Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Yeah, But Hopefully It Does Not Stop There
Milt Stanley quotes this blog:
The problem with quotes like that is that it somehow reduces the church to group therapy - just a bunch of screwed up people hanging out together trying to get unscrewed up. Not exactly hopeful, certainly not victorious.
I am not content to have faith in Jesus Christ merely for the sake of eternity - I will deal with eternity when I get there. I hold fast to Jesus Christ because of what He has promised for my life, here - now - TODAY!
When the church wallows in the whole "we are all sinners" thing, it sounds to me like we've stopped holding onto that hope for the here and now. There is a difference between confession and concession. The alcoholic does not "hit bottom" in order to stay there. Confession, the admission of our inadequacy, is a form of confrontation - of staring the problem in the eye not to come to terms with it, but to OVERCOME it. Concession, on the other hand, is the acknowledgment of a problem and learning to live with it. I DO NOT WANT TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE NONSENSE THAT SIN CREATES IN MY LIFE OR IN THE BODY OF CHRIST.
Which brings me to the next point - submission is not the same as contentment. It is true, we lack what is necessary to fix the problems I rail against here - we are to submit them to the Holy Spirit, but that does not mean we are to learn to be content in them. Sin is sin is sin, we must never be content with it. Too often, "we are all sinners" is church-speak for "learn to live with it."
I refuse to learn to "live with" sin.
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"I am beginning to see that the churches are made up of some people that are in in the body of Christ and some people that are not in the body of Christ, and all of the people are broken."That is very true and yet, I find myself just wanting to go "yeah, yeah, yeah...." You see here's the thing, I cannot escape the fact that people "in the body of Christ" should be healed from their brokenness (not pridefully so, but healed nonetheless) and the body of Christ should be an agent for that healing.
The problem with quotes like that is that it somehow reduces the church to group therapy - just a bunch of screwed up people hanging out together trying to get unscrewed up. Not exactly hopeful, certainly not victorious.
I am not content to have faith in Jesus Christ merely for the sake of eternity - I will deal with eternity when I get there. I hold fast to Jesus Christ because of what He has promised for my life, here - now - TODAY!
When the church wallows in the whole "we are all sinners" thing, it sounds to me like we've stopped holding onto that hope for the here and now. There is a difference between confession and concession. The alcoholic does not "hit bottom" in order to stay there. Confession, the admission of our inadequacy, is a form of confrontation - of staring the problem in the eye not to come to terms with it, but to OVERCOME it. Concession, on the other hand, is the acknowledgment of a problem and learning to live with it. I DO NOT WANT TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE NONSENSE THAT SIN CREATES IN MY LIFE OR IN THE BODY OF CHRIST.
Which brings me to the next point - submission is not the same as contentment. It is true, we lack what is necessary to fix the problems I rail against here - we are to submit them to the Holy Spirit, but that does not mean we are to learn to be content in them. Sin is sin is sin, we must never be content with it. Too often, "we are all sinners" is church-speak for "learn to live with it."
I refuse to learn to "live with" sin.
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