picture by James Orah;link on the right for more of his art. Ok, so on the lines of "sin". Knowing we are all behind that curtain to me is almost comforting. At least I know I'm not a lone in the "sin factor", but here is the deal, I know if I walked out from behind that curtain the others will poke their nose out and judge me. We all know it is true. Its much easier to deal with what is behind our curtain knowing someone else has it "worse" then us. Just a fact of life.
The other side of the coin. What if what we are hiding behind the curtain isn't a sin, but just who we are? God's creation, people who will NEVER reach perfection here on earth. I think we want our list so that we can say what is a sin and what is not. I think it comforts us, because then this whole "sin thing" is under lock and key. We understand it. But what if, what if we all just said, we are sinners who Christ died for. What happens then? The list doesn't matter so much, at least for me. My "sin" doesn't matter as much as knowing I'm a "sinner".
Just something to think about. At least something I have been at least.
5 comments:
Agreed. Even if something is a sin I don't think that God is as concerned with it as we are (1. God is much bigger than we think He is. 2. He already took care of all our sin and sins at the cross anyway). All sin means is to be imperfect, but we have made it pretty much synonymous with evil, which it is not. I personally believe that to be concerned with whether something is a sin or not is completely antithetical to what God wants of us. Worry, rather, about whether your actions are loving or are hurting anyone unnecessarily and trust Christ in you to guide you as He wills. If your actions are falling within those parameters, then if God wants you to change it's up to Him to change you, not up to yourself.
So trust God, love your neighbour, and live your life. That's my philosophy anyway, for what it's worth. :)
right now that "settles" with me Drew. :) I'm going to think about it some more.
I guess for me, why do we cancel out grace?
"I guess for me, why do we cancel out grace?"
My theory is that it is because grace is something that is outside of our control. We like to be in control, both of ourselves and of others. With grace we can't control or condemn others and we also can't take credit for the good or bad we do (yes, some people like to be able to take credit for the bad too).
I find that remembering that "it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2)" and that "God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all (Romans 11)" helps a lot. We are clay in the potters hands, God made us who and what we are so that He might fulfill His eternal purposes, and I believe that His eternal purposes will ultimately be in our best interests.
Yeah. I think that I would have to exercise a great deal of caution about revealing 'sins,' no matter how small.
A certain kind of audience may immediately assume that one is MINIMIZING something or other, wherease one may be MAXIMISING it, or, perhaps, just DESCRIBING IT accurately.
Then the sermons may come, and they may be for much more than any sin one might have committed, etc., etc.
Matter of fact, I was on a forum once, and cautioned against a certain attitude, because that attitude had put me on the brink of getting into a certain area of sinfulness, onetime.
Well, I was afraid to look back at my email -- I don't know whether something was added to it, or what. All I know is that it provoked an immediate VERY strong reaction.
Well, immediately, everyone assumed that I had really, I don't know, done something really major. I was very surprised, really.
Matter of fact, your spouse was almost the only gracious person on that forum, and that's why I hang out here, now, a bit, once in a while.
I figured I OWED one in you guys' direction -- I saw you guys were going through some stuff after yet another forum, and I determined that, if it had ANYTHING to do with anything I could do or say, there was NO WAY anything would go down that would have any bad effect, permananently, on you two.
I've heard people say things that were something like this:
"Well, I've done some things I've been ashamed of," or, "I've gotten near the edge in certain areas, although, happily, it never went far enough to leave me scarred," and/or generic stuff like that.
I guess they, you know, didn't want to persuade the public that they were perfect persons, type of thing -- didn't want to be hypocrites -- but, at the same time, realized that their public might have a tendency to magnify or gossip about whatever they might reveal.
Someone mentioned that the Bible says to 'confess our faults,' not so much our sins, one to another. As in , "Hey! That's a difficult area [whatever it might be] for all of us. I'm sure I have to watch it a lot," or something like that.
But, yeah, Jewels, I believe we all have our 'sins.' Interestingly, the areas in which we sense weakness are not always the areas in which we tend to fall, either. Sometimes, we get unguarded in our 'strong' areas, no?
It seems ironic, eh?
Interesting thought. Thanks for sharing. I especially liked the point "My 'sin' doesn't matter as much as knowing I'm a 'sinner'."
It causes me to think, if I would like to be perceived in this manner...than surely I can and SHOULD apply that same grace to others.
Post a Comment