It's not my fault

The following post was taken from a Christian preacher's blog.  It was posted by an individual in response to a comment that homosexuality is a sin, along with being fat, being self-righteous, being demeaning to others, etc.

Oh, Steve… OH, STEVE…
I have listened to your radio show for years (whenever I was in range). I have always considered you a forerunner for Grace. I have enjoyed your, sometimes, oblique attacks at "traditional Christianity".

Please reconsider calling "being fat" a sin. The Bible, as far as I studied it, never condemns "being fat" as a sin. It DOES condemn gluttony, but this is a intentional over consumption of food for the sake of it. It may result in "being fat", but not necessarily (consider the familiar disorder of binging/purging.) Many people say just what you say. Even my Bible class teacher says things like: "I have a real problem with someone who condemns homosexuals when they are as big as a horse!"

I am hypoglycemic and must eat several times a day to maintain blood sugar/insulin balance. Genetically, I am predisposed to gaining and maintaining fat deposits. As the doctor says: "Your genes are designed to make you a survivor in famine conditions."

As a laundry route driver I service upwards of 170 stops (customers) during a 6 to 8 hour shift while driving over 100 miles through neighborhoods and business districts. I eat only what is necessary (just snacks (nuts and such) while working and I don't take a lunch break). You'd think from this routine that I wouldn't be fat, right? But at 5 foot 9 inches, I weigh almost 250 lbs!

Am I sinning by being fat? I don't think so!

Do I sin in other areas? Certainly!

Please do not condemn people for their state of being. Just tell everyone that sin is something you think or do, not what you are.

Thank you for letting me contribute.
Doyle

For me, the main thing I take from this is that we haven't changed since Adam.  "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  We have no problem condemning others, but we always find a way to justify our own sin.  It's never our fault.  I suppose our prisons would be far less crowded if those accused of crimes got to judge their own cases, too.

What is the Gospel?

The Gospel is not just any message from God telling man how he should behave. "What is the Gospel?" I asked a man this question some time ago, and he answered, "Why I should say it is the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, and I think if a man lives up to them he is all right." Well, I fancy he would be; but did you ever know anybody who lived up to them? The Sermon on the Mount demands a righteousness which no unregenerate man has been able to produce. The law is not the Gospel; it is the very antitheses of the Gospel. In fact, the law was given by God to show men their need of the Gospel .
"The law," says the Apostle Paul, speaking as a Jewish convert, "was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But after that Christ is come we are no longer under the schoolmaster."


The Gospel is not a call to repentance, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Do not make the mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a more perfect way than you have been doing in the past.


Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.
...
If you do not see that there is no other way of salvation for you, save through the death of the Lord Jesus, then that just tells the sad story that you are among the lost. You are not merely in danger of being lost in the Day of Judgment; but you are lost now. But, thank God, "the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," and seeking the lost He went to the cross. "None of the ransomed ever know How deep were the waters crossed; Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, Ere He found the sheep that was lost."
HE HAD TO DIE, to go down into the dark waters of death, that you might be saved. Can you think of any ingratitude more base than that of a man or woman who passes by the life offered by the Savior who died on the Cross for them? Jesus died for you, and can it be that you have never even trusted Him, never even come to Him and told Him you were a poor, lost, ruined, guilty sinner; but since He died for you, you would take Him as your Savior? HIS DEATH WAS REAL. He was buried three days in the tomb. He died, He was buried, and that was God's witness that it was not a merely pretended death, but He, the Lord of life, had to go down into death. He was held by the bars of death for those three days and nights, until God's appointed time had come. Then, "Death could not keep its prey, He tore the bars away." And so the third point of the Gospel is this, "He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. "That is the Gospel, and nothing can be added to that. Some people say, "Well, but must I repent?" Yes, you may well repent, but that is not the Gospel. "Must I not be baptized?" If you are a Christian, you ought to be baptized, but baptism is not the Gospel. Paul said, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel" (1 Cor. !:17) He did baptize people, but he did not consider that was the Gospel, and the Gospel was the great message that he was sent to carry to the world. This is all there is to it. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."
--Condensed from "What is the Gospel?" - By Harry Ironside

Pepper

Saying goodbye to our Pepper was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  The girls and I talked about death, and why everything that lives has to die sometime.  They had kind of a rough time last night, hopefully today will be better.

All but Death, can be Adjusted—
Dynasties repaired—
Systems—settled in their Sockets—
Citadels—dissolved—

Wastes of Lives—resown with Colors
By Succeeding Springs—
Death—unto itself—Exception—
Is exempt from Change—

–Emily Dickinson

I know some look down on people of faith, claiming that they believe in a "fairy tale" because they can't deal with the reality of death.  I don't know how anyone could possibly cope with the death of a loved one, or even contemplate their own death without faith.  It is only because of the hope of eternal life that I can find peace in spite of those things.

One a Pharisee

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

    “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

    “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

--Luke 18:9-14

The Neverending Story

“When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.” 
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

Norm MacDonald

Norm talks about losing all his money three different times in his life because of gambling.  He said that it was a very freeing experience.  He said it was an escape.  He said he was never into drugs or alcohol.  He said he would rather fear losing money on a football game than ruminate about his own death.  He said worrying about his own mortality is a huge thing in his life. This led to the following discussion:

Marc: "And you're trying to get some spirituality in your life?"
Norm: "I'm trying to, because the only real joy I get, other than I love watching comedy, the only thing deeper than that I read a lot of literature, I'm not educated but I read a lot of literature."

Marc: "Like who?"

Norm: "Tolstoy, Faulkner...faith keeps coming up, these @#%#$#$%#$% are smart, Pryor was the most deep profound guy I ever heard, from my limited perspective ,...why are all these guys, it all comes down to faith.  Every @#$%@#% great novel I read, it seems like faith is the only salvation.  But I don't know how to get it.  I don't know how to just suddenly believe.
...
Norm: "I've been struggling with faith.  I'll just throw myself into religion sometimes, but the problem with that is that then you get into churches and stuff, and then you get into... it's very easy to fall into the trap of going like 'religion's bad' or 'God's bad because this priest #$%#$@#$ a kid', which is retarded you know what I mean, why does that make God bad?  It doesn't make any sense. "

Marc:" Just the people who represent Him are a little questionable."

Norm: "Because you go into any church and it's led by fallible men, and you can't believe in them, so you've got to somehow come to it yourself somehow.  But I don't have the answer on how you do that or anything."

Marc: "So where are you at with it now?"

Norm: "The only thing I've ever explored is Christianity."

Marc: "And that kinda...?"

Norm: "I liked it, but it's just extremely hard to keep believing, its really #$%#$%^ hard.  I mean it's the hardest thing to believe and I think I'm not deep enough."

--From Marc Maron's interview with Norm MacDonald

Election

So the text from my last post, Romans 9:10-18, lays out what can be a terrifying scenario.  It is God's purpose that is supreme, and not man's will or ability.  It says that he has mercy on whom He wills, and and whom He wills He hardens.  Pharaoh is mentioned as an example.  


Why I find this terrifying is in terms of the lost, those who simply refuse to believe, though they have been presented the gospel.  What if they are simply not chosen?  

At the same time, wonderful and terrifying

 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.  Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:  not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”  Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

    What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!  For he says to Moses,

   “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
   and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

    It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.  For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Romans 9:10-18

Pray for the lost

Pray for those who have not yet come to faith in Christ.  


“open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so
that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are being sanctified by
faith in Christ.”                                                   — Acts 26:18

Making Sure Others Get What's Coming to Them

The religion of tomorrow

I grew up in the religion of tomorrow.  Here's what I mean by that.  The concept of sin was taught, and the gospel was presented as a combination of faith and works.  Now I knew in my heart that I wasn't living up to the standard presented in the Bible.  But there was always hope (and pressure) that tomorrow I would be able to achieve it.  I think you know how it turned out, I found it impossible to do.


If you asked me back then "Will you go to heaven when you die?", my response would have been "I hope so".
My only hope was that I would live long enough to become a good enough person to be saved.  Or that I would do enough good things to convince God that I deserved to be saved.


Why didn't I understand the promises of scripture?  I don't know.  Why did I think that there would ever be any merit in myself?  I still see the same things being taught in my church now.  But I no longer hope in myself.


"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."  --Romans 3:21-24


I don't have to achieve something tomorrow to be saved.  I can know today that I'm saved, because of the work of Christ.  Let our hope be in Him and not in ourselves!