repentance

Waiting for Jesus to Show Up | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

~ brandon ~ Leave a comment

We shouldn’t scold ourselves for this. There’s no point in shaming ourselves because we don’t love God. To begin with, you can’t make yourself love someone or some activity. You either love or you don’t.

via Waiting for Jesus to Show Up | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

A great article on loving God.  Especially at Christmas we need to remember that love is not forced, it is a gift.  At the same time, we need to call our lovelessness what it is:  sin.

God commands us to love Him (Deuteronomy 6:5).  Though I cannot make myself love Him, yet I must repent of not loving Him.  This, I believe, is the first step to learning to love God:  recognizing my lack of love as sin.  Having done this, I can turn to Him who is Love, find forgiveness and His love begins growing within.

Your Sin Will Find You Out

~ brandon ~ Leave a comment

Tiger Woods TV Ads Disappear After Reports of Affairs Update2 – Bloomberg.com.

I’m a bit late to the ball on this one, but Tiger’s travails provide an excellent illustration of a key Christian concept. Your sin will find you out (Numbers 32.23).

Tiger lacks integrity.  He presented one public persona while he was really a different person.  In his apology he even stated,

he let his family down with “transgressions” and hasn’t been true to his “family values.”

Now he is paying the consequences of his actions.  Lost contracts, ruined reputation, etc.  This should be a warning to those who believe they can hide their sin.  Sure, we can hide it for a time, but eventually our sins are known.  Perhaps we’d do well to consider the consequences of our secret sins, if they were to become public.  Then, maybe, we’d find repentance and grace to heal us.