It was another hot Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of Terry’s Supermarket. Cars were going this way and that. I just want to get these grocery carts up to the store while I still have the strength. I don’t know which way these people will decide to go. I have found out the very most favored space to park in all of that parking lot is the one that I am dragging my butt across at the time.
I miss attending church and Sunday School but I am thankful for this job too. At lunch my sweet texted me. She told me a little about what the preacher was preaching about. Wouldn’t you know that it would be another sermon that I would have dearly love to hear! Oh well, I can catch the replay on the church web site later.
My wife told me at lunch that Pastor said something along the lines of, “Grace is not a free pass .. ‘to sin’ or was it ‘to live in sin?’” Either way this is a subject that I have studied out quite a bit.
Campus Crusade had a little blue book that I thought was the key to “spiritual happiness.” That book messed me up big time. They taught what they called “spiritual breathing.” What that is, is this. When you sin you “exhale" out your confession of that sin and “inhale” God’s forgiveness for that sin. The definition of sin that they go with is that sin is active rebellion or passive indifference to the law of God. That did me in right there. Honest to truly I couldn’t keep up with it all. To top it off, there is James 2:10. This warns that any and every sin brings the condemnation of breaking every law in the Bible. Can you drive without passing the speed limit by even 1 MPH? If not, then you are guilty of every sin in the Book because of driving one mile an hour over the speed limit. Time to repent of every sin listed in the Bible each time I mess that one up. That makes me light headed. Now that I’m light headed from spiritual breathing, it’s best to re-confess everything once again and hope I don’t miss one.
Another preacher warned us, “Never expect God to answer your prayer if there is sin in your life!” Well, my boat set sail from Stinky Bay and now sinking fast in the middle of Lake Deep Pooky. I was failing big time!
There is more but I will spare you of that.
I found out that I wasn’t alone in all of this. There is a book that I actually read by Bob George. This book set me free!!! The name of the book is, “Classic Christianity.” Bob talked about the little blue book too and said that he was hyper ventilating from “spiritual breathing” himself.
There is a new book! It wasn’t written by Bob but it was written by someone else from Bob’s radio show. It is called Basic Gospel. When I get the money I will get that book. Right now we just pray for God’s grace that we can buy groceries.
If you read these books, you will be helped too.
The main thing I got out of Bob’s book was that as Christians we are forever forgiven. We should walk in this forgiveness. They show that we are dead before we receive Christ. We are made alive when we believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead. When you tell God that you believe this you are then “saved.”
Once you are made alive spiritually you will never be dead spiritually ever again.
Another thing Bob covered is walking aware of your righteousness that was given to you by God Himself. We can’t earn it but we can receive it and say, “Thank you.” It is humbling to realize that it was all of God and nothing of me. He did everything necessary for our salvation and there is nothing we can add to it.
It is better to be righteousness conscious than sin conscious. When you are conscious of righteousness you loose interest in sin. Sure we all sin but it is not a part of our new nature. If we are sin conscious all we see is where we mess up. We are defeated if we worry about sin all of the time.
My favorite example story that illustrates this is about when I was a little boy. Mother would send me to Daddy with his cup of coffee. “Sin conscious” is me looking with fear at the hot cup and worrying that I would drop it or spill Daddy’s coffee. “Righteousness conscious” is me looking at Daddy as I carry his coffee to him. I may slosh a little of it out but before I was getting it all over.
Another example that I had heard is this. Before you are saved, you are a worm. (caterpillar) You are only interested in wormy things and anything related to being a dirty little worm. When you are born again it’s like coming out of the cocoon as a new creature. (butterfly) You are no longer interested in wormy things. Now your focus is on things pertaining to being a butterfly. You may get your wings dirty now and again but that is not part of your new nature.
You can make sure that you are born again. If you have any questions, I will help all I can.
Right now I have to get more carts up to the store. I am looking forward to cooler weather.
The trash cans outside are getting full. I wonder if I can change the out real quick…
Have a great day!
Come again soon!
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