So a recent conversation with my pastor has prompted me to think about what exactly ought to be a Christians response to their own sin. Let us assume for the sake of this post that a Christian means someone who has been saved by Jesus and is going to heaven regardless of their actions. I'm not going to get into the whole debate of whether a person can lose their salvation or not because I dont think it is conducive to understanding the problem. The point is their are people who are legitimately Christians (myself and most of you reading this, at least you would say so) and yet we still sin. However our sin is payed for already Jesus said, "it is finished", on the cross implying that the debt which sin creates has been forever payed by Him and Him alone. We can do nothing in regards to that debt. Neither can we make it bigger nor can we make it smaller because it is done away with. Praise God for that.
Now if the debt is paid, what then are we left with? I think here we must redefine what we had previously thought of as sin. Sin by definition is an action contrary to God's will, the action being done a barrier appears between us and God. Combining personal experience with my reading of various Christian fathers throughout history and the Bible I've come to "think" that their are two natures to this barrier which sin creates. The first is all encompassing, totally segregating the sinner from the Father. God may have interaction with that person but the person can not respond. This first barrier is removed and removed forever by Jesus' death on the cross. The removal of this barrier enables the human to be saved and to pursue God. The waves of communication have become open once again. The second barrier is one we humans create after the origonal barrier has been removed. It is created by our sin and the bigger we make it the less and less we are able to communicate with God and interact with Him. Its like as we sin we clog up the ways we would interact with God with filth and muck. This second barrier is removed through the process of Sanctification and it is into this process that I believe falls the use of divinely given tools such as guilt, shame, penance ect.
Everything must be in balance and to blow the use of guilt out of proprotion is to use it for human purposes and not for the glorification of God. Often as Christians we sin and we ignore the sin because God has forgiven it, which He has and but we just wade through it for our Sunday morning church service then we return to create some more sin. Picture a man who wants to get to the end of a tunnel and instead of clearing out all the debris to make the tunnel passable he tries to squeeze his way through. This is a picture of a man who will not look at his sin. The boulders blocking his path to God are His sin and the fact that they are forgiven doesn't lessen the fact that they exist and he continues to make them bigger as he squirms and fights his way to the end of the tunnel. Often time he will give up and content himself with just being closer to the end of the tunnel then he was a month before. So guilt is what enables us to know our sin. To experience it on a deeper level and to understand the utter detestablness(I know thats not a word) of it, so that we can learn to hate our sin just as God hates the sinners "Psalms 5:5". In Proverbs 20:30 the use of the rod is advised as helpful to the soul. I think guilt is one of God's "rods" which he uses to teach us how to more ably follow him.
So basically I think their is more to live then salvation. The fact that Jesus saved us and forgave our sins does not take away the sin itself it makes us no longer held accountable to it. For me, the fact that someone else took what I owed makes me much more willing to serve that individual. So just because my salvation is guaranteed the fact that I still do things that bring tears to the of God makes me burn with shame more so then if my sin was put on my charge instead of His.
Please post your comments, I'm anticipating some disagreement. I hope at the very least this will have provoked some of you to think over things which are not the norm.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
I've often read this passage and puzzled over the seeming paradox which is presents. It sounds all nice and comforting if you take it and read it seperate apart from the rest of the bible. However when we look at the rest of the bible we see that the most godly people, the people who have submitted to Christ's yoke entirely are the one's who seem to have the hardest lives. For examples read Hebrews 11:36-38.
I think the answer to the paradox lies in the word "easy". For something to be easy their must be something else which is hard, or at the very least harder then the thing said to be easy. Now we know Jesus' word to be infallible and so if He says submitting to His authority and rule is easy then we must draw the conclusion that it is easier then something else. "Easy" may not match the definition that we have as fallen creatures but it is easy in comparison to the life of a man who refuses to submit to Christ's authority.
This many of you have heard and if you haven't heard it specifically it makes sense. What for a long time didn't make sense to me was how can I see my life from the viewpoint that Christ had when He said submitting to Him is easier then not. I think the key factor that makes a life like Christ's easy is satisfaction. Think from the perspective of someone who is not willing to submit entirely to Christ. They have nothing. To have any sort of happiness or satisfaction they must make assumptions about life and themselves in which they forfeit their spiritual integrity. They have to constantly live with the knowledge that they have created truth and its only the assumptions they've assumed about life and reality which enable them to experience their fake forms of happiness and joy. These assumptions because they are faulty in nature are the reasons why people fall into depression and anxiety and live unhappy lives in general.
A christian on the other hand has great satisfaction and security in the knowledge that he is "yoked" with Jesus Christ. Compared to the non believer who has yoked himself to the figments of their own imagination. So my conclusion is that the yoke of Christ is not easy, at least not easy in the sense that we would like it to be. It is however easier then a life not under submission but its still a difficult life. Often we expect things of Christ and we misinterpret promises God makes us in the bible and here is one that I have been misunderstanding for along time. Hope this helped some of you as much as it helped me.
I've often read this passage and puzzled over the seeming paradox which is presents. It sounds all nice and comforting if you take it and read it seperate apart from the rest of the bible. However when we look at the rest of the bible we see that the most godly people, the people who have submitted to Christ's yoke entirely are the one's who seem to have the hardest lives. For examples read Hebrews 11:36-38.
I think the answer to the paradox lies in the word "easy". For something to be easy their must be something else which is hard, or at the very least harder then the thing said to be easy. Now we know Jesus' word to be infallible and so if He says submitting to His authority and rule is easy then we must draw the conclusion that it is easier then something else. "Easy" may not match the definition that we have as fallen creatures but it is easy in comparison to the life of a man who refuses to submit to Christ's authority.
This many of you have heard and if you haven't heard it specifically it makes sense. What for a long time didn't make sense to me was how can I see my life from the viewpoint that Christ had when He said submitting to Him is easier then not. I think the key factor that makes a life like Christ's easy is satisfaction. Think from the perspective of someone who is not willing to submit entirely to Christ. They have nothing. To have any sort of happiness or satisfaction they must make assumptions about life and themselves in which they forfeit their spiritual integrity. They have to constantly live with the knowledge that they have created truth and its only the assumptions they've assumed about life and reality which enable them to experience their fake forms of happiness and joy. These assumptions because they are faulty in nature are the reasons why people fall into depression and anxiety and live unhappy lives in general.
A christian on the other hand has great satisfaction and security in the knowledge that he is "yoked" with Jesus Christ. Compared to the non believer who has yoked himself to the figments of their own imagination. So my conclusion is that the yoke of Christ is not easy, at least not easy in the sense that we would like it to be. It is however easier then a life not under submission but its still a difficult life. Often we expect things of Christ and we misinterpret promises God makes us in the bible and here is one that I have been misunderstanding for along time. Hope this helped some of you as much as it helped me.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Horcruxes
A Horcrux is an item into one places part or all of one's soul. In the series Harry Potter these items are used by the dark lord to act as insurance against a physical death. In the books they enabled Lord Voldermort to resurrect a weaker version of himself each time his physical body was destroyed. Unlike the Harry Potter series, real Horcrux do not necessarily involve a physical item nor do they insure one againts a physical death. Their is however a parallel that can be drawn from the fictional definition of a horcrux to reality and the real humans soul.
The human soul is a complex and intricate component of the human person. unlike Harry Potter in which someone may split his soul and place part of it in an object as an insurance against physical death the real soul is much more complex. Despite its intricacie the human soul is very often torn apart or placed in things other than its owners not to insure against death but rather to gain a sort of spiritual and emotional life or security. The majority of humans are not satisfied with themselves and so they place their souls in things other than themselves. These things are like guardians of the souls which the humans trust more then they trust themselves. So long as the guardian remain true to their calling the human will remain calm because their soul is at rest in the thing they've chosen to entrust it to. Examples would be things such as relationships, God, church, learning, sports ect ect ect ect.
Why is this important you ask? Well because the majority of human horcruxes I think we make subconsciously. We dont realize we've placed most of our soul into something until that something fails us and we feel like half a person. We lose as much of our personality as we had invested in that item or thing or activity. Just as any investor knows, it is best to research the thing your investing your money in prior to risking your money in it. When one thinks about their soul, their ought to be a intense desire to make sure that we invest it in a "risk free investment".
Its fascinating to me that people will think so intensely about something which they know full well will fade away into memory and will give little or no thought to their spiritual being, their soul and where it is going. Left to itself the human spirit will grow independent and become unruly, forcing us to do things we dont want and which go against our conscience and better judgment. Just as the force of gravity must be continually fought by those who stand upright so also must the natural laziness of the soul to become devoted to things which are not healthy be continually inhibited.
The human soul is a complex and intricate component of the human person. unlike Harry Potter in which someone may split his soul and place part of it in an object as an insurance against physical death the real soul is much more complex. Despite its intricacie the human soul is very often torn apart or placed in things other than its owners not to insure against death but rather to gain a sort of spiritual and emotional life or security. The majority of humans are not satisfied with themselves and so they place their souls in things other than themselves. These things are like guardians of the souls which the humans trust more then they trust themselves. So long as the guardian remain true to their calling the human will remain calm because their soul is at rest in the thing they've chosen to entrust it to. Examples would be things such as relationships, God, church, learning, sports ect ect ect ect.
Why is this important you ask? Well because the majority of human horcruxes I think we make subconsciously. We dont realize we've placed most of our soul into something until that something fails us and we feel like half a person. We lose as much of our personality as we had invested in that item or thing or activity. Just as any investor knows, it is best to research the thing your investing your money in prior to risking your money in it. When one thinks about their soul, their ought to be a intense desire to make sure that we invest it in a "risk free investment".
Its fascinating to me that people will think so intensely about something which they know full well will fade away into memory and will give little or no thought to their spiritual being, their soul and where it is going. Left to itself the human spirit will grow independent and become unruly, forcing us to do things we dont want and which go against our conscience and better judgment. Just as the force of gravity must be continually fought by those who stand upright so also must the natural laziness of the soul to become devoted to things which are not healthy be continually inhibited.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Purpose of Humility.
Recently I've began to read Bernard of Clairvaux and his thoughts are fascinating. Truly a man of God and you can tell because he quotes scriputre in some form almost every other sentence. At the beginning he puts a list of things that distinguish pride from humility. It was pretty good for me to dwell a bit on pride. I figured I'd post it, think about it, dwell on it, I found it helpful.
The Steps of Humility and Pride.
Pride
1. Curiosity about what is not one's proper concern.
2. Light-mindedness chatter and exclamation about things which do not matter.
3. Laughing about nothing. Foolish merriment.
4. Boasting and talking too much.
5. Trying to be different claiming special rights.
6. Thinking oneself holier than others.
7. Interfering presumptuously with the affairs of others,
8. Self-justification. Defending one's sinful actions.
9. Insincere confesson.
10. Rebelling against superiors
11. Feeling free to sin.
12. Habitually sinning.
Humility
12. Containment of ones interest which shows itself in a humble bearing and a lowered eyes.
11. Quiet and restrained speech.
10. Reluctance to laugh.
9. Keeping silent unless asked to speak.
8. Regarding oneself as having no special rights in the community.
7. Thinking oneself less holy than others.
6. Thinking oneself unworthy to take initiative.
5. Confessing one's sins.
4. Patience in face of accusation.
3. Submission to superiors.
2. Desiring no freedom to exercise one's will.
1. Constant Watchfulness againts sin.
The Steps of Humility and Pride.
Pride
1. Curiosity about what is not one's proper concern.
2. Light-mindedness chatter and exclamation about things which do not matter.
3. Laughing about nothing. Foolish merriment.
4. Boasting and talking too much.
5. Trying to be different claiming special rights.
6. Thinking oneself holier than others.
7. Interfering presumptuously with the affairs of others,
8. Self-justification. Defending one's sinful actions.
9. Insincere confesson.
10. Rebelling against superiors
11. Feeling free to sin.
12. Habitually sinning.
Humility
12. Containment of ones interest which shows itself in a humble bearing and a lowered eyes.
11. Quiet and restrained speech.
10. Reluctance to laugh.
9. Keeping silent unless asked to speak.
8. Regarding oneself as having no special rights in the community.
7. Thinking oneself less holy than others.
6. Thinking oneself unworthy to take initiative.
5. Confessing one's sins.
4. Patience in face of accusation.
3. Submission to superiors.
2. Desiring no freedom to exercise one's will.
1. Constant Watchfulness againts sin.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Sands of Endlessness
How is one to make sense of it all. All is vanity and a striving after wind saith the preacher and yet we continue to allow ourselves to feel and hurt and morn over thing that have virtually no significance in the overall perspective of eternity. We all are willing to admit that the majority of the things we spend our time pursuing do not matter much in eternities view. However these things such as grades, friends, presents, birthdays, anniversaries, sporting events are all very real and what give life and purpose to millions upon millions of people all over the world. How has the world come to this state. A state in which the things of this world which do not live beyond a memory have become the force that drives the majority of humanity to eat, work, sleep and live in general. Why have we become so complacent that we are wiling to spend our time and be satisfied by things that can only exist as a memory. We find ourselves wrapped up into these situations that we know are hindering us from pursuing God however they can not be ignored. We wish to bring God into the picture and allow Him to work out the problem for us yet it just seems to make things more complicated and while its comforting in a sense to say "God you now have control over this situations and it's under your control" this does not alleviate the pressure that we must feel because we are still, regardless of who is in charge, key players in the problem.
What are we to do. We can research, We can study, we can diagram and plan as much as Socrates but ultimatly it will all come to naught. Friendships dwindle away unless continually attended to, physique grows lax and weak unless forced int subjugation and made strong through discipline our minds wander into idle thoughts and vain day dreaming unless reality is continually being brought before it. Life in general is taxing and yet God calls us continually to higher and higher levels of purity and intelligence. Plinkys question for today is: If you had an hour in a time machine where would you go. I'd go to eternity where God reigns supreme and His will is being done on earth as it has been done in heaven for eternity past. to be assured that all these struggles and battles are worth it. To know that the hope I rest all my rational, my reason, my efforts and dreams upon is as glorious as the scriptures tell. To make it easier to trudge on through the storm, being cold to the core and having to stop every so often to clean the blood and the sweat from our eyes. The only thing that allows us to continue is hope. Reason fails us when the we come to the chasm of faith. faith without reason can only lead to hope and hope is what we are left with as motivation to serve God.
So the purpose of this post, to show that in reality most things are unprovable and since hope is what we as Christian found our lives upon we must ensure that our hope is properly placed and were not hoping for the wrong thing.
What are we to do. We can research, We can study, we can diagram and plan as much as Socrates but ultimatly it will all come to naught. Friendships dwindle away unless continually attended to, physique grows lax and weak unless forced int subjugation and made strong through discipline our minds wander into idle thoughts and vain day dreaming unless reality is continually being brought before it. Life in general is taxing and yet God calls us continually to higher and higher levels of purity and intelligence. Plinkys question for today is: If you had an hour in a time machine where would you go. I'd go to eternity where God reigns supreme and His will is being done on earth as it has been done in heaven for eternity past. to be assured that all these struggles and battles are worth it. To know that the hope I rest all my rational, my reason, my efforts and dreams upon is as glorious as the scriptures tell. To make it easier to trudge on through the storm, being cold to the core and having to stop every so often to clean the blood and the sweat from our eyes. The only thing that allows us to continue is hope. Reason fails us when the we come to the chasm of faith. faith without reason can only lead to hope and hope is what we are left with as motivation to serve God.
So the purpose of this post, to show that in reality most things are unprovable and since hope is what we as Christian found our lives upon we must ensure that our hope is properly placed and were not hoping for the wrong thing.
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