After a Saturday night where I fell into temptation which included scoffing my face with a horrible kebab, it made me think about sinning.
Sin is a strange subject for a believer. It is the moment we choose something away from God. We do not trust that Jesus died to make us free and feel trapped then weak and then we give in. (that is what happens to me I believe)
As we look into Paul's writing, he explains in Romans we do not know why we sin.
Romans 7:15,18- I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do... I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
I think that is smart words. The Lord has blessed me recently with a hatred for sin. So, why do I still do it? Why cannot God take away our sins forever?
Something that should be well thought about is a human's ability to allow pride into his life without realising it. Before Friday, the past two weeks had been awesome for me. I felt like God opened by eyes to the grace around me. I spent the week trying to help my friends and offer them advice but not listening to what they had to say at all.
My exaggerated thoughts were, "the Lord is blessing me, I am speaking the word of God. Listen. Listen." Not the case.
It took a weekend of over-eating, drinking through boredom to make me realize that the humility I was craving came in the form of sin. Then it made me think, if we cannot become sinless but we pray for strength to achieve it then why does it exist? God does not want us to offend him. I think it could be to keep us humble.
Whether its lust, gluttony, worries, gossiping, it all leads to us going back to God and asking for forgiveness. All sin does have one result (hopefully); we truly realize how weak we are. That is it. That is what Paul explains in verse 18.
I am not saying, to humble myself I should sin. What I am saying is that sin might be something that is used to never allow us to become too arrogant due to God's grace. Once we realise we cannot live this life perfectly, we humble ourselves, pray for forgiveness and seek him more.
It is here that we truly understand the relationship with our Father. We can never be worthy of what God's grace does in our life. Hence Jesus having to die to free us from sin. The worthy (Jesus) became unworthy (died for our sins) so the unworthy (us) can receive salvation.
We cannot control our sins, but if we use our sins as a way to seek him more then we know God will help us and strengthen us. After all, "The mind of a sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. (Rom. 8:6)
Trust in these words and use your sins to get closer to God. It here that our freedom from sin finally reigns and we can truly understand our role in the God-human relationship.
Own Thought Part 2: Trust the Word of God
After listening to Jon Tyson's sermon at Fellowship Memphis and meditating upon David Platt's early chapters in Radical Together, it made me really think hard about how I use the Bible in my life.
Just reading the Gospel alone, something seems wrong. The Word of God was not a coincidental thing. Every word was given to the writers via the Holy Spirit. It all came from above.
Yet as we live our lives, one question to always keep in mind especially when reading the Bible is this; Do I believe everything that I am reading?
The miracles that Jesus produced were also produced by Peter and Paul. Two men who constantly made mistakes. What does that tell us? Not only that all our sins are forgiven if we truly repent but also that anybody can use the power of grace to do amazing things. As Jesus said in Mark, "... all things are possible with God." (11:27)
Do not allow your human thinking to even question these things, allow the grace of God that you have seen in your own life to lead you to more strength in faith.
Be careful in any debate that you do not go against what the Bible says. It is the atheists who doubt scripture, not Christians. If we doubt it then why would anyone else believe it? Do not pick the parts you like, take it all in. Make time to read it everyday, multiple times a day, and allow the words to lead you.
Trust it so much that, like prayer, it becomes a necessity in life. That you seek the Bible on every key decision you make. Use the manual for our lives that our creator has given us to do its job and teach us how to live.
Never think that the Bible ever gets outdated. Never doubt the power of the scripture; after all we have all seen the power that reading this book can do. Don't forget that.
Have a great week.
My Own Thought Part 1: The Responsibility of a Christian
This post here is mainly for the Christians of the world. If you are a non-Christian do not hesitate to continue reading as I hope you will agree with my overall point.
A few weeks ago I was watching Ricky Gervais' stand up, Science. I thought he made some funny points regarding the Christian faith; however I realized that it really emphasised his lack of knowledge on the Bible. Then on Friday night I was watching Channel 4 and yet another comedian bashed the Christian faith. "We love Jesus, we hate faggots" was the song title (I'm guessing that would be the title as it was the whole song) and it was performed by a comedian named Tim Minchin. I had previously watched Minchin on 8 out of 10 Cats and enjoyed his comedy. Finally, I spent some time on Saturday reading Richard Dawkins' God Delusion and thinking about his view. As you can imagine it was a lot of negativity towards something that means a lot to me. However, they are all interlinked..
Dawkins, Gervais and Minchin all have had previous encounters with Christian teaching and reject it each for their different reasons. They have not enjoyed have the Bible forced down their throats at Sunday school. Understandable in my opinion. So, why are grown men, who have been brought up in Church, showing such hatred towards Christianity? Christians seem to becoming less and less responsible in their own actions and more concerned about preaching and teaching other people. Sometimes a student learns more from a teacher's mannerisms rather than the subject.
So, my point? My point really is that this new generation of Christians that are slowly rising on this Earth have a responsibility at all times to live a life "worthy of the gospel."
I myself do a terrible job of this. I allow worldly things to get in the way of my thinking. I see my words and actions sometimes do not add up in my head. In prayer I ask for forgiveness for these things; but the people who I have affected do not see that part.
I was talking with someone recently who was talking to a Christian and this Christian mentioned something a long the lines of, "that man should rot in hell." The person I was speaking to explained that she did not think that was right for a Christian to say that. You see the problem now?
As Christians I feel like we have a responsibility. If we truly believe that loving our neighbour as ourself is the second most important commandment, then it should show. On Sunday, Liam Thatcher talked about John Wesley being "on fire" when he preached. Thatcher did a great job of communicating how important being empowered by the Holy Spirit can be to our lives. He put a lot of emphasis on the impact it can have around us. Jesus' last words to the disciples after he was resurrected were, "go and make disciples of all nations." (Mat. 28:19) It was the first thing he said. Do we make disciples of all nations by telling people how to live or what to believe?
After generations and generations of rough historical evidence going against Christianity, at what point will we as a Christian movement stand up and change ? When will we forget about the small differences that we currently deal with and finally unite in the fruit of the holy spirit. From that moment that someone knows you are a Christian, you are representing God. When Jesus explains to his disciples in Matthew 16:24 that if, "anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." I think that this is one of the many reasons that this passage is in the Bible. Everyday we are told to pick up our cross, pick up our responsibilities and forget about ourselves. Christians have done this before and it had led to a huge change in numbers
A few weeks ago, Andy Tisley explained that during the Roman times, when a fire or disease broke out it were the Christians who stayed to help and the rich who fled. This was possibly the reason that Christianity took over as the world's main religion. Those Christians were seen as loving and caring. They followed the Bible. Other people saw that and wanted to be a part of it. When I look at my own life I do not see that.
This has been something that I have really been thinking about more and more. The Christian faith is diminishing. What is worse is I feel like the overall perception of a Christian is not what it should be. I have laid a challenge before myself to try to always think about this. How have my actions/behaviours/words influenced people's view of me? Trying to answer that question after any new conversation has taken place is a great way to see how we are living. I have not enjoyed the first few answers, but have recently really tried to a better job of being responsible. Constantly thinking about how I present myself to other people has really led me to a new view on life and actually helped my own spiritual life.
It is something to think about. If we truly believe what we believe then it should show at all times, every day. What a challenge right?
Until next time, God bless Galatians 5:6
London Christchurch- Sunday Septmber 18th, 2011
After 20 minutes of inspirational praise to God, London Christchurch were treated to a comical, yet important sermon from John Mumford. Mumford is the creator of Vineyard Church organisation and left a comfortable life in California to head back to England and plant churches.
Mumford had a very posh exterior and an accent to confirm it. His public speaking ability to be awkward yet frank meant that by the end we were all hanging on to every word that he said.
Mumford's main focus was based around the idea of being a spiritual person. He used 1 Corinthians as his scripture reference and presented a very strong argument that we, as Christians, can be so much more influential when we become spiritual people.
Mumford based the ability to be a spiritual person on three main points. His first point referenced to 1 Corinthians 12:3- Respect the Lordship of Christ. He used a great analogy that spiritual people move over from the driver's seat of their life to allow Jesus to drive. Basically confirming that idea that if we allow Jesus to lead our life, if we seek God's kingdom first, then you shall see how amazing God can be. Mumford went onto explain that this also includes agreeing to do the things that Jesus has pressed us to do. This is something that is not easy, especially in the current economical purpose. This is a challenge. A test of faith, something that we all should pass if we want to experience true salvation.
Mumford's second point was the most important in my opinion. He explained that spiritual people "use or learn to use the spiritual gifts that God gives us." 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. In this extract Paul discusses that we are given different gifts by the spirit. This was very important for me because most of us see or have used the gifts that we have been given. However, learning how to use them in this life very often is difficult. As line 11 explains and Mumford so precisely put it, "we are given them from one spirit for one purpose." Going one step further, I would go as far as to say that Christians should make this their main focus. Once we can discover the gifts we are given, we can decipher God's will in how we are meant to use them.
The last point, taken from 1 Corinthians 12:14-18, interestingly showed us that our different gifts are different for specific purposes. Mumford explains that, "too often we compare ourselves too lowly to other people." Although this sounds like humility, it can sometimes turn into a crave for attention or a lack of action. What I mean by this is that whatever our purpose is on this world, we should embrace it. The passage indicates that a hand is not a foot and an ear is not an eye. No part of the body is more important than any other part; they are incomparable. Christians are told to see themselves with a sober judgement. Mumford did a great job of pointing out that feeling inferior in comparison can also be an issue and give a hint that we do no appreciate the gifts that God has given us.
Overall, John Mumford has done some amazing things. He has planted over 100 churches in the UK alone and his speaking style, although unusual was really effective in emphasising his points. His stories may have been a little long winded; but his key points were essential if we as a Christian society can expect to be influential on the many unbelievers that inhabit the UK currently. If you get a moment to hear his sermon, give it time before you switch it off and I hope he helps you as much as he helped me.
http://christchurchlondon.org/broadcast
This page will discuss what I learn in church or see through sermons that I view on youtube. I will provide a link and appreciate any comments on areas that I have missed or you feel like I have misunderstood.
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