i'm finally beginning to understand the distinction between blameless and faultless.
because of the blood of Jesus which took away my sin, i am now blameless. hallelujah.
but i'm not faultless. cuz i'm human.
i tend to resent the phrase "no one is perfect," because it seems anti-holiness to me. it always sounded to me like people were making excuses for their sin.
but today i have learned that, while my sinful nature is crucified, my human nature is still alive and kickin. good thing...otherwise, well, i'd be dead. i learned today that i'm still very faulty. i still make mistakes-- even if not direct sin and rebellion. i learned today that no one is perfect. sigh...
here's how i messed up:
1) fell asleep for a few minutes while praying.
2) typed an incorrect number in the ATM which makes my balance look bigger than it is.
3) hurt a guys feelings when i turned down his offer of going out to dinner-- i probably was too abrupt.
4) i booked a guy out of the Haven shelter, and gave his bed away, after having told him that he was set for the next 10 days. now he has no place to sleep, even though he should have one.
i've certainly made a few mistakes.
but after the last aberration (the worst of all-- because it cost someone else), i got really down on myself, and began to question, if perhaps i've not been made holy after all.
praise the Lord-- He's teaching me about grace. upon reflection of my mistakes, i realized that none of them fall under Wesley's definition of "sin properly-so-called"-- a voluntary transgression of a known law of God. so, i can't get under condemnation for these errors-- they weren't intentional, and they weren't my heart. i just made some mistakes. and that's okay. no one's perfect :o)
i'm so glad that He is gracious to me.
guess what!!
tomorrow morning i'm hopping on a aeroplane and getting out of here. oh man, a break will be lovely.
i'm going to Urbana Missions Fest (over 25,000 people!) and helping to man a Salvation Army booth,
then i'm going to New York to see my parents (wahoo!)
and then i'm going to Puerto Rico...to lay on the beach. yesss.....
since i don't necessarily practice a weekly sabbath, every six months or so, two weeks off is good enough.
8 comments:
I'm going to Urbana too! I'll be sure and find the Army booth you're manning...email me where and when you'll be at it, deal?
JP
I really liked this post. One of my faivrot sayings is,"I'm not perfect, I'm forgiven.". I tore my pants on distribution day at our corps, a mistake, the bigger mistake, trying to staple them together. I'm not perfect.
I always love your honestly, Olivia. I would like to comment on the anonymous comments quote:
"I'm not perfect, I'm forgiven."
I dislike this saying very much. To me its sounds like a cop out for us not to attain holiness. When we mess up we can just say oh well, its because I'm not perfect, I'm forgiven. I see the truth in it, though choose to accept grace rather than coming up with excuses to why i'm still living in sin!
Olivia I love you
as long as we have skin, we will sin...
it makes us long for a better time and place! would we get too proud if we didn't blow it regularly?
hey, that was a great post about something ive been thinking about! thanks
"as long as we have skin, we will sin...
it makes us long for a better time and place! would we get too proud if we didn't blow it regularly?"
mm...no...i absolutely disagree with this.
humanness is no excuse for sin: Jesus was fully and properly man, yet He lived a life without sin. He commanded us to be holy-- and He meant it. He didn't mean it only to be obeyed when we die, but now.
a life without sin is only a gift from the Lord-- so it doesn't cause pride. pride itself can be rooted out by His Holy Spirit.
it also doesn't cause self-centeredness, because it keeps us looking to others, and putting them above ourselves.
a few days ago i posted all of Romans 6-8. i recommend meditating on that Scripture (or at least the sections i highlighted), about dying to your sinful nature. you don't have to be a slave of sin-- there is freedom!
Olivia
Keep on belieiving!
I have recently been trying to update the language in Wesley's 'Plain account of Christian Perfection' so that the document can touch more hearts than it does at the moment.
Wesley (Palmer, Finney, Booth et al) all stressed the difference between 'sin' and 'human error' - this is obviosuly something that you understand.
We are human and we make mistakes but proper Christians do not sin! As your rightly say humanity is not an excuse for sin.
Keep on preaching true holiness sister!
I don't know you but I sense an empathy.
God bless you
Yours set apart by Christ, for the lost, in the Army
A
bloodandfire.org.uk
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