Straight From the Journal – Thoughts on my Sin & Mortification

My sin must be killed by grace driven effort. This will take place as I grow in:
- Mining the depths of the love of God
- Practicing righteous deeds and considering others above myself
- Experiencing helpful giving & receiving Christian community

My church's small group beginning soon will not cure my sin.

"Keep at the greatest distance from sin, and from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to catch you." "Hate [sin] with horror."
- Precious remedies against Satan's devices – Thomas Brooks

(Proverbs 5:8) (1 Thessalonians 5:22) Abstain from every form of evil.
Forms of evil:

• Selfish; placing one's self above the needs + the good of others. Whenever I see an inkling of self-centered energy, kill it.
  

• Sexual immorality; this is chasing after the desires of a perverted sexual desire. Sex is to be a 'mingling of souls' between a man and his wife only. All other acts coming from sexual desires are immoral.
  Sexual immorality is a sin against God (Psalm 51:4) and our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:18).
  It comes from the heart (Matthew 15:19).
  It is to be abstained from.
  It is a fleshly desire (Romans 13:13-14).
  It is a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:19).
  It must not be named among the saints (Ephesians 5:3).
  It is to be put to death (Colossians 3:5).
  It is not in the will of God (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
  It is full of impurities (Revelation 18:3).
  

Sin is the greatest disease in existence that plagues the human race. Do not dance upon the edge of the pit of sin, for I would fall into that pit.

Christian Maturity

Don't forget that you're justified not by how well you follow, but you're justified by Christ alone. Don't forget it. Don't forget you can't earn this. A mark of Christian maturity is when you stumble and fall you run to God and it results in more worship. A sign of immaturity is that when you stumble and fall is you run from God, try to fix yourself up, and run back to him.

 I came across that chunk of preaching while listening to Matt Chandler via The Village Church's podcast. (It is around the 32:00 mark in the 11th part of the Colossians series.) According to this, which I think is accurate and a good indicator of Christian maturity, I am pretty immature. I (and might I add, we) tend to be very prone to this weird legalistic kinda thing that confronts me when I sin and drives me away from God in guilt and shame in a manner that is simply not biblical. I don't intend to discuss godly and ungodly guilt here, but let me just say that I see so many Christians (myself being the prime example) who are so prone to a forgetful, powerful, ignorant shame that deems ourselves to be beyond God's love and fellowship, even if we somehow reckon in our minds that we have his forgiveness (once again, I skirt another huge issue, but it will have to wait).

My point, and I think one of the main things I am learning right now is how to biblically deal with my sin. I am learning to wrestle with the thought that I am a sinner. I have a nature that is fundamentally corrupted and does not want to love God. Yes, sanctification is indeed taking place in my life and Christ is transforming my life and mind, but I still am essentially broken right now. I am a sinner, justified before the Father by the Son's sacrifice, and am being sanctified by his Spirit. I must not live and think in a way that neglects this first truth. I am a sinner.

We all die

The girl on the right in the above photograph is 13 years old. The girl on the left is 16 years old.

...Huh?

Brooke Greenberg, pictured above with her sister has an unknown genetic condition that has caused her physical development to never move past infancy. The authors of the article reporting on this wild phenomenon quoted a team of doctors studying Brooke's strange case and they have noted:

"Just possibly [studying Brooke] could give us an opportunity to answer the question of why we are mortal."

"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." - Romans 5:12

Sin lies to us

"We sin because we believe what sin offers is true. We believe that being sexually aroused will bring us personal satisfaction or being socially in the know will bring us meaningful acceptance. So, we look at porn and gossip about others. If we really believed that porn and gossip were based on lies that don’t satisfy, we wouldn’t participate in them. Sin lies to us. We need to get in the habit of talking back with the truth. Instead of expressing faith in the lies of sin, we need to have faith in the truth of the gospel. The gospel is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). It is the heart-warming, mind-renewing truth that image of the glory of God in the complexion of Jesus is all we need to be truly satisfied, complete, and accepted. We receive it by faith, over and over again. When we labor to look at Jesus, we begin to look like him, to be transformed into his image. This is why the fight of faith is important. It is based on the truth and it truly changes our image. It simultaneously holds Jesus up and draws us to him. Although the fight of faith is humbling and hard, it is worth it. It is a good and glorious fight."

 - "Fight Clubs", Jonathan Dodson, bold added

(HT: The Resurgence)

I will write my blogs on the sermon I preached this last week, I promise!