Anyone who is interested in growing as a person needs to find at least one soul friend that is safe and full of grace and mercy. Nothing rewards and reinforces sin like the Law without a remedy.
Almost every addict struggles with living up to the perfect law. After he fails to be perfect there is the guilt that always accompanies failure and when there is no grace a chronic sense of total condemnation. This is one reason why conservative churches are "Full of people who are running away from God."
They show up at worship and study only when they are on top and feel clean, holy and perfect. After a fall they avoid the Preacher like the plague and may even move to escape his accusations and rejection. What they need is a good dose of grace and mercy.
But, hearing so many sermons about God's high expectations has ruined them. The think they are so deeply flawed that God has left them until they can "Get it all back together again."
People tell me how awful they are and then recount sins that would make Mother Teresa laugh at their size. They have gotten themselves on such a high plane of expectation that even the tiniest feeling of lust, anger or frustration will send them into a downward cycle of despair.
One man said that his sins were too big for God to forgive. Oh, sure, he forgave Peter's three denials of Jesus and Paul's persecutions of Christians but his piddling sins were just too much for God to bear.
What hubris and pride! Too big for the cross. Too big for the resurrection! Too big for Pentecost!
posted by Gary Sweeten @ Wednesday, July 12, 2006
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