A Year Through God's Eyes
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Black and White (Psalm 14)
I was able to have lunch on Sunday with one of my best friends in the whole world, Billy. One of the things I love to do whenever we get to speak together is debate about differences others may see in the Bible. We don't necessarily have differences of opinions that often, but we enjoy playing devil's advocate for the sake of debate.
One of the topics we tackle from time to time is the issue of degrees of sin. More specifically, does God view sin as we do: lying is rarely worse than murder; or does He have an entirely different take on it where all sin is sin and is hated equally. More often than not, I think God views sin in the second category, that no matter the sin, it's all sin and is an abomination towards God and His character. When Billy and I cover this topic, I often cite passages like Psalm 14 to use in my argument.
One of the reasons I love the Bible is that it does not shy away from the fact that we're all human, and we all fall really short of the bar that God has set for us. Even the human champions of our faith; those we would consider to be "super-Christians" fall so far short that it's pathetic. However, they are the first to acknowledge their shortcomings and point to the cross, where they can say: "The only reason I am anywhere near redemption is because of what God's Son did there for me and my sins. That's why I love the end of this Psalm. Because no matter how badly we think we have screwed up God's plans, He will always "protect His people." I also want to point out that the end of the psalm doesn't say "if" God restores His people, but "when" God restores His people.
Thank God that in spite of my sins, both great and small, He has put together a plan of redemption that returns me to Him!
PRAYERS:
*A new place of residence
*To be okay and obedient with the person the Holy Spirit has told me to be more intentional toward.
*Franco
*Rico (Had a really good conversation with him at the end of school, where I was really able to speak to him about my heart and his plans for after HS, thank you God for placing people in my path! Let me have my eyes and ears open for when opportunities come.)
One of the topics we tackle from time to time is the issue of degrees of sin. More specifically, does God view sin as we do: lying is rarely worse than murder; or does He have an entirely different take on it where all sin is sin and is hated equally. More often than not, I think God views sin in the second category, that no matter the sin, it's all sin and is an abomination towards God and His character. When Billy and I cover this topic, I often cite passages like Psalm 14 to use in my argument.
One of the reasons I love the Bible is that it does not shy away from the fact that we're all human, and we all fall really short of the bar that God has set for us. Even the human champions of our faith; those we would consider to be "super-Christians" fall so far short that it's pathetic. However, they are the first to acknowledge their shortcomings and point to the cross, where they can say: "The only reason I am anywhere near redemption is because of what God's Son did there for me and my sins. That's why I love the end of this Psalm. Because no matter how badly we think we have screwed up God's plans, He will always "protect His people." I also want to point out that the end of the psalm doesn't say "if" God restores His people, but "when" God restores His people.
Thank God that in spite of my sins, both great and small, He has put together a plan of redemption that returns me to Him!
PRAYERS:
*A new place of residence
*To be okay and obedient with the person the Holy Spirit has told me to be more intentional toward.
*Franco
*Rico (Had a really good conversation with him at the end of school, where I was really able to speak to him about my heart and his plans for after HS, thank you God for placing people in my path! Let me have my eyes and ears open for when opportunities come.)
posted by Nathan at 1:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home