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Brothers,
There is a video that I would urge you to watch or listen to at http://mppc.org/seri...shifting-tides. The person speaking is Gary Hamel, who the Wall Street Journal ranked as one of the world's most influential business thinkers, and Fortune magazine has called him "the world's leading expert on business strategy". Gary Hamel's topic is the stagnation of Christian churches in America and their choice of reinvention or irrelevance. He is a strong Christian and an influential businessman. If you start the video at about minute 6 you will cut out all the intros and get right into his topic. It is not light listening but it is profitable listening.
I was in a seminar recently given by a wise and Godly psychologist who introduced the idea of "sin management" to the group. His point was this, we fool ourselves into thinking that we can manage sin, and therefore control it, instead of experiencing a core change in ourselves that only Christ can orchestrate. It is this core change of growing in Holiness because we focus on Jesus and not ourselves that results in true sin aversion. Case in point, I have trouble with lust and therefore susceptible to getting sucked into some variety of pornography. If I attempt "sin management" by only working on avoiding situations where pornography may appear, or have an accountability partner, I will fail. These are good strategies, but they are not in themselves going to free me from falling to this temptation. These techniques need to be built on the foundation of a life devoted to the pursuit of God's truth and a surrender to His Lordship in my life.
This is an uncomfortable idea to me. Certainly, I am strong enough to handle the daily parade of temptations that tease my 5 senses. The evil one loves the lies we feed ourselves concerning our ability to defeat him under our own power. The idea that I am strong enough to stop the downhill movement from temptation to sin is chief among these lies. Jesus in Luke quoted Isaiah 61, "he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free..... ". Submitting to the sanctifying power of our Lord is the only way I can defeat sin.
Sin management is foolishness and will become an accomplice to self deception. When temptation has been bowed down to enough times then addictive sin becomes a hidden part of our persona. The only place to start is at the cross. Healing can only begin when we change from submission to our nature, to submission to the one who pardons our sins and gives recovery of sight. This may be a moment by moment submission, at least certainly a day to day submission. Between our nature and the devil there is an endless buffet of pleasures we can bow down to. As brothers in Christ we can reach out in love to those in the midst of confusion and wrong allegiances, getting our brother back on the path to the cross. If you are a in the pit of despair and self condemnation call out to Jesus and then call out to a brother.
There is a video that I would urge you to watch or listen to at http://mppc.org/seri...shifting-tides. The person speaking is Gary Hamel, who the Wall Street Journal ranked as one of the world's most influential business thinkers, and Fortune magazine has called him "the world's leading expert on business strategy". Gary Hamel's topic is the stagnation of Christian churches in America and their choice of reinvention or irrelevance. He is a strong Christian and an influential businessman. If you start the video at about minute 6 you will cut out all the intros and get right into his topic. It is not light listening but it is profitable listening.
I was in a seminar recently given by a wise and Godly psychologist who introduced the idea of "sin management" to the group. His point was this, we fool ourselves into thinking that we can manage sin, and therefore control it, instead of experiencing a core change in ourselves that only Christ can orchestrate. It is this core change of growing in Holiness because we focus on Jesus and not ourselves that results in true sin aversion. Case in point, I have trouble with lust and therefore susceptible to getting sucked into some variety of pornography. If I attempt "sin management" by only working on avoiding situations where pornography may appear, or have an accountability partner, I will fail. These are good strategies, but they are not in themselves going to free me from falling to this temptation. These techniques need to be built on the foundation of a life devoted to the pursuit of God's truth and a surrender to His Lordship in my life.
This is an uncomfortable idea to me. Certainly, I am strong enough to handle the daily parade of temptations that tease my 5 senses. The evil one loves the lies we feed ourselves concerning our ability to defeat him under our own power. The idea that I am strong enough to stop the downhill movement from temptation to sin is chief among these lies. Jesus in Luke quoted Isaiah 61, "he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free..... ". Submitting to the sanctifying power of our Lord is the only way I can defeat sin.
Sin management is foolishness and will become an accomplice to self deception. When temptation has been bowed down to enough times then addictive sin becomes a hidden part of our persona. The only place to start is at the cross. Healing can only begin when we change from submission to our nature, to submission to the one who pardons our sins and gives recovery of sight. This may be a moment by moment submission, at least certainly a day to day submission. Between our nature and the devil there is an endless buffet of pleasures we can bow down to. As brothers in Christ we can reach out in love to those in the midst of confusion and wrong allegiances, getting our brother back on the path to the cross. If you are a in the pit of despair and self condemnation call out to Jesus and then call out to a brother.
