As I wrote before, I have been apart of
many churches of various denominations. In almost all of them, we
were told we had to work hard to not sin. We must continue to
struggle to do what is right in Gods eyes.
Have you noticed how exhausting it is to be aware of every thing you do and say as not to go astray. Not just avoiding sin, but also making sure we do good. In reality, it is impossible to not screw up at some point. I may not have sinned today but I passed by that woman struggling with that heavy box. The book of James says in chapter 4 vs 17 that if you don't do the good you aught to do you commit a sin.
We keep trying and cant do it. Paul said “What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through
Jesus Christ our Lord!”
How do we do this? Jesus tells us “Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I doesn't seem so easy. It seams really
hard at times. The problem lies in the churches teaching that we must
strive to attain this level of holiness. But that is contrary to
scripture. As believers in Jesus we all know that we are saved by his
grace and nothing else. It even says we are not saved by our works.
Striving to be better is the same as saying you can make yourself
holy by your own working.
Our path to holiness is really simple.
The bible puts it this way: “And I am sure of this: that the One
who began a good work among you will keep it growing until it is
completed on the Day of the Messiah Yeshua.” (CJB)
The day we believed in Jesus was the
day God began to change us into the image of Christ. I have been at
it since September 23, 1985 when I asked Christ into my life. I know
I havent arrived yet. I keep looking forward, not looking back at
my failures - especially those after I began following Him. Its His job
to change me, its my job to believe He will do it.
Blessings,
Tom
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I welcome all comments/questions. If you are not a believer in Jesus and wish to post a comment, I will allow it as long as it is respectful and has merrit. I am new to blogging so I may not post all comments. I will figure this out and make adjustments as time goes on. Right now I am allowing all comments but may restrict it some later on.