psychological nut case." I praise God that this is not the truth and that He has made us worthy of His love through Christ.
It seems that the best way to fight sin is through thanksgiving (appreciation). This is why it seems that Paul always drove this point and in fact says that this is part of the will of God for our life in Christ (1 Thess. 5:18). To the degree that we are really thankful for Jesus is to the degree that we will worship Him. The problem is that in today's society it seems that this word has become fluff along with other words such as happy and fun. What a tragedy!
Let me know your thoughts. I deeply appreciate you and your passion for Jesus.
Love Truth
Hey Bro,
It seems like you pulled this post right out of my head. Your line, 'The focus cannot be on the defeat of sin, but on the Father. If I constantly am in touch with, and seeking the heart of Christ, then sin is a far poorer option, and perhaps isn’t an option at all', is very much in line with the conclusion I have come to regarding the whole matter of sin. We can never allow a fixation on the defeat of sin to pull our attention away from God! This may sound odd, but I think that Satan often uses what would seem like an honorable pursuit of holiness to funnel our energy away from our relationship with God, and towards a self-righteous deed. I think that we as Christians are often calloused and unaware of the great potential we have through the power of God in us. We say we have an amazing God, so why can't we trust that we can do what He has commanded us to do?
Lucas
I think, dearest Johnny, that you have somehow made a photocopy of my thoughts from 300 miles away! At least a few of them. I have been reading Grace Walk for the past week, and I have been asking sometimes.....is taking grace too far a way of copping out of my responsibility toward holiness? I reallyliked what vernonburger had to say about grace not being opposed to effort, but earning. That is what I see, I guess through questions that have arisen from reading this book. I want to rely on God while still working out the process of holiness. He is my strength....and I know that.....so I should use that strength and put effort into hooliness. I think you are right on.....we are so much stronger than we give ourselves credit for. In every area of our lives. I recently was reading a business magazine that said that people who have achieved real greatness have done so mecause they have taken something that was considered impossible, and done it. It talked about when people used to think that a person could not run a mile in sub-4 time. Then they did it, and people have followed to beat that record. But back then people thought you might die if you ran that hard. Sometimes....and I know we won't ever stop sinning completely...but we could push a lot harder than we do. I hope I am that strong. Thanks for again challenging me, John. I will continue to read over this and study. You have no idea how much you have helped me with my Walk over the past couple months through conversation and words of encouragement. Thanks and you give me a call soon. Oh,and read Hebrews chapter 11 amazing.
Katie
As always, John, it is sooo good to hear from you. Your site
cracks me up. You go from super deep intellectual guy to a guy that has a brain in the shape of spongebob. How you pull that off I will never be able to understand....
I think our walk as Christians is definitely a journey that we will never know all of the answers to .... that is not until we are able to reach out and touch the face of our creator.
I think....which means nothing when I start a sentence out like that.....but, I think that our walk, our lives, our journey,
our---------(you fill in the blank) is filled with questions, fears, blue skies and gray skies alike. I believe that God, when he created us, knew that we would be riding a an untamed river when it comes to our everyday life, simply because, we are humans who are constantly seeking the right way (even when we screw up). We don't typically set out our days and say "I am really going to screw up my walk today".
I believe this is why we were given the gifts of both grace and (the unbelievably hard one to grasp) faith. I am not saying that we should take these as an opportunity to sin as we see fit. I am however saying that when we are actually trying to live our life for Christ, and we have given everything to him (another unbelievably hard thing to do) our lives will fall into place. This also does not mean that we should live our lives mindlessly and unaware of our calling and much greater purpose. It just means to......to live. To live for him. And when we fall, which we are going to do.......he will be there. Recall the verse in Romans (believe)that says something like .....when I am trying to do I find myself doing exactly the opposite. Satan is a tough soul. He is going to try everything he can to get to us......and he is known to use unusual ways of doing so.
I miss your messages. They either make me laugh or make me think.
Sometimes both at the same time but that is rare. hahahaha!
Please continue to pray for Brasen. He has a hip surgery scheduled on
September 20th and we are trying to gear up for it. As the day gets
closer I will let you know more.
hope to hear from you soon.
kim
Okay, so I've been thinking about this topic from a place of many failings. I'm living in a broken state right now, so the thought of not sinning any more is quite a thought. One thing I truly believe is sin and hard times in life are used in such a powerful way by the Lord to teach us great lessons and remind us of our absolute need for Him every minute. Most of the most precious moments I've had with the Lord are when he breaks me with his Love and His Holiness. But there is some amazing truth to what you say, it's the concept of living in the truth that we are in the likeness of Christ and we have the mind of Christ. It's dwelling on the things that are unseen not the things that are seen. We can not look at ourselves as sinners, we are saints that sin sometimes. If we focus on our sin, that is where we will live, if we focus on Christ, we will live there realizing His power is so much more than our meager battle against our flesh. We can't be distracted by the ways of this world, that is where my struggle lies. I've become too self evaluating and then selfishness follows very soon after that. It's in the work of the Lord that we are drawn into beauty and the world becomes dim, but when we focus on our behavior our attention is turned to "me" instead of Him. That is a very dangerous place to be. So, all in all, I think you are on to something great and something I would like to think about more. Thanks for the thoughts.
Thank you so much for saying that I communicate my thoughts well. This is something I've been attacked in lately. I've always concidered myself a relatively good communicator, but... long story short, it was very edifying to hear that. Anyway, I've been pretty reflective for the past week or so and have done alot of thinking on sin and why we get so short sided. That I believe was my biggest problem. One I forgot who God says I am and how He views me as His precious bride and friend (I realize knowing these things takes a lifetime, but I had forgotten almost everything I'd learned), but also I so easily forget what my goal is. We are enticed by the world not because its such a great place to live or it has so much to offer, but because it's in our face 24/7 (the seen unseen thing). I long for the day when the world in my face will no longer phase me and will seem a dim shadow compared to the brilliance of Christ who I'm enthralled with.
Hope your weekend is going great. I think a bike ride is in order. Talk to you soon.
Sarah O.
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