Ten minutes? Sure, they can!
Ten hours? Sure, they can!
Ten days? Sure, they can!
Okay, for me? Ten minutes without sin? I can do that. (Being asleep helps a lot, though.) But seriously, I can do that.
Ten hours without sin? I guess I can do that if I'm really distracted with something all day long and just don't quit focusing on it.
One day without sin? I suppose I've gone this long a handful of times throughout my life.
Two days without sin? Maybe a couple of times total, over more than three decades.
Three days without sin? Three consecutive days? Not a chance in the world.
TEN days?!? Even with as much spiritual advancement as I would like to achieve in the rest of my life, I cannot see myself ever going this long without slipping up somehow.
What the heck is wrong with me? Has everyone else just gotten to a higher plane of existence that I'm doomed never to reach? Is there a point along the road where God grants you a gift of being able to block all sexual thoughts from your mind, or perhaps there's a heavenly neutering experience that just removes all those glands and parts of your brain without making you start looking like a member of the opposite gender?**
Is there a blessing these other people have obtained that stops one from ever getting angry again, or that instantly quenches anger with some boundless righteousness? Are there angelic visitations when they're about to let out a curse word that turns "f--" into "whoa" just in the nick of time? When something out in the world triggers their PTSD and they start losing it, does the Holy Spirit come to dwell with them and comfort them before they can fall over the edge?
Or does God just choose some people to live in His grace and to hell with the rest of us who haven't made the cut?
See; I just did it again. Timer reset: 0:00:00.
** Because if there is such a thing, SIGN ME UP AND I'LL BE FIRST IN LINE.
Posts
interesting you have posted this tonight. i was just compelled to come to my blog and post my sense of unworthiness. I'll save the words for my blog. But I'm wondering if our very existence is sinful, and only Christ is worthy of being sinless. No matter how I think I am being kept from sin, the minute I am asleep, my dreams are often filled with sinfulness.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't even counting dreams, just limited the discourse to willful, conscious thoughts; if I had included dreams, I'd be in a whole lot more trouble on top of it all - Yikes!
ReplyDeleteIt isn't my sense of Jesus' message that we are meant incessantly to monitor our thoughts, and construe each one that involves awareness of our bodies, of which it's kind of hard not to have awareness, since the Lord chose thus to wire our brains... as some kind of sin. Sin, in my view, involves intentionality and the actual infliction of harm, or least the conscious nurturing of a desire to inflict harm, or in some way to separate ourselves from God. While not knowing the specifics of your self-perceived transgressions, I really seriously doubt that you've deliberately hurt anyone, or somehow sought to pull away from God. No one with the latter inclination would write a blog so obviously intent on reinforcing his or her relationship with the Creator through painful self-examination. Give yourself a break. By your criteria, there'd be no human on the planet who could manage a state of grace for more than ten seconds at a time. Also, we humans are *much more* intolerant and judgmental (of ourselves and others) than ever Jesus was, who forgave and forgave and forgave, even the worst of transgressions. I think that's an example we'd do well to emulate.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll bet you a pizza you couldn't adduce a single one of the ten commandments you'd actually knowingly violated within the past month.
Whoa. Just the past couple of days, Sy Rogers spoke at Bethel and his words were like an answer to a large part of this post.
ReplyDeleteGrace is for EVERYONE who is saved through Jesus. We are the ones who choose to live under Grace when we accept Jesus in our hearts and accept what he has done for EVERYONE on the cross. Our sins are washed away. He paid the price already for them. We just need to ask for forgiveness. "Ask and you shall receive" Every pure and logical thing you ask for in the name of Jesus, with faith, will be given to you. REMEMBER: there are areas in our heart that are prone to sin and it is our nature to be of sin. Have you asked the lord to clean your mind. Instructions: Pray for a while, ask the lord to fill you with your holy spirit in Jesus name, Ask the lord to search your heart for any impurities and sin and he will bring certain things to your attention. The things that are brought to your attention can now be cleaned by asking for it in JESUS name and having the 100% willingness in your heart to let it/them go. Feel God's power working in you as he cleans your heart....... This is explained to the best of my ability. I know this works for me and if it works for me than it can work for you. If you don't have enough faith then ask for it in Jesus name and it will be given to you. You may pray for hours, letting certian areas of sin in your life go and it will be done for you when you ask in Jesus name. Also: Love the Lord with all your heart. Remember: Jesus paid the price for your sins, it is because of him that you are able to enter the Kingdom Of God.
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