Random thoughts that didn't make Sunday morning last week....
Why do we sin anyway?We all are born with a sin nature (thanks Adam and Eve)...basically, we are attracted to doing something against God. Don't believe me? Ever said with suppressed glee "I know I shouldn't be doing this, but...." followed by a little rush of excitement? There you go...let me introduce you to "sin nature". Boom goes the dynamite!
Why are their disasters and disease?
- Want to know why there is disease...earthquakes...Katrina? Sin... Don't believe me...read Romans 8...20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
That's talking about the effects of sin, that's where death and decay came from...didn't think sin hurts dirt? It's a thought...think it through.
What does sin do to us and the world and how bad is it?
It treats physical creation just like it treats us on the inside. Just about every sin-driven emotion has a good beginning that is taken to a bad end. Revenge begins in justice. Uncontrollable rage begins in the detection of something wrong. Codependency begins with a desire for community. What happens to those good things? When the sin nature combines with regular stuff, it mutates it within us and makes our stuff something troublesome, hurtful and ultimately dishonoring to God. The same is true in our world...when we chose sin in our world, it was damaging to the physical world as well. It's a force and we are in the middle of the extraction of it from God's creation. It's like trying to extract a cup of black paint from a gallon of white paint, after you've stirred it up good. Big job, but God can do it.
Acts vs. Control
Many times, it's not the acts of sin we do that are the real problem, they are just the result of what happens when we fight with God...they are really bad, but in comparison, maybe not...the results of our sin acts bring damaging things, but it's the fact that we are resisting Him that is the greatest problem and the greatest damage...that's when sin nature controls us...the acts are just the leaves on the weed.
Acts vs. Control
Many times, it's not the acts of sin we do that are the real problem, they are just the result of what happens when we fight with God...they are really bad, but in comparison, maybe not...the results of our sin acts bring damaging things, but it's the fact that we are resisting Him that is the greatest problem and the greatest damage...that's when sin nature controls us...the acts are just the leaves on the weed.
Little Dog, Big Dog...Making a Mistake
Little Dog, Big Dog --- Making a Mistake. I feel really bad, because I had Ann Marie read this book in the service and then didn't really explain it as fully as I mean to, so I'll do it here. Quick synopsis of The Adventures of Big Dog, Little Dog -- Making a Mistake by Dav Pilkey: Big dog and little dog go outside, see what they think is a cat, chase it, find out it's a skunk when they get sprayed, then they go home, smelling really bad and break up their lady owner's tea party...yeeech! That book really resonated with me because that's what being controlled by sin is. Follow me here.
Like Big Dog and Little Dog...sin is all about our desire to do it...the skunk didn't force them to chase it, they had a choice. They thought it was a kitty, but it wasn't and that's how it is at the times when sin controls my life. I've got this really clear picture of what the result of what I'm doing is going to be, but it never ends up just like that alone...it always delivers something different than what I expected, just like the skunk being BD and LD's problem. When it hits you, one your own, the effects of it are never just momentary, they hang around...like a bad smell. Like it did for BD & LD, it makes you feel bad, it ruins your day...and ultimately, it never costs only you alone. That's what those ladies at the tea party found out...they didn't know anything about the kitty or the skunk, had no clue what was up, but their party got upset by BD and LD's choice. Just about any time you let your sin nature control you and you don't submit to God's plan, you are setting yourself up for consequences...some of them are right in your face (kick something in anger, break your toe) and some of them just kind of hang around a while and get you later (when your child drops a dime on you in one imaginative way or worse yet, they repeat your bad choice and improve on it). Either way, anyone that you touch is up to be effected by it...so you are always breaking up someone's tea party, but I guess it's even, because they are always busting up yours....so you guys should have a little grace for each other.
Like Big Dog and Little Dog...sin is all about our desire to do it...the skunk didn't force them to chase it, they had a choice. They thought it was a kitty, but it wasn't and that's how it is at the times when sin controls my life. I've got this really clear picture of what the result of what I'm doing is going to be, but it never ends up just like that alone...it always delivers something different than what I expected, just like the skunk being BD and LD's problem. When it hits you, one your own, the effects of it are never just momentary, they hang around...like a bad smell. Like it did for BD & LD, it makes you feel bad, it ruins your day...and ultimately, it never costs only you alone. That's what those ladies at the tea party found out...they didn't know anything about the kitty or the skunk, had no clue what was up, but their party got upset by BD and LD's choice. Just about any time you let your sin nature control you and you don't submit to God's plan, you are setting yourself up for consequences...some of them are right in your face (kick something in anger, break your toe) and some of them just kind of hang around a while and get you later (when your child drops a dime on you in one imaginative way or worse yet, they repeat your bad choice and improve on it). Either way, anyone that you touch is up to be effected by it...so you are always breaking up someone's tea party, but I guess it's even, because they are always busting up yours....so you guys should have a little grace for each other.
Dang you, evaluation
Sin kills us in the evaluation stage. Think about it.
Everything we do, whether impulse or pre-meditated is about ending up
with a certain result. Every time we've let sin control our actions,
we've got an ending plan in mind...stupid or well-thought out...even if
we can't express it, we've got one. What did I say earlier? "Sin never gives you what you expected." So you are trying to end up with a result, but when sin is involved it always gives you something that you didn't want or expect...even though you were sure you had it figured out.
Take Eve in the Garden for example...she started talking herself into the apple talking about how good it looked like it tasted, how it carried a lot of benefits and on top of that, it's fruit..that's healthy. But she got WAAAY more than she bargained for and like I said, ti was so not what she expected... Nothing inherently wrong with eating a piece of fruit...should have brought wisdom (another good thing)...evaluation CHECK! Wrong...we aren't meant to be into heavily top-level evaluation...we aren't meant to be in everyday obedience to God. He is the only person in the Universe that knows everything that will actually happen after we make the next move.
Take Eve in the Garden for example...she started talking herself into the apple talking about how good it looked like it tasted, how it carried a lot of benefits and on top of that, it's fruit..that's healthy. But she got WAAAY more than she bargained for and like I said, ti was so not what she expected... Nothing inherently wrong with eating a piece of fruit...should have brought wisdom (another good thing)...evaluation CHECK! Wrong...we aren't meant to be into heavily top-level evaluation...we aren't meant to be in everyday obedience to God. He is the only person in the Universe that knows everything that will actually happen after we make the next move.
Freebie (this was in there):
Sin has NOTHING to do with you ending up doing more good in the world than you do bad. Here's a flash: You can have a choice of two good things...you can think "win-win" and choose one...and still sin. What??? Sometimes morally good and bad things overlap, but that isn't the only measurement of what is sin or not...sin is simply "not doing what God has for your life"...
Sin has NOTHING to do with you ending up doing more good in the world than you do bad. Here's a flash: You can have a choice of two good things...you can think "win-win" and choose one...and still sin. What??? Sometimes morally good and bad things overlap, but that isn't the only measurement of what is sin or not...sin is simply "not doing what God has for your life"...
Sin isn't just keeping Biblical rules...in fact, that won't work.
God's whole design in this was to get you to have a relationship with Him...it's one of the main reasons God made man. We sinned, and messed that all up, but God's purpose didn't change. He gave us the Bible with rules in it...but those aren't necessarily trying to meet some 3rd party standard of good behavior...no. What God was saying was...see all this stuff, if you are doing that, you can rest assured you aren't doing what I told you to do...I don't do that.
But that's not all we need to know either. God gives us a lot of principle work in the Bible...that's just to get us started. What God really wants is for us to follow Him...so the rest of it...the only way you can fully know what God wants from you to do....is....ask Him. Yep, reading the Bible will only get you so far...it's a great book and has awesome timeless wisdom, BUT, it's never meant to be a read only type of thing, it's meant to have a companion CD of sorts, to get the full effect. not just a book, but a book and a teacher to flesh it out on the go.
The point is a relationship with Christ, so it would be kind of counter-intuitive and so unGodlike if the very structure itself didn't point back to and facilitate the goal.
The point is a relationship with Christ, so it would be kind of counter-intuitive and so unGodlike if the very structure itself didn't point back to and facilitate the goal.
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