"LIVING IN SIN"

"Living in sin"

We, the church are so quick to point a finger and whisper and gossip and judge.  And it isn't God's plan for couples.  Marriage is His plan.  I believe in it with my whole heart!  So I'm not condoning living together.




But let me take a bit of liberty here.  "Living in sin"  is usually associated with living together and not being married.  But let me suggest to you, that maybe pointing fingers and not loving these people into the kingdom might just be "living in sin' also. We are judging them.  Wait let me ask you Do you struggle with a sin even though you are saved?  Do you lie?  NO?  Gossip? No?  How about worry? No?  Do you perhaps eat to much? Gluttony? No?   Which sin has been around so long that it's like a pet?  Pride?  Envy?  Hate?  Lust?   Are you uncomfortable yet?  I am and I'm writing this.  Unsettling isn't it?

Well as Christians we are forgiven but we aren't perfect yet.  We are postionally perfect  but we haven't walked it all the way out yet.  We are on that journey though.  I suggest many of us are "living in sin"  and we should not cast the first stone.



Remember as Jesus told them to take the woman caught in adultery and the one without sin could cast the first stone.  Can you imagine the scene?  The angry crowd that just  moments ago were shouting and accusing.. the woman laying on the ground, ashamed as her deepest sin is out there for all to hear about.  But now there is silence on the hot day, a little breeze blowing perhaps,  Can you see it?  Jesus squatted down writing something in the dirt.  Maybe the women crying softly as she fears for her life. and slowly you hear the stones drop, one by one on the hot dirt street.  Cause I believe they were hefty solid rocks because when we want to accuse others we pick up the hefty rocks to sling.  Our rocks are words though.  We spit them out with disgust and judgement. Do you SEE what they are doing?  How THEY are living?  We get all smug and self-righteous as we hurl our word stones now a days.  We don't "stone" with real rocks any more. We are less obvious.




But back to our scene.. The stones drop one by one. hitting the dirt with a swirl of dust floating up in the afternoon sunshine as Jesus continues to write something in the dirt.  Quiet footsteps fade away down the street until not one accuser is left.  Jesus says to her in John 8:10-11 "Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?"  She said, "No one, Lord,"  And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."



He doesn't give her a pass.  He does tell her to sin no more.   According to the law of that day she should have been stoned for she was "in sin".  But he didn't condemn her.  He said sin no more.  And He is till saying to us "sin no more".  And we like her endeavor to obey.  But we struggle.

We must remember how much He has forgiven us and how we are still working out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Only confront sin in others if the Holy Spirit is guiding you into doing it. A word fitly spoken into lives.  For mercy's sake don't go out on your own and try and do the Holy Spirit's job.  Condemnation doesn't lead to repentance.  Conviction does.

You want to do something about other's sin???  Really???  Do you really???  No kidding???

Then let me suggest this radical idea.....Love on people.  Show mercy!  Shine His light in the darkness!!  Be kind!!  You are to be Christ like.   Speak the truth in love led by Him not by your own fears and pettiness.  Love them into the Kingdom!!!  It's simple.  Spend time with Him and his Word and walk it out and lead by example.  Be ye Kind one to another!



And if you want to do something about your own sin here is a link to a teaching about obedience:
 http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/CBNTeachingSheets/Obedience_and_Disobedience.aspx

Remember this verse:  "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9

Post note.....
It is a balancing act to teach truth to our children and grandchildren while being forbearing and loving.  But pray, pray, pray and He says if you lack wisdom He will give it to you.   

I admit I'm still learning but I think my thoughts here are in line with the Word of God.

Paper dolls, "Barbies" and Stories

My hubby, Paul and I were at a nice restaurant yesterday.  The kind with cloth napkins, wonderful smells and soft music.  When we first sat down I observed all the people sitting in my view of the room.  I noticed one young woman.  After a while I tried to describe her to Paul.  She was a "type" to me. I imagined she might be a pastor's wife, definitely a church go-er.  A bland type I had known back when Paul was a pastor and we had to go to meetings.  Most pastor's wives aren't that kind but some are.  They look like the life has been sucked right out of them.  Like they never had an idea of their own. Always did what others expected of them.  Back in my mother's day she might have been described as a milk-toast sort.  I think they used that term for women too.  I know they did for men. Anyway, she was vanilla to other people's mocha chocolate.  She lacked personality. Flat.   Kind of what Jackie O was first perceived as before she became Jackie O.  As I described her to Paul I realized I had lived in too many different places and met way too many people if I was beginning to see them as "characters" instead of people.

Do you ever do that?  Prejudge someone as a "type"?  You know you ask questions like: What do you do?  Do you have children? What church do you go to? How long have you lived here?  Sure you are trying to get to know them but are you pegging them?  putting them in a category? in a hole? In a neat little niche?  Instead of seeing them as the complex, surprising, interesting people that they most likely are?

It's like when I was a child.  I had Barbie dolls.  Well, my Mom didn't like "Barbie" dolls so I had off brand "Barbies".  Mom thought the real ones were ugly so I had off brand ones.  And back than they were made of the same sturdy stuff as a real "Barbie" not the cheap hollow plastic kinds like now a days.

As I was saying I had my little "Barbie" doll family.  There was Tressy, Tammy her somewhat chubbier sister, Pepper their younger sister with freckles and unruly hair that always ended up in a pony tail, and the real Ken's little brother Ricky with freckles and reddish brown hair.  He came in a swimsuit with a cover up with stripes.  He never had other clothes though the girls dolls had a variety.  My mom made evening gowns for Tressy that were a wee bit tight for Tammy.  They were so pretty.  I always thought it was a little ironic since we were church going people who never ever would have went to a night club. But my dolls were all decked out in elegant evening wear.  Back then people wore elegant evening wear to night clubs.  Or at least in the 1940's gangster movies with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart that I watched that was what they wore.

I digress.  I had this wonderful "Barbie" family which I still remember well this some odd years later. They were real and alive to me with personalities and quirks.  Tressey had a button in her belly that you could press and her hair would grow and then you could press it and twist the hair and push it back in to look like you gave her a hair cut.  To me they were real. I spent hours acting out their lives. My friends would sometimes play with me and we would dress them and undress them and fix their hair this way and that.  They had lives!  Glamorous, exciting lives, people!!!! Places to go. People to meet.  I'm digressing again.....


Then I also had paper dolls.  Yes,  that is about all I remember about them.  I know I had them.  But for the life of me I can't remember them.  There is a shadow of memory but they just don't come to the surface where I can remember any details.  They were after all disposable. Unmemorable.  Long gone.  Unimportant in the scheme of things.  Apparently uninteresting.

As I thought of the young woman in the restaurant last night.  Did I see her as a paper doll type?  Not important? Unmemorable?  Did I peg her as uninteresting?  Since I was just passing in a restaurant I guess it's not really important.  Or is it?  Was I sensitive to the Holy Spirit?  What if I needed to send a quick prayer up for her?  She may have needed it.  I saw her more like a character in a book then a flesh and blood person.

I'll let you in on a little secret.  I will admit with some shame on my part, I have written off the "paper doll" types before. At church, at work, at Walmart. Yes, me.  My hand is raised.   But sometimes  to my amazement as I was around some of these types I found out they were not "paper doll" types at all!!!  They had depth and character.  They were like I heard someone say once.  Still waters run deep.  They were actually quite interesting.   They had a story.  They had full active lives filled with interesting thoughts, people, family....and real stories.  Stories of victory and defeat. Love and loss. Passion and joy.  Sorrow and excitement. Better than any on screen character I had ever seen.  And I had wrote them off in my mind.  Shame on me!  I dearly, dearly love a story.  And I almost missed theirs.  Because I prejudged them as a mere "paper doll", milk toast type.

If you have stuck with me this long you might be wondering... so what?   Well, I want to ask.  Have you ever done this?  And worse yet.  Have you ever done this to yourself?  I'm uninteresting.  I'm a nobody.  I'm a loser.  I'm unimportant.  What do I have to offer?

Well let me tell you sister or brother!  God loves you!!!  He doesn't see you as a paper doll type. Flat and uninteresting. He knows you are the real deal.  A real doll. With clothes and a house and Pink cases and friends and a car and a place you live and stories to tell.   No flat paper doll, throw away person.  He loves your story.  He was a part of it, even if you didn't know he was there.  He never ever, ever writes us off.  He sees us!!! He sees you!!!  He sees the people he brings across your path.  You never just melt into the crowd in his eyes.  You are never a wall flower to him.  And neither are they.

So friend, don't write off anyone.  Don't miss their story. Don't miss your story.  And remember the originator of all stories, God himself is interested in you.  If you don't already know him, I urge you to get to know him and his story.  It's awfully interesting...... and you are in it!