Why not be more positive? Fair question. Seems to me the Church has dumbed down the law and dumbed down sin, like the Pharisees did, so the Christian life seems doable, possible, the commands keepable. We believers seem to have the impression that sin is something we occasionally do, when in fact, we never stop sinning: there’s a dark side, self-serving side, to our most-noble, seeeemingly-selfless deeds. We think of sin in outside-the-cup ways, and spend little time talking about inside-the-cup sin/idolatry, and I think Satan could not be more pleased, at snookering us into believing that the really-bad sin is the technicolor sin, that we believers with our acts together, are pretty good folks. Pharisee thinking.
I never set out to talk about my sin all the time, but I did begin to ask Pray-ers to pray for my faith life, my dependency on Jesus. And the way He has answered those prayers over time, is to open my eyes and enable me to see many sins/idols that I never saw previously. Getting new large glimpses of how much worse I am than I ever dreamed, would be depressing, were it not for the ever-growing foundation of grace in my life, that began in 1984 when Janet and I went through World Harvest’s Sonship Course, which was life-changing for both us. Today I’m convinced that the nicest, sweetest, kindest, most-loving thing He ever does for me, is to freshly convict me of my sin of independence/self-reliance: my passion for worthiness of my own, unsatisfied with Jesus and His worthiness imputed to me.
When I have a sense of having been forgiven little, I love only a little: Jesus, others, myself. When I love only a little, I’m critical, judgmental, competitive, rejoicing in the failure of others, both believer and pre-believer, and self-contemptful at my own failure. I don’t enjoy others just as they are, me just as I am, Jesus and His plan for my life, just as it is. Circumstance-dependent for my joy and peace. Having the name of Jesus, but not the benefit of Jesus. Living as joylessly and peacelessly as the pre-believers around me, because I’m so confident I know what would be best for me and those I love. Independent not dependent. ShepherdDave, not DumbSheepDave.
–DumbSheepDave, having an even better year than last year, which was the best year of his life, because folks have been praying
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