Category Archives: Grace

The Drunkard – always wanting one more

accountability, Grace, maturity,

Even among Christians, sin is not always seen as our deepest or primary problem.  Sin tends to be viewed as one of those problems that come up occasionally, not a core feature of one’s being.

Sin by its very nature is more often quiet and secretive than loud and public.   According to Scripture, the greatest sin of all:

I do not love the Lord my God with my whole mind and heart.

If our failure to consistently worship the true God is the key feature of sin, we are all sinners. [Repeating] Sin tends to be viewed as one of those problems that come up occasionally, not a core feature of one’s being.

KEY POINT

If sin is not our core problem, the gospel itself – the thing of first importance – is marginalized.  If sin is not our primary problem, then the gospel of Jesus is no longer the most important event in all human history.

If we think of sin only as overt, calculated disobedience, we will not find what we are looking for in scripture.  But sin is more than self-conscious rebellion against God.  Sin is also a blinding power that wants to control and enslave us.

Sin is more than conscious choices.  Like a cruel taskmaster, sin victimizes and controls us (John 8:34).  It captures and overtakes (Galatians 6:1).  In fact, there are times when we intend to do one thing, but sin causes us to do things we don’t want to do. Even though we may really want to change, it can seem like an overwhelming or impossible task to actually do so.

This enlarged perspective indicates that in sin, we are both hopelessly out of control and shrewdly calculating; victimized yet responsible.

Practiced, repeated sin results in slavery, a multitude of painful consequences, and God abandoning His child to her desires so she is left always wanting one more.

Slavery of sin is one for which we are responsible, and we can be empowered by God’s grace to turn from it.   Grab hold of His love and His saving, amazing grace.

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Most of this is straight from chapter 2 of “Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel by Edward T. Welch”.  Some of it is also paraphrased.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Receive Jesus

accountability, Grace, Jesus, maturity, Relationships, self worth, The Gospel

Dear Seeking Sister,

The gospel confronts us with the hopelessness of our sinful condition.  A typical response when the gospel is shared with an unsaved person is often, “I’m a relatively good person.”  People tend to have a rather high opinion of their morality.  The concern here is that they are not measuring their “goodness” against the standards of their Almighty Creator.

They fail to realize they are saying they are “good” based on a comparison of the people around them and the acceptable norms of their culture and society.  The problem occurs when this society is a Godless society and compromising on God’s Word is found everywhere.

It is overwhelming to be faced with the fact the gospel teaches us that we are an enemy of God, spiritually dead in our sin, and in our state of rebellion, we are not even able to see that we need life. We are dependent on God to do something in our life that we could never do.

savinggraceThe Good News:  God did that something.  God came to earth in the flesh as a perfect sacrifice for our sin.   And it wasn’t a sacrifice of being crucified dead, Jesus’ sacrifice was made to God the Father fully knowing He would have to take in and on the full wrath of God.  He did that for you and He did that for me.   We owe Him our life.

David Platt in his book, Radical, put it like this:

“What happened at the Cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus’ hands and feet but about the wrath due your sin and my sin being thrust upon his soul. In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came rushing down like a torrent on Christ himself. Some say, “God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away.” This is not true. God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on his Son.” (Radical, by David Platt, p. 36)

If you want to learn more about God, Jesus, and the saving grace only He can provide, visit the page I created below to help.

http://seekingsisters.com/receive-jesus-as-your-savior/

 

In His Grip,

Tammy

 

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