Except for a detail: I forgot to cancel an InterContinetal Hotel Booking, totaling $2043.
Now I prayed for redemptionn, a partial refund of $1000.00. I am responsible for the first night, due to no-show. God please rescue my lack of wisdom.
Hopefully, the drama of such "absurdity" serves to do me good: remember Tracy said I don't take God's calling serious enough? Taking things serious means dive in and stay with the details of ups and downs.
Chapter 6 of the Maturity Book focuses on "The Problem of Sin".
in my case, a sin of ommision.
Introduction of Chapter 6:
New Christians, for instance with Ellel, are often encouraged to take heart of memory verses that cover:
- Forgiveness
- Assurance
- Guidance
- Coseration
- Obedience
- Turnning away from sin wheever and wheneer it sufaces in my life
How to keep my way pure and free from sin?
God provides a veariety of instruments to bring me to maturity:
- The word of God
- The indewellinng presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit
- The preaching and teaching of Scripture
- The various ministries of the fellowship of Christians
- The privilege of prayers
- The blessings of worship
- The service I render to the world in evangelism and compassion
Shuyi is quite alighned with Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)'s writing:
At a later stage in his life, Augustine wrote about his continuing sinfulness:
Psalm 119 reduces to this question:
JA Alexander wrote in his review of Psalm 119:
In order to appreciate it I must first realize that the question itself arises out of a deep sense of sin.
In my case, despite my hurt, pain and damage to others including my loved ones, I have a problem in that "I have not yet considered the greatness of the weight of sin."
Until I realize how great my sin is, and stop diluting it, I will not make much progress in pursuing the holiness whithout which I will never see the Lord. Hebrews 12:11-14 cuts to my heart today:
My attempt to recognize the gravity of my sin are further hindered
Sow a thought and you reap an action;Sow an act and you reap a habit;Sow a habit and you reap a characterr;Sow a character and reap a destiny.But my innner world is more aligned with Augustine:
At a later stage in his life, Augustine wrote about his continuing sinfulness:
I have become a puzzle to myself: he was simply repeating the cri de coeur that he read in Paul: "Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)My experiences have been rather too disappointing. I don't have what it takes to save myself.
How can I keep my heart and hands clean in a polluted world? For instance
- free from assumptiousness, which really is lazy attitude that fails to recognize that life is complex and life is hard
- free from masturbation and erotic thoughts
Psalm 119 reduces to this question:
By what means can I cleanse my path so as to keep it according to thy word?
Perplexity
The answer is suppressed, or rather left to be inferred from the whole tenor of the psalm, which is that men and especially the young, whose passions and temptations are strong in proportion to their inexperience, can do nothing of themselves but are dependent on the grace of God.
In order to appreciate it I must first realize that the question itself arises out of a deep sense of sin.
In my case, despite my hurt, pain and damage to others including my loved ones, I have a problem in that "I have not yet considered the greatness of the weight of sin."
Until I realize how great my sin is, and stop diluting it, I will not make much progress in pursuing the holiness whithout which I will never see the Lord. Hebrews 12:11-14 cuts to my heart today:
11 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields peceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, 'even the fruit' of righteousness. 12 Wherrefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees; 13 and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lambe be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed. (tmz: I am lamed by injuries right now). 14 Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.
My attempt to recognize the gravity of my sin are further hindered
- Opposition: I should read the attack plan by LGBT action group in 1960s.
- My own heart is deceptive. E.g. often seek to divert my sinfulness into some less frawned-upon form of self-indulgence and breach of God's laws.
Remember: a Godly life must be lived seriously or not lived at all.
The keys
- Cry out to God
- Abide in His Word and treasure hunt in Bible reading
- Rejoice in His ways:
- In the way of Your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches (Psalm 119:14)
- Such as the declarations of what He has done or will do, for my salvation
- “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.” Psalms 143:5 ESV https://www.bible.com/59/psa.143.5.esv
- Calvary's Love: We cannot embrace the cross without renouncing sin
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