Sunday, September 02, 2007

SIN

My Lord and Savior, how I ache inside because of the sin in my life. Please help me be more like you. I disappoint you so much when I sin. Sometimes I try to justify my sin and there is no justifying anything that goes against what the bible teaches. We battle the Flesh,I sometimes think the Flesh is more of enemy then Satan himself.

Christians use "Christian Liberties" as excuses sometimes. I wonder sometimes, do we really need to be doing the things we do in the name of "Christian Liberties"? I am asking myself the same thing, I am not pointing fingers. Do I weep enough for the sin in my life? If there is no weeping, I would question my salvation. Sin can be such a ball and chain, it can hold you back from doing the things you want to do for Christ. How can I say to the world, "I am a child of God" and they see no difference in them or me? Lord you know the sins in my life that I struggle most in and that alone should humble me. We sometimes forget that He sees all and knows all. He knows what we think, when others don't. He knows what we say, how we gossip, He knows all and in knowing this, we should fear Him and get down on our knees and ask for forgiveness.

I know I need to be broken, I hate the sin in my life, but not enough to stop it completely. I know no one is sinless, but I know we can be less sinful then we are.I wanted to this blog on Sin because I need prayer about the sin in my life. Please pray for me.I want the balls and chains removed, I want to freely go the Christ without the guilt.I know the Lord has forgiven our sins, but as His child I want him to be proud of this child. God is not against us because of our sin. He is with us against our sin..He can help us fight it, He gives us His Word to meditate on, He gives us Pray to go before Him, He gives us fellow brothers and sisters to go to. Please forgive me Lord for I have sinned against you, I want to walk in your footsteps.

If there is no sorrow for sin, there will be no joy in salvation.

I found this at GraceGems and I encourage you to read it all....

(i) The sin of a justified person is odious—because he acts contrary to his own principles. He sins not only against the rule—but against his principles, against his knowledge, vows, prayers, hopes, experiences. He knows how dearly sin will cost him—yet he adventures upon the forbidden fruit!

(ii) The sin of a justified person is odious, because it is a sin of unkindness (1 Kings 11:9). Peter's denying of Christ was a sin against love. Christ had enrolled him among the apostles. He had taken him up into the Mount of Transfiguration and shown him the glory of heaven in a vision. Yet after all this dazzling mercy—it was base ingratitude, that he should deny Christ! This made him go out and "weep bitterly" (Matt. 26:75). He baptized himself, as it were, in his own tears! The sins of the godly go nearest to God's heart. The sins of others anger God; the sins of the godly grieve him! The sins of the wicked pierce Christ's side! The sins of the godly wound his heart! The unkindness of a spouse, goes nearest to the heart of her husband.

(iii) The sin of a justified person is odious, because it reflects more dishonor upon God. "By this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme" (2 Sam. 12:14). The sins of God's people put black spots on the face of piety. Thus we see what cause there is why a child of God should weep even after conversion. "Can whoever sows such things refrain from tears?"

Now this sorrow of a godly man for sin, is not a despairing sorrow. He does not mourn without hope. "Iniquities prevail against me" (Psalm 65:3)—there is the holy soul weeping. "As for our transgressions, you shall purge them away"—there is faith triumphing.

Godly sorrow is excellent. There is as much difference between the sorrow of a godly man, and the sorrow of a wicked man—as between the water of a spring which is clear and sweet, and the water of the sea which is salt and brackish. A godly man's sorrow has these three qualifications:

(a) Godly sorrow is INWARD. It is a sorrow of soul. Hypocrites "disfigure their faces" (Matt. 6:16). Godly sorrow goes deep. It is a "pricking at the heart" (Acts 2:37). True sorrow is a spiritual martyrdom, therefore called "soul affliction" (Lev. 23:29).

(b) Godly sorrow is SINCERE. It is more for the evil that is in sin—than the evil which follows after sin. It is more for the spot—than the sting. Hypocrites weep for sin only as it brings affliction. Hypocrites never send forth the streams of their tears, except when God's judgments are approaching.

(c) Godly sorrow is INFLUENTIAL. It makes the heart better: "by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better" (Eccles. 7:3). Divine tears not only wet—but wash; they purge out the love of sin!

Use 1. How far from being godly are those who scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! If they lose a near relation—they weep. But though they are in danger of losing God and their souls—they do not weep. How few know what it is to be in an agony for sin, or what a broken heart means! Their eyes are not like the "fishpools in Heshbon", full of water (Song 7:4)—but rather like the mountains of Gilboa, which had "no dew" upon them (2 Sam. 1:21). It was a greater plague for Pharaoh to have his heart turned into stone—than to have his rivers turned into blood.

The wicked, if they sometimes shed a tear—are never the better. They go on in wickedness, and do not drown their sins in their tears!

Use 2: Let us strive for this divine characteristic. Be weepers! This is "a repentance not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7:10). It is reported of Bradford, the martyr, that he was of a melting spirit; he seldom sat down to his meal but some tears trickled down his cheeks. There are two lavers to wash away sin: blood and tears. The blood of Christ washes away the guilt of sin; our tears wash away the filth of sin.

Repenting tears are precious. God puts them in his bottle (Psalm 56:8). Repenting tears are beautifying. To God—a tear in the eye, adorns more than a ring on the finger. Oil makes the face shine (Psalm 104:15). Tears make the heart shine. Repenting tears are comforting. A sinner's mirth turns to melancholy. A saint's mourning turns to music! Repentance may be compared to myrrh, which though it is bitter to the taste—is comforting to the spirits. Repentance may be bitter to the flesh, but it is most refreshing to the soul. Wax which melts is fit for the seal. A melting soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly blessing. Let us give Christ the water of our tears—and he will give us the wine of his blood!

Cristina

7 comments:

Glenda, saved by grace said...

Hello Cristina!
This blog strikes a cord with me because I have been thinking along the same lines as you seem to be thinking on. I am so quick to point out or notice other people's sin, when my filthy heart rages with my own secret sin. This christian life is so hard. It would be so easy to just forget about living for the Lord and just go on out and live in the world...yeah right. I love the Lord Jesus and want so badly to please Him, but like you I feel like the "one that can't please Him". I don't read and study His word enough, and when I do its just kinda in a luke warm fashion.
Hebrews 11:6 comes to mind ...But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
The word that sticks out to me is "diligently" The meaning of that word is: 1. constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything: a diligent student.
2. done or pursued with persevering attention; painstaking: a diligent search of the files.
Are we diligently striving to please Him? I know by that meaning I am not.
So I'll pray for me and for you too and hope that we can diligently strive to become pleasing to God.
Sorry I got off on this , I should've written this on my own out dated blog. Its so good to stumble upon your blog. May the Lord richly bless you and yours.
Your sister,
Glenda

mark pierson said...

Thanks for providing us with an example of the contrite heart by letting us see your struggles to be Christ-like.

Marcian said...

Cristina, thank you for expressing in words what my soul has been pleading to God lately. I hope you don't mind that I linked to your post on my blog... you have expressed this more eloquently than I feel capable of right now.

Baptist Girl said...

Dear Glenda,
It is good to hear from you again. Yes I will be honored to pray for you. "Diligently seek him" is a wonderful way to put it. I want to seek Him daily and I find if I do not remove this sin from my life, I can not. After I did this blog, I went before my Lord and bore my soul, I want the Holy Spirit to guide me, not self.

Cristina

Baptist Girl said...

Dear Mark,
Thank you for always being such an encouraging brother.

Cristina

Baptist Girl said...

Dear Marcian,

No I do not mind, please pray for me and I will pray for you.

Cristina

BethAnne said...

GReat post - I needed to read that in a bad way - thanks!