The seemingly invincible Tiger Wood struck an ethical IED! While Mr. & Mrs. Public buzz busily with excitement a hysterical Media titillates its verbal autopsy amid a fire storm of talk show hosts whipping up voyeuristic recipes ripe with gossip. The hubris of these professional busybody's absorbs the attention of the mindless and prostitutes the gossip of a busybody media by transforming it into financial profit.
Celebrity or otherwise, difficulties in a marriage are tough--for everyone. It pains me for the popular golf star and his stylish Swedish Model. Seldom does the Wedding Service transform the human heart. Translation: most couples finding their way to the altar of marriage bring considerable baggage from their differing worlds and this widely celebrated marriage relationship was no different. They brought their super-star status, including their previous lifestyles filled with numerous negatives needing negotiation if the marriage become successful and the new couple a real family. The oft-resulting children only further complicate the process.
At best, this couple invested their lives in the fruits of successful secular living, a veneer which failed to pay off in real or lasting personal values with a comfortable marriage.
I find it too much to hope that Nancy Grace, Joy Behar, and all the others of that ilk search out more important issues for exploration instead of digging around in rotten garbage. On the other hand, the insatiable appetite of the public to diet on personal tragedy and celebrity gossip seems endless.
Someone I know met Tiger Wood in the middle of the night, in her dreams. She saw him from behind her large window, pacing back and forth, all the while watching her. When she finally opened the door and asked him what he wanted, he stopped, looked her full in the face and said, “Pray for me.”
It was just a meaningless dream, I know. Yet for her, it triggered an automatic response, which she could-and-did follow. Only a dream, but dreams need not be meaningless. In her case, she followed her prompting and prayed for Tiger.
Although my estimation of Tiger has fallen a few notches, I have to admit I have not prayed for him, or any of his supporting cast. Thus, I ponder the words of Frances Barton's four line verse that says simply but succinctly,
Should I feel the need to judge how my brother fares or fails
Let me try him without grudge on the same forgiving scales
Where I balance my own cause and my purposes atone.
Father, may I weigh his flaws gently--as I weigh my own(Frances Barton).
We could go far in changing our world if we would change our own behavior. From Warner’s World, this is
Walkingwithwarner@blogspot.com
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Terminally Ill
An online commentary I recently read relative to another issue came from an 8-year Viet Nam era veteran. This “American hero” admitted that "once upon a time" he bought into our "Great American Ethos" image and rushed off to “serve my country days after graduating from high school.” Now, he says, “I have earned the right to say the following," and I take seriously what his email said (I have added emphasis on some of his issues listed):
“For most of you out there, the good news is that capitalism is succeeding beyond its proponents wildest expectations on:
porn of the most degrading and criminal types
illicit drugs of all types to fill the corporate coffers of those who provide the logistics
profit from weapons (legal and illegal) to murder) (sometimes for that type of porn movie).
Corporate war profiteering with disregard for the life and economic costs
Boardroom fraud
political corruption
Hate crimes and those who hate with out carrying out the crime
etc. ad nauseam.
I say to you who have delusions of grandeur;
America is not what those corporate profiteering bumper stickers SAY !
AMERICA IS WHAT AMERICA DOES !
There are a million stories like the one this column addresses. When will the real Americans stand up to what's wrong INSIDE while they cheer the patriots who are defending against outside threats.
AMERICA IS WHAT IT DOES !
When I picture Americans as a collective society, my image is people in jail with Seinfeld, Cramer, George, Elaine, and the rest in their final episode.
Do you remember the charge they were guilty of?
CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE
AMERICA IS NOT WHAT ITS PEOPLE SAY,
AMERICA IS WHAT ITS PEOPLE DO !!”
Read his comments, then read the rest of the "news" for this day or most any day. As he concluded, “Anyone who can actually do that, and still have delusions of grandeur about this nation and its "citizens" is brain dead, in terminal denial, and has neither the guts nor the inclination to change that.”
Jesus taught his disciples a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, meaning our actions betray what we really are (Matthew 7:17-19 NCV). America parades its lack of character and integrity daily by the things it advertises and practices. Like a cancer in a terminally ill human body, the destructive parasite will eventually destroy the body on which it feeds, resulting in the death of the body.
Walking with Warner in
Warner’s World
“For most of you out there, the good news is that capitalism is succeeding beyond its proponents wildest expectations on:
porn of the most degrading and criminal types
illicit drugs of all types to fill the corporate coffers of those who provide the logistics
profit from weapons (legal and illegal) to murder) (sometimes for that type of porn movie).
Corporate war profiteering with disregard for the life and economic costs
Boardroom fraud
political corruption
Hate crimes and those who hate with out carrying out the crime
etc. ad nauseam.
I say to you who have delusions of grandeur;
America is not what those corporate profiteering bumper stickers SAY !
AMERICA IS WHAT AMERICA DOES !
There are a million stories like the one this column addresses. When will the real Americans stand up to what's wrong INSIDE while they cheer the patriots who are defending against outside threats.
AMERICA IS WHAT IT DOES !
When I picture Americans as a collective society, my image is people in jail with Seinfeld, Cramer, George, Elaine, and the rest in their final episode.
Do you remember the charge they were guilty of?
CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE
AMERICA IS NOT WHAT ITS PEOPLE SAY,
AMERICA IS WHAT ITS PEOPLE DO !!”
Read his comments, then read the rest of the "news" for this day or most any day. As he concluded, “Anyone who can actually do that, and still have delusions of grandeur about this nation and its "citizens" is brain dead, in terminal denial, and has neither the guts nor the inclination to change that.”
Jesus taught his disciples a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, meaning our actions betray what we really are (Matthew 7:17-19 NCV). America parades its lack of character and integrity daily by the things it advertises and practices. Like a cancer in a terminally ill human body, the destructive parasite will eventually destroy the body on which it feeds, resulting in the death of the body.
Walking with Warner in
Warner’s World
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Vietnam ... Afghanistan ... Next ... ?
Charles V. Weber was at the peak of his career when I launched into pastoral ministry. I never forgot my first encounter of listening to him deliver his series on “Living Out of the Overflow;” I was an eighteen year-old college freshman and appreciated his ministry ever thereafter. It also seems that Pastor Weber never forgot a certain San Diego parishioner that struggled with guilt throughout his adult life resulting from his experience as a GI in the South Pacific.
One day, the young GI topped a hill while on patrol. Approaching from the opposite side of the hill was a startled Japanese soldier. As the oriental youth dropped his rifle and raised his hands in surrender, the American soldier responded with “immediate and automatic” response: he lowered his rifle-bayonet, rammed it into the chest of his enemy, and watched him die (COGPF Newsletter, Winter 2009).
Reading that story brought to mind CNN reports I encountered recently, which gripped me with rapt attention - “Killings at the Canal.” After obtaining 23 ½ hours of taping, CNN aired stories on the three decorated American Army Sergeant’s charged in the assassination of four Iraqi prisoners
These young Americans, hardly more than boys, now face decades (reduced from life) of incarceration at Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary. A young bride lost the life she anticipated spending with her beloved, the victim of his tragedy. One single incident of war obliterated normality for several people forever.
These young lives might aptly be called casualties--the collateral damage--of the failed policies of war. The unanswered question asked by the CNN Reporter was “When does a soldier cross the line from being a soldier to a murderer?”
As we struggle nationally to determine a politically right and wrong way to relate to Afghanistan, I suggest the question asked by the CNN Reporter was the wrong question. Crucial to global relationships today is a consideration of when does war over cross the line from being wrong to becoming right?
Two recent presidents, George H.W. and George Bush Jr., found just causes for involving America in war abroad. Now we struggle with the cancerous moral malaise faced by President Lyndon Johnson when he attempted to justify the political pursuits begun by his predecessors in dealing with Vietnam.
When one studies the political intrigue and economic involvement of earlier wars, going back as far as World War One, we find ourselves still confronted by underlying political intrigue that leaves us still questioning “when is it ever right to violate our enemy through military violence?”
The two unfortunate incidents that introduce this article further substantiate what I have personally observed about wartime casualties and the lives of returned veterans. For years I have observed the guilt and turmoil, which we now neatly package medically as post traumatic syndrome, not to mention the brain disorders, and the broken bodies that support prostheses.
We were not created for the violence of maiming, warring, and killing. Although many veterans avoid becoming warped personalities, many do not escape. Needing our help, they never escape the nightmares and other horrors they wish they could forget. Like the young GI, they do with “immediate and automatic” precision that which they were trained to do, and forever suffer the undeserved hangover of guilt, anguish, and pain.
For America to continue to support its industrial-military complex with its huge economic benefits is to "enjoy life on blood money.” We cannot desensitize ourselves to the wrongness of war and not reap the whirlwinds of economic abuse, physical violence, and shattered relationships. We must return to the ways of peace, partnership, and people described by the one man in history (Jesus)who’s greatest fault became his unflinching refusal to compromise; he more than any other inspires others after 2 millennia.
No one else can make that claim, but no one ever “loved” as he “lived.” We need more living and loving and less hating and hurting,
from Wayne,
walkingwithwarner.blogsopot.com
Warner’s World
Monday, November 30, 2009
Occupy Now ... Till I Come
Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent.Pastor Jim (seen at right)spoke from that delightful text in Isaiah 9:6 where the Prophet Isaiah spoke of the promised child, the “Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace”(NCV). Jim talked about the promised child, that “Wonderful Counselor.”
He described the child, the baby that was the promise of God--hope born and given, by God (cf John 3:16). I remembered that great title of Barack Obama's book, “The Audacity of Hope” and I remembered when long ago Israel wanted a king to be like other nations, and selected Saul, much to the consternation of the Prophet Samuel.
Later, the Prophets predicted one that would come in the lineage of David, who represented Israel at its political peak.Seven hundred years later Jesus did come,as announced, declaring with John the Baptist that the Kingdom of God has arrived. H.C. Heffren (THE SIGN OF HIS COMING) writes how “Multitudes hailed Jesus as the Messiah. Others sneered, mocked and scornfully resisted Him.” Jesus, suggests Heffren, became “the object of tumultuous adoration by His followers and of bitter opposition by violent angry mobs of influential enemies.”
This conflicting of opinions is reflected in the parable of the nobleman found in Luke 19:11-27. The Nobleman called his servants to him, gave them “ten pounds,” (investment funds) and told them, “Occupy till I come,” while he went to a far country. Premillennialists read this parable as proof of a future earthly kingdom, and the Scofield Reference Bible describes this tersely as “The postponed kingdom.”
However, “there are compelling reasons for rejecting this interpretation,” concludes Heffren. Although it was said of the Pharisees, to whom Jesus was speaking, that “they thought” the kingdom of God should “immediately appear,” there is a vast difference between what “they thought” would happen, and what Jesus said would happen. We need to be guided by what Jesus said.
The parable was given to correct their misapprehension of the kingdom. Jesus did not say the kingdom would immediately appear then, or that it would ever appear. The fact that the Jews rejected Jesus did not mean that Jesus could not introduce his true kingdom. In fact, He taught them that the “Kingdom of God comes NOT with observation, but is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). We note in particular that Jesus said “Occupy till I come” (v. 13).
“Occupy” comes from a Greek word meaning “to do business,” or “to gain by trading.” He was saying “Do business till I return.” Notice also that when the Nobleman (the Lord) returns, it is not to set up His kingdom--He went away and “received” that. When He returns He calls His servants and distributes rewards to those who faithfully “occupied” and served Him during His long absence, and He executes judgment on all those who would not have Him “REIGN” over them during this period. This harmonizes fully with His teachings in Matthew 13 and with those of Paul and Peter.
When Jesus ascended into heaven He “received” the kingdom--not by any plebiscite of man but as His Divine right from God the Father. During this Gospel Age in which we currently live, He reigns over the entire Israel of God, “the holy nation,” (not the political nation) namely “the redeemed of all the earth.”
THIS kingdom does not come by observation. It does not “immediately appear” like “they thought” it would. Heffren reminds us that no one ever “saw” a person get “born again.” But what we do see is the effect the New Birth has on those who are born again.
Jesus compared it to the passing wind; we hear the sound and see the effect. Thus, we know it is here: every born again person is in the kingdom of God (John 3:5). While Jesus exercises His sovereignty over His people He faces the opposition of that vast throng that says by actions or words (as the Jews announced to Pilate), “We will NOT have THIS man reign over us.”
Advent reminds us of the first coming of Jesus, when he came as Emmanuel--“God is with us. “ It is also an audacious hope, a reminder that Christ will settle with all of us, as did the Nobleman with his servants. In the meantime, we all face His charge to “Occupy till I come.”
This is Wayne at
Warner’s World
_____
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thanksgiving 2009
Today I am preparing for our first Thanksgiving at home in perhaps twenty years. Family custom dictates spending Turkey Day with our daughter in Kentucky, but circumstances necessitate a change of pattern this year. Moreover, we still look forward to spending Christmas in the Commonwealth (Kentucky).
My holiday preparation recalls a story I first read years ago in the pages of our church magazine. It was a story of a boy who grew up in a Church of God parsonage, the son of one of our pioneer preachers--a preacher‘s kid (PK). There he--Harold--often joined in singing hymns of hope, even as I did, many of which were taken from Bible passages. William Schell authored one such song in which he described hope as an anchor of the soul:
Blessed hope we have within us is an anchor to the soul,
It is both steadfast and sure;
It is founded on the promises of the Father’s written word,
And ‘twill ever-more endure
(Schell/“We Have a Hope”/Warner Press/1989, p. 727)
Harold observed the people around him and saw God blessing their lives and filling them with hope. He saw in them living embodiments of the Psalmist’s words:
As for the saints who are in the land,
They are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight (16:3, RSV).
Harold translated that hope into a personal faith that walked the talk. He found it adequate as a truck driver, and later as a baker. He lived it out clerking in a grocery store and later doing piece work in a nearby factory. Filled with that quiet assurance, Harold proved dependable and eventually worked his way to a solid education.
On achieving his Doctor of Education degree, he began hopefully investing his life in public education. Quietly, he gave his best years to his pupils. One day brought an unexpected telephone call. An unexpected caller announced, “I’m the boy who started the fire. I’m now a teacher in the public schools.”
The voice continued, “I thought you would like to know that you are the one who inspired me to be a teacher.”
Memories from across the years flooded in and Harold recalled a football player from years before. This star athlete had finally admitted starting a fire in a box of shavings in the school’s new industrial arts facility. Harold recalled quietly walking without fanfare to the sink in the rear, filling a bucket with water, and quietly doused the flames before returning to his desk.
Local authorities learned of the incident only when the troubled youth finally admitted to Harold, “I had never seen you excited and I wanted to see what you would do when you were excited.”
A relatively unknown teacher became an example of quiet consistency that aroused the aspirations of this young student. The teacher's quiet Christian consistency inspired a troubled youth to become a teacher, just like the mentor he had learned to admire.
Hopeful behavior and quiet, consistent living offer solid hope to individuals looking for answers. Hope encourages people to extend themselves, to reach upward, and to strive for new levels of achievement.
Following the television cameras into the Green House of John Hope Franklin, the late historian, I saw on my tv screen what Franklin called his “House of Hope.” There, I saw his numerous varieties of Orchid plant life, which he identified individually. In Franklin’s greenhouse I saw what he described as "something perpetually in bloom."
Thanksgiving reminds us that life is a house of hope. Here, we find available to the human heart the potential for hope in perpetual bloom. Our eternal hope greatly expands and multiplies those meanings that enrich our lives; without that eternal demension life loses much of its meaning.
In giving thanks, we experience renewal, and we become windows through which God often shines. So enjoy your turkey and cranberries, but be sure you give thanks to Him Who is the Giver of Every Good Gift (and Bless His Name for being able to touch another on your journey).
From Warner‘s World,
peace and grace,
Wayne
_____
My holiday preparation recalls a story I first read years ago in the pages of our church magazine. It was a story of a boy who grew up in a Church of God parsonage, the son of one of our pioneer preachers--a preacher‘s kid (PK). There he--Harold--often joined in singing hymns of hope, even as I did, many of which were taken from Bible passages. William Schell authored one such song in which he described hope as an anchor of the soul:
Blessed hope we have within us is an anchor to the soul,
It is both steadfast and sure;
It is founded on the promises of the Father’s written word,
And ‘twill ever-more endure
(Schell/“We Have a Hope”/Warner Press/1989, p. 727)
Harold observed the people around him and saw God blessing their lives and filling them with hope. He saw in them living embodiments of the Psalmist’s words:
As for the saints who are in the land,
They are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight (16:3, RSV).
Harold translated that hope into a personal faith that walked the talk. He found it adequate as a truck driver, and later as a baker. He lived it out clerking in a grocery store and later doing piece work in a nearby factory. Filled with that quiet assurance, Harold proved dependable and eventually worked his way to a solid education.
On achieving his Doctor of Education degree, he began hopefully investing his life in public education. Quietly, he gave his best years to his pupils. One day brought an unexpected telephone call. An unexpected caller announced, “I’m the boy who started the fire. I’m now a teacher in the public schools.”
The voice continued, “I thought you would like to know that you are the one who inspired me to be a teacher.”
Memories from across the years flooded in and Harold recalled a football player from years before. This star athlete had finally admitted starting a fire in a box of shavings in the school’s new industrial arts facility. Harold recalled quietly walking without fanfare to the sink in the rear, filling a bucket with water, and quietly doused the flames before returning to his desk.
Local authorities learned of the incident only when the troubled youth finally admitted to Harold, “I had never seen you excited and I wanted to see what you would do when you were excited.”
A relatively unknown teacher became an example of quiet consistency that aroused the aspirations of this young student. The teacher's quiet Christian consistency inspired a troubled youth to become a teacher, just like the mentor he had learned to admire.
Hopeful behavior and quiet, consistent living offer solid hope to individuals looking for answers. Hope encourages people to extend themselves, to reach upward, and to strive for new levels of achievement.
Following the television cameras into the Green House of John Hope Franklin, the late historian, I saw on my tv screen what Franklin called his “House of Hope.” There, I saw his numerous varieties of Orchid plant life, which he identified individually. In Franklin’s greenhouse I saw what he described as "something perpetually in bloom."
Thanksgiving reminds us that life is a house of hope. Here, we find available to the human heart the potential for hope in perpetual bloom. Our eternal hope greatly expands and multiplies those meanings that enrich our lives; without that eternal demension life loses much of its meaning.
In giving thanks, we experience renewal, and we become windows through which God often shines. So enjoy your turkey and cranberries, but be sure you give thanks to Him Who is the Giver of Every Good Gift (and Bless His Name for being able to touch another on your journey).
From Warner‘s World,
peace and grace,
Wayne
_____
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Up With the Good
Some years ago, a Canadian Church of God radio preacher-evangelist-author wrote a small forty-page catechism. That little booklet was his way of providing his radio audience a question-and-answer guide to religious doctrine, a realm to which he devoted much of his life explaining. He titled it THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED (Gospel Contact Press/H.C. Heffren/1977), while also proceeding to produce a plethora of literature about a wide range of religious issues.
That writer’s works are being compiled and will soon be republished in new foremat by Reformation Publishers of Prestonsburg, KY. A brief paragraph of his recently caught my attention, as related to the church. This man of the cloth called for the church to again be the church God intended. As I read his words, I was convicted of the need for the church to once more become the Balm of Gilead, the leaves of that tree that Saint John the Revelator described as ”healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2 NASV).
His words were profoundly simple. Yet, they speak to a church that finds itself overwhelmed by a tsunami of hostility, greed, corruption, and violence.
Acknowledging worship as primary (#1) on the church‘s agenda, he followed that with the following, which I quote:Second. It is the duty of the church to care for and be concerned with the needs of others.This is well worded in Galatians 6;10, “As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” The Christian should be friendly, hospitable and courteous to all. If a believer falls into shame or sin, we should remember Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Too often the Christian attitude in such cases has been to criticize and condemn. It should be redemptive and bring restoration (emphasis mine).
Simple and to the point, the church is to be about the business of helping people help one another, of bringing healing to the nations, of helping people find meaningful relationships, assisting in restoring broken (strained) relationships, and pointing people to fortifying hope when they have failed.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out ways of becoming more constructive and helpful rather than spamming negative political messages about people and positions they dislike. The Apostle Paul offered a good suggestion to this end, writing, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”
Rather, “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31).
Whether one be a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian, there is not much way to improve on what I learned years ago about negotiating a stairway while using crutches. “Up with the good; down with the bad” said the therapist in directing me how to proceed on crutches up and down a stairway, thereby protecting my shattered heel
Up with the good, down with the bad; that could fill a world with hope.
From walkingwithwarner,
Wayne
That writer’s works are being compiled and will soon be republished in new foremat by Reformation Publishers of Prestonsburg, KY. A brief paragraph of his recently caught my attention, as related to the church. This man of the cloth called for the church to again be the church God intended. As I read his words, I was convicted of the need for the church to once more become the Balm of Gilead, the leaves of that tree that Saint John the Revelator described as ”healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2 NASV).
His words were profoundly simple. Yet, they speak to a church that finds itself overwhelmed by a tsunami of hostility, greed, corruption, and violence.
Acknowledging worship as primary (#1) on the church‘s agenda, he followed that with the following, which I quote:Second. It is the duty of the church to care for and be concerned with the needs of others.This is well worded in Galatians 6;10, “As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” The Christian should be friendly, hospitable and courteous to all. If a believer falls into shame or sin, we should remember Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Too often the Christian attitude in such cases has been to criticize and condemn. It should be redemptive and bring restoration (emphasis mine).
Simple and to the point, the church is to be about the business of helping people help one another, of bringing healing to the nations, of helping people find meaningful relationships, assisting in restoring broken (strained) relationships, and pointing people to fortifying hope when they have failed.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out ways of becoming more constructive and helpful rather than spamming negative political messages about people and positions they dislike. The Apostle Paul offered a good suggestion to this end, writing, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”
Rather, “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31).
Whether one be a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian, there is not much way to improve on what I learned years ago about negotiating a stairway while using crutches. “Up with the good; down with the bad” said the therapist in directing me how to proceed on crutches up and down a stairway, thereby protecting my shattered heel
Up with the good, down with the bad; that could fill a world with hope.
From walkingwithwarner,
Wayne
Major Hasan Charged With Murder
The fact that Fort Hood's Major Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder raises a couple of questions (to raise the question of the 14th victim, a child in the womb, is only to pile on for the sake of a political agenda). People are ready to "throw the books" at the Jordanian Psychiatrist.
Without politicizing the issues involved in judging the Major, I raise a question of a different nature, as once posed by Theologian H. C. Heffren: "Are there such things as big sins and little sins?"
Dr. Heffren suggested "most people regard murder as a great sin, whereas to tell a little “white” lie is regarded of little consequence." He proceeded to answer the question with this line of reasoning: There is a danger in this reasoning. In the first place there is no such thing as a “white” lie. Furthermore, this places the emphasis on the deed committed rather than on the One against Whom it is committed. Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall DO AND TEACH them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). No doubt some sins are more abhorrent to God than others but all sin “is the transgression of the law” and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
"Perhaps our best counsel," concluded this studious friend, is to "at all times . . .consult 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” An Advocate is like a lawyer who pleads our case, who stands by our side. Christ is our Advocate (italics added).
Not to be ignored is a related question, "Can a person sin against God without doing anything?" Author-Minister Heffren further reasons thus: "In James 4:17 we read, “Wherefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin.” There is such a sin as “the sin of omission.” Thus, sin may be committed by doing something wrong, or it can be committed by disobeying what is right, or failing to obey God in our duty to Him. In this connection he urges us to read Romans 8:7-8 in which the old KJV reminds us “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” A carnal mind is one that is worldly, or sensual; not spiritual. It is as mind dominated by the flesh. Paul says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” ( Romans 8:6--THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED/Heffren/1977).
So sin is not only a wrong act, but it is a state of mind that is not subject to God’s rule, but rather disobedient thereto. In other words, sin is not only what you do but also what you are.
Rather than quibbling so much about the pros and cons of sin's existence or non-existence, we need to deal more realistically with the fact that we are known by the things we do--we are what we do, as well as what we may think, feel, or theorize.
Wayne at
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Without politicizing the issues involved in judging the Major, I raise a question of a different nature, as once posed by Theologian H. C. Heffren: "Are there such things as big sins and little sins?"
Dr. Heffren suggested "most people regard murder as a great sin, whereas to tell a little “white” lie is regarded of little consequence." He proceeded to answer the question with this line of reasoning: There is a danger in this reasoning. In the first place there is no such thing as a “white” lie. Furthermore, this places the emphasis on the deed committed rather than on the One against Whom it is committed. Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall DO AND TEACH them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). No doubt some sins are more abhorrent to God than others but all sin “is the transgression of the law” and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
"Perhaps our best counsel," concluded this studious friend, is to "at all times . . .consult 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” An Advocate is like a lawyer who pleads our case, who stands by our side. Christ is our Advocate (italics added).
Not to be ignored is a related question, "Can a person sin against God without doing anything?" Author-Minister Heffren further reasons thus: "In James 4:17 we read, “Wherefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin.” There is such a sin as “the sin of omission.” Thus, sin may be committed by doing something wrong, or it can be committed by disobeying what is right, or failing to obey God in our duty to Him. In this connection he urges us to read Romans 8:7-8 in which the old KJV reminds us “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” A carnal mind is one that is worldly, or sensual; not spiritual. It is as mind dominated by the flesh. Paul says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” ( Romans 8:6--THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED/Heffren/1977).
So sin is not only a wrong act, but it is a state of mind that is not subject to God’s rule, but rather disobedient thereto. In other words, sin is not only what you do but also what you are.
Rather than quibbling so much about the pros and cons of sin's existence or non-existence, we need to deal more realistically with the fact that we are known by the things we do--we are what we do, as well as what we may think, feel, or theorize.
Wayne at
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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