Scrambled thoughts on sin management

Forgive my style of writing but bear with it. If He shows you even one thing, Hallelujah! Receive it.

Is there a possibility we are appealing to the wrong man when we make up so many rules and take up so many habits to try and not sin?

"Col 2:20  If then you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to its ordinances: 21 touch not, taste not, handle not;  22  which things are all for corruption in the using, according to the commands and doctrines of men? 23  These things indeed have a reputation of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility, and unsparing severity of the body, but are not of any value for the satisfying of the flesh.

Before you bring pangas out - what is Paul saying? There is a key issue we forget when we attempt to control the flesh using these carnal means.

Paul says, "if then you died" and goes on to say "with Christ". It seems many of us completely ignore the knowledge of our death in Christ. Many of us come to Christ as forgiven men and pledge to LIVE FOR CHRIST and forget that when we came to Him, we had to give up our own lives. He must be the one living!

"and the strength of sin is the Law." "Rom 7:9  For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. "

The issue of death has to be taken seriously. "You are dead to sin".

There are things Apostle Paul said that were just so heavy with life - Rom 8:15  For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father!

So many of us are trying to manage addictions or conceal them, others are trying to be strong yet we know we are weak. Trying to please God with our natural selves. Making ourselves promises we cannot fulfil. A friend of mine once wrote "It isn't me making promises to God,its God making promises and me saying thank you...lol ".

Fear of sin, fear of condemnation is crippling especially to us who walk in the flesh. We want to please God but our fear makes us walk like debtors to the flesh, going through the "what i do not want to do, I do" phase.

But we were adopted. We rejoice in weakness. We are claypots decaying but filled with a treasure! We are no longer our own.

We have a new Father. We have new lives. The old ones are dead. Adam is dead.

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

That we take our eyes off Adam, that we forget Adam's memories. Adam embraces the tree of knowledge good and evil, a little after Babylon is built, an attempt to be like God which cannot happen.  He depends on rules. The very same thing Paul talks about in Colossians 2.

How about we forget him and take on the mind of Christ. Our natural mind cannot comprehend this Christ. Why? We are dead. "Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "

For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father!

Let us live then! Rom 8:1   There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. It's about life. Christ, the tree of life. In whom we find love producing life. We are in Him, He in us.

"For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. " | "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has torment, and he that fears has not been made perfect in love. "

A spiritual life motivated by fear cannot be a spiritual life. After all, faith works by love.

Managing sin is impossible. That is why we die to it and live to Christ. Christ must be our life. How that happens is entirely upon our seeing Him.

"Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain".

Back to the Beginning Again

Switchfoot's latest album is called Fading West. It was released early Jan 2014 and incidentally the last song on it is called "Back to the Beginning Again". Really neat way to end an album huh? Yet I found it so significant and so fated! 

Few of us realise that when we are, or when God is dealing with us, He really is not bringing us to a new end, an alternative turn of events but rather He is trying to return us to the beginning, the real purpose, the only purpose, the one intention.

When many of us listen to an album, we feel different emotions; and imagine what a variety of things Switchfoot can induce, yet that is the sum total of who they are and they prolly just pointing me back to the beginning whatever theirs is.

 We have for so long thought God had a plan, man messed it up and then God came up with a plan B. But what God is this? God has always had a purpose and plan for man. It is to be plainly that man is found in His Son as His Son is found in Him. Genesis and Revelation share such great things together that I wonder why I had never realised it!

I would go into detail but I rather you take time to read Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelations 21 and 22 and see the great likeness thereof.

The story in between shows the desire of God to be one with man. To be his city, his kingdom, his light, his life, his love, his provision, his clothing, his everything.

There's a sneak preview here when Jesus prays for his disciples

John 17:20-26
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may [a]believe that You sent Me. 

Their Future Glory
22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected [b]in unity, so that the world may [c]know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 

25 “O righteous Father, [d]although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Could it be that all along, from Genesis 3 to Revelations 21, God is simply singing a hook in Switchfoot's song, or perhaps gave Switchfoot that song to sing? Back to the Beginning Again.

Let's think about that for a while.

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Some scriptures to ponder

Romans 16: 25-end

25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, 26 but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (NASB)

Ephesians 3:8-11

8 To me, the very least of all [d]saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to [e]bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the [f]eternal purpose which He [g]carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, (NASB)

2 Tim 1:9

who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, (Darby)

Titus 1:1-3

1  Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ (according to the faith of God's elect, in the acknowledging of the truth which is according to godliness 2  on hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the eternal times, 3  but revealed His Word in its own times in a proclamation, with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior,) (MKJV)

Changes

I have a feeling. Call it instinct. Or fate calling, or destiny, or a voice in the wilderness. Call it something that makes sense to you. I have a feeling that I may write a little bit different from what I have been writing usually.

I do not know how I will talk about things I have talked about before but I might talk about them again. I will write but I do not think in the same light. 

What do you call reality? What makes the most sense to you? When I say sense surely I am even using a double emphasis. Sensible, sensational, sensibility. The environment and how it relates with you. What you feel, taste, touch, smell, hear, understand even.

When your reality changes, a lot has got to change with it. Not a forcible change of getting into a tailor made suit but one that involves moulting, changing, naturally blending, becoming new, dying. 

I guess what I mean is that so much no longer makes sense to me and so much stuff now does I almost feel mad. I feel off. I feel different. I feel alien. And I do not want to resist it. I want to become more off, more alien, more unusual, more not from here because that's what the reality is dictating.

I have a feeling, I might not write the same way I have been all along. So, if you're a reader of this blog. Bear with the changes.