Monday, June 25, 2007

Some thoughts on sin and holiness...

In the final analysis our greatest problem with holiness is not that ourconcepts of holiness are feeble, but that our hearts are rebellious. We areselfish, that's our problem. And the fact that we often won't admit ourselfishness shows how deep the pride goes. -- Floyd McClung


"If the spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct our course" (Gal 5:25 NEB).
It is only reasonable that He who gives and sustains our life (the Source) should be the One we would want to follow (whose Course we would choose). But we are not very reasonable creatures, I'm afraid.


Which side am I on--the self or the Spirit? I don't always know. But I can check myself out by studying the list of the kind of behavior that belongs to the lower nature (fornication, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, quarrels, contentious temper, envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, party intrigues, jealousies, drinking bouts, orgies) and comparing it to the list of the "harvest of the Spirit" (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, self-control). If I pinpoint from those two lists what characterizes my behavior today, it's easy enough to identify the source. -- Elisabeth Elliot


Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14)

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