Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Semi-random mulling-overs .....

---I think there are degrees of sin. ALL sin bears the same punishment. There is no such thing as a nice sin.
We all sin. We are all equally guilty of hell according to the Bible and deserve the same punishment.
That said, when it comes to discussing character, especially as relating to leadership, I don't think all sin is created equal.
There is a difference between someone who occassionally looks at a woman in a bathing suit, and someone who carries on a full-fledged affair with the secretary. There is a difference between someone who yells at her children sometimes, and someone whose abuses and molests her children. There is a difference between someone who gets tipsy during a party, and someone whose alcoholism is destroying his family and career.

They all are sin. Yet if we were to inquire as to someone's character, the answers would look much different for A and B.

---God's love is unconditional. A higher "degree" of sin doesn't mean God cares less, or doesn't want to know that person (and that person to know him.) There is grace and forgiveness for any kind of sin. My sin isn't any "better" than your sin. Yesterday I had lunch with a lady who runs a transition home for women coming out of jail (most of them in for drug use). She talked about how her ladies generally end up in megachurches like the Vineyard and Calvary Chapel because she can't find smaller churches that want them as part of their fellowship. That sucks. He has come for the sin-sick. (Come as you are)

--- I know there are still plenty of blind spots I have (I just don't right know what they are, that being the nature of blind spots :-) I know I sin. There are sins that are habitual - I do them again and again. Yet I don't like doing them. I struggle with them. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. Over time, I am getting better at it. (Don't stay as you are.)

---I am all for giving room for the Holy Spirit to do his thing. But what if what the Holy Spirit's thing involves is me going to someone and lovingly confronting him/her with something? Or someone confronting me? God's voice to me has been the voice of other people many-a-times....

posted by Birgit
0 comments at 2:40 PM