sin

Suffering, hardships, travails…

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It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

Psalm 119:71

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Hebrews 5:8

  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. • For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:17,18

“But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. • “My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside.

Job 23:10,11

 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. • “Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. • “Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him

Deuteronomy 8:2,5,6 

Pondering Questions

Why do seemingly bad things happen to seemingly good people?

Why does God allow evil to exist in this world?

When is God allow suffering and perhaps even cause it?

My Pondering Answers

  1. God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes seemingly bad things turn out for our good.
  2. The main person in life is not us, but rather God. Sometimes suffering and travails, bring glory to God and show His might and give other people hope as people persevere, endure and overcome trials. This points to God’s glory, especially when only He can do it, and He is the answer. He is the Hero.
  3. Sometimes it’s self inflicted when we ignore, disobey and forget God’s commands by doing our own thing apart from Him as a result in abusing our free will. Sin brings on and amplifies suffering.
  4. Hardships also give us a different perspective and may help us to fully comprehend and understand the goodness of God. Where if everything was easy and smooth, we would take a lot for granted, perhaps ignoring and disrespecting God.

Weak definitions of sin

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“Weak definitions of sin will produce weak doctrines concerning the Savior of sin.”

Samuel Moffett

My Pondering

Worse yet, weak doctrines regarding the Christian’s duty to sin less; to trust & obey, will inevitably produce all too many weak, lukewarm, vomited out pseudo saints. The best case scenario will produce believers who make into Heaven by their awkward back-sliding into home.

In my flesh, I will never be sinless
but I should always strive to sin less.

Kirk A. Booher

Revelation 3:15-17

“15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!

16 So because you are lukewarm— neither hot nor cold— I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked”

I can’t help but notice this startling vomit verse from Revelation 3:16 is like the opposite of John 3:16.

Wow, that is a STARK warning to us here in the U.S., we by default we are among the richest people in all of history.

Let’s take head of Paul’s admonition from his letter to the Philippians 2:12-13:

“12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.”

It’s good to have an awe-inspiring, holy respectful fear of the Lord as the wisest man in all of history began in Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”…and then warns of the enticement of sin.

Until we take God seriously,
we will never take sin seriously.

R.C. Sproul

Solomon would know and history declares that he should have taken more of his own advice. So wisdom alone is insufficient, we need to heed and abide with the Holy Spirit.

Be killing sin or… Richard Baxter

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“Be killing sin or sin be killing you” –
Richard Baxter

My Pondering

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Unless you are fighting with the Holy Spirit’s supernatural power, you are fighting a losing battle no matter what.

As a disciple of Christ, you can win plenty of battles and rest assured, our Commander in Chief, none less the Jesus Christ has already won the ultimate victory.

The question is how will you and I play it out. Yes we fight physically, mentally and most importantly is spiritual war.

As the great warrior, the Apostle Paul stated:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you,
since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 6:11-14

Friends, he is playing high-level chess here, not a kids game of checkers. He is referring to multiple dimensions including Christ’s propitiation of our eternal spiritual state of grace and the active present physical & mental battle.

Yes, we can by the Spirit’s power check sin. By strapping on our spiritual armor as explained in Ephesians 6 as a courageous commitment Christian soldier we shall slay our share of sins and demons.

Slay sin or it shall be slaying you.

Pull sin by its roots or it will be pulling you down.

Atrophy sin or it will be paining you.

Eradicate sin or it will be eradicating you.

Squeeze and choke sin out or it will be squeezing and chocking you out.

Poison sin or it will be poisoning you.

Kill sin or it will be killing you.

Sin to our faithful good works is a lot like weeds in a garden. Weeds, their propensity to appear, are always exist so long as there is dirt, so long as we are in the flesh. Good gardeners use proven methods to remove the weeds. Let’s be good gardeners for God.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Romans 7:18-19

Thus the sinful weeds are always present in some shape of fashion, We can’t totally expel them but we can indeed control and minimize them.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:21-25

For if you live according to the flesh you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.

Romans 8:13

Life is hard at times, but God is good all the time for our future glory is all bright. No more sin, struggle, sourness or sadness.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

Let’s no longer be victims but victors!