Sins - How we see them - Do we see them?

Hi again - it's been a while!

I've been thinking over the past few weeks about our sins against God and I have just been reading James' blog entitled Fear of God and made me think all about it again. As much as I hate talking about our 'Post Modern world', we do live in a world where we mix and match everything to suit ourselves, even as Christians sometimes.

One guy I was talking to during our outreach time at Easter Camp last weekend, he and his wife were searching for God and didn't find Him in Christianity, so they've tried Buddhism etc, and they're taking the bits from all religions that suit themselves and they believe that God will honour their efforts in being the best people they see themselves as being/trying to be!

What I'm trying to say is, how do we see our sin in this light??? If we keep bending the rules and making the 'rules' for our lives to suit ourselves - take a bit of this religion, and a bit from this one - what sins are really sins, and what is going to get us into Heaven - if anything at all anymore?!?!?

This world we live in is really screwed up - where is the light in the world so full of darkess!

Our evangelists are even getting too 'busy' to make time to get out there and put the light back in the world - Satan loves us getting busy, and diverted from what we are born and called to do. People don't know where the line is drawn anymore, what is sin? "I'm a good person, god will respect that and if he won't accept that I don't want to be in his heaven anyway!" - that is a common response I get on the streets quite often (note I put god with a small 'g' since they're obviously not talking about my God who deserves the respect of a big 'G' and big 'H' for His, etc)

One of the nights at Easter camp, we had a really powerful night - we had a night of confessions, and it really was amazingly powerful!! God was honoured with all of us confessing our sins to each other, but I found a few of us, including myself, couldn't find many sins in our lives - do I think I'm too 'holy' and I don't sin?! Definitally not, but I clearly don't see sin for what it is.

We don't have Holiness meetings anymore in the Salvation Army, or at least not that I know of, and hence, we're not reaching an acceptable level of Holiness in our lives - after all, we are in the buisiness of growing Saints! Don't I see my sin for what it is, and so many of us keep making excuses for our sins saying 'that's not really a sin', when they actually are!! How's God supposed to use us, when we have sin getting in the way!!? Whether we recoginse it or not - it's still there blocking our way to God.

Lord, I pray for all of us, please let us know our sin - let us see it clearly and know what is sin in Your eyes! Jesus, I want to to be gloryfied through my life, so please let me identify my sin and know when I do sin so Your blood can wash me as white as snow, so You can use me through Your Holy Spirit! God I pray this for your whole army - call us back to Holiness. I pray this in the Holy Name of Jesus.

"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who belives in me should stay in darkess" John 13:46

P.S. also, you might like to read the mercypeacegrace blog entitled 'my roadblock to Holiness' - another interesting read on a very similar topic along with James blog on 'The fear of God'

Trials and Easter

Hi all,

I was remided of the Salvation Army's fourth doctrine where it states that we believe that Jesus is both God and human natures combined and as we approach our Easter season we can only imagine how our Master would have felt in the garden of Gethsemane knowing what was about to come.

Being human, and knowing pain and dessertion, which is actually worse?? I think being desserted by all his closest friends would have hurt more than the actual crucifiction - not that I've been crucified lately to compare!

On Thursday my Grandfather is going in to have a cancerous kidney removed and just at lunchtime he said to me 'You can take my place if you want' which remided me of Jesus in the garden, which also occured this Thursday in the Easter events. If Grandpa could give it up he would, but Jesus having walked in our 'sandles' - having experienced being human knows exactly the fear that we go through in situations like this.

I'm just so glad that our God loves us so much he sent His only Son to not just judge us from His mighty Throne, but actually come down and walk with us and mingle with His creation. In doing this He showed that He actually understands situations we face so we can't say to Him 'You don't understand' or anything similar 'cos He does! Our God knows what we're going through more than we even do!

Easter is an amazingly powerful time in the Christian callendar - He showed He was Lord of all and King of kings and He has power over live and death!

Praise You Jesus, thank you for revealing yourself to me, and for taking my sin upon yourself.