Saturday, July 12, 2008

Saint or Sinner

I was just reading another blog and ran across a comment that someone had said and it struck me when I read it. The comment was, “we are all sinners.” Now, I know there are many theological differences between Christians. However, as I read those words I thought, “Really?” As a person in the Wesley and Arminian tradition, I don’t normally call myself a sinner. We believe that we do not need to sin in word, thought or deed every day. That God’s power is enough to bring us above that. However, as a former pit dweller, I know that I am, at any one time, a mere decision or two away from the next pit. Without God’s continual guidance in my life, without His pervasive Spirit revealing Himself to me, without a daily relationship with Him, I am lost! I need Him every moment of my life!

The words “we are all sinners” drives me crazy though, and I think I just figured out why. If I think of myself as a sinner instead thinking of myself as God’s precious and holy child, I believe I give myself the excuse to be that person – the sinner. If I fall one day, well, it’s because we’re all sinners. As someone with a degree in counseling, I often see people who have been labeled somewhere along life’s way and they live up to those labels. Parents are encouraged to be careful what they call they’re children. The labels often stick. The person who is called worthless believes themselves to be worthless. We can take on the persona of whatever it is we are called or labeled. The mind is a powerful thing and thoughts can influence our behavior. So instead of thinking of ourselves as sinners, why not think of ourselves as Children of the Most High, God’s child, prince or princess to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Maybe then we will begin acting the part. The Message states the first part of Romans 12 this way,

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best think you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-informed maturity in you.”

Or as the King James Version states: "And do not be conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Maybe, if we see ourselves as the Children that we are, instead of the sinners that we were, we could, through the power of the Holy Spirit that is so freely available to us, live more victorious lives for our Father. As with any child, there may be days that we fall down, but that’s the most wonderful part…He is always there to pick us up! He loves us so! Amen. Amen.

3 comments:

Holly said...

Hey Kimberly,

Would you email me your choc. chip cookie recipe for the Siesta Fiesta Cookbook? I think it'd be very fun to have it included!!

Thanks,
holly

lori said...

Hmm this is a really good post. Every christian knows we have all sinned, and that we still fall into sin, we know sin leads us to trouble and to pits, and we know God has paid the price for us. If my children get in trouble for lets saying lying to me, yes they get in trouble but I do not forever more call them a lier, not they are my children who I love and adore..
Yes we are his children, and I bet he does not call us a bunch of sinners, it my just delight him more is we dont dwell in being sinners, after all he did let his son die to fix that issue...

Ok so thanks for the deep thought

Mom of Eleven said...

Kimberly,
No, I will not have any children, but I will be with friends from home tha blog that are on my link. Joni, Emmy, and Georgia Mother. I can't wait to meet you both. How fun this will be!!
Wendy