(no subject)
Dec. 12th, 2006 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acresofhopeWow, Mandy Moore looks kind of like a white Tyra Banks in my icon, doesn't she?
Oh well, nevermind. It's not important.
The older I get, the more I realize that things aren't the way I think they are. Even though I know lots of things and seem to have a better understanding of life than most of the people around me, I still don't know anything at all. For example, I read a really good book a few years ago called Waking The Dead by John Eldredge (also author of Wild at Heart and co-author with his wife of Captivating). From what I remember of the book, he said plenty of great things that needed to be said and it really refreshed my faith for a season. I think I may have even written about it here. However, now that I'm older and have made more mistakes than I like, I realize that this guy has chased the rabbit down the wrong hole (you'll get that if you read the book).
He makes the claim that, once that person is born again/converted/whatever you want to call it, the heart of said person is no longer bad but good. At the time, it made sense. After all, Romans says we are dead to sin and alive in God. Ezekiel says He took my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. So in a sense, Eldredge is right. But this is where he goes terribly wrong, and I wish I'd realized it sooner. Not only that, I feel like an idiot because I didn't.
Eldredge takes all this to mean that Christians no longer have a sinful nature. He contributes any wrong a Christian does to deception and attack from the outside. I suppose I wanted to believe it then, because now I think it's possibly the biggest pile of manure I've ever heard. We're back to the classic "the devil made me do it" excuse. If there's anything I've learned from John Piper and his Scripture-focused teaching, it's that it doesn't matter if I was deceived. I am still responsible, because my sinful acts aren't the real problem. My real problem is, even though that new, good heart is there, the old, rotten me is still around somewhere.
I've come to realize that the reason Jesus had to die wasn't because I've done bad things; it's because I am bad. Sin is deeper than the things we do, and in my natural self, I'm sinful. I can fall back into the natural way of things, because I've done it over and over again in the past few years. Maybe because I believed another lie that I'm guessing is still there because I write it without thinking: that I "fall" into it. Piper says you don't "fall" into sin, you jump. And he's right. As mentioned earlier, I am dead to sin and alive in God, so when sin comes along and says "do this", I'm not bound to obey. I should fight against it and grab hold of Jesus.
All of this is very important stuff. It's time to stop looking for other people or beings to blame and just admit that I'm still bad and that whatever good there is in me is only there because of Him.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) has a new meaning for me. I understand it better now. I think about the Olympics and how much the word glory is used around the time of those games...the glory of winning gold. You could say Jesus won the gold in love and goodness and beauty...and because I am by nature so contrary to that, I'm not even close to measuring up. So you see, He was right when he said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5, emphasis mine)
Oh well, nevermind. It's not important.
The older I get, the more I realize that things aren't the way I think they are. Even though I know lots of things and seem to have a better understanding of life than most of the people around me, I still don't know anything at all. For example, I read a really good book a few years ago called Waking The Dead by John Eldredge (also author of Wild at Heart and co-author with his wife of Captivating). From what I remember of the book, he said plenty of great things that needed to be said and it really refreshed my faith for a season. I think I may have even written about it here. However, now that I'm older and have made more mistakes than I like, I realize that this guy has chased the rabbit down the wrong hole (you'll get that if you read the book).
He makes the claim that, once that person is born again/converted/whatever you want to call it, the heart of said person is no longer bad but good. At the time, it made sense. After all, Romans says we are dead to sin and alive in God. Ezekiel says He took my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. So in a sense, Eldredge is right. But this is where he goes terribly wrong, and I wish I'd realized it sooner. Not only that, I feel like an idiot because I didn't.
Eldredge takes all this to mean that Christians no longer have a sinful nature. He contributes any wrong a Christian does to deception and attack from the outside. I suppose I wanted to believe it then, because now I think it's possibly the biggest pile of manure I've ever heard. We're back to the classic "the devil made me do it" excuse. If there's anything I've learned from John Piper and his Scripture-focused teaching, it's that it doesn't matter if I was deceived. I am still responsible, because my sinful acts aren't the real problem. My real problem is, even though that new, good heart is there, the old, rotten me is still around somewhere.
I've come to realize that the reason Jesus had to die wasn't because I've done bad things; it's because I am bad. Sin is deeper than the things we do, and in my natural self, I'm sinful. I can fall back into the natural way of things, because I've done it over and over again in the past few years. Maybe because I believed another lie that I'm guessing is still there because I write it without thinking: that I "fall" into it. Piper says you don't "fall" into sin, you jump. And he's right. As mentioned earlier, I am dead to sin and alive in God, so when sin comes along and says "do this", I'm not bound to obey. I should fight against it and grab hold of Jesus.
All of this is very important stuff. It's time to stop looking for other people or beings to blame and just admit that I'm still bad and that whatever good there is in me is only there because of Him.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) has a new meaning for me. I understand it better now. I think about the Olympics and how much the word glory is used around the time of those games...the glory of winning gold. You could say Jesus won the gold in love and goodness and beauty...and because I am by nature so contrary to that, I'm not even close to measuring up. So you see, He was right when he said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5, emphasis mine)
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 07:50 pm (UTC)22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
I see what you're saying, but I agree with Eldridge on this point. Yes, we do sin because we desire the things of the flesh, but our inner being wants to follow God and to please Him by not sinning.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 11:27 pm (UTC)