The local high school in our small (but growing large) town of Hutto (outside of Austin, TX) has their football stadium right down our street. We often walk over to the games on Friday nights. We've been excited as they've gone to the state playoffs this year. We've seen 3 of the first 4 games/rounds of these playoffs. The fifth round, or semi-finals found them in San Antonio playing a #1 ranked team from Cuero, who also destroyed a team that beat Hutto badly earlier in the year. But Hutto upset them and is going to the state finals, which'll take place next weekend in Texas Stadium. That's got to be so exciting for those players.
Romans 8 makes a bold declaration; that we are "free from the law of sin and death." It says of believers: "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you."
I remember the first few months of my renewed walk with Christ (it's hard to pinpoint that stage of my life, since my story is like a "prodigal son," and thus my conversion happened many years prior...). It was apparent by a ton of things that happened internally and externally, that God was alive and in my life. I wasn't too conscious of any desire to prove that God existed for any skeptics. I was more like being too overwhelmed with my own skepticism being erased by God at work. I could truly sense the Spirit's activity in my life, giving me the ability to change when I didn't have that power before. These invisible actions acted as overwhelming evidence in my own mind. It's too bad I didn't record them to help explain this concept in Romans 8 many years later.
Some people will look at believers and doubt that anything is going on. They might want to see evidence, and they might try to explain away a changed life by using concepts like "willpower" and whatnot. This invisible stuff isn't real tangible and therefore not easy to use as evidence, but man I can sure testify on my own behalf that I had some help in changing my life. It was miraculous and it was love. I can still remember the feelings and the emotions and the deep conviction and gratitude, all of which can be slipped under the word "love." That's how I feel about Jesus.
"What a great friend!"
That's what Steve Rowe's father-in-law said of me when I arrived at Steve's house about 8 years ago. Sure, I hopped on a plane and spent over a grand on an airfare; but heck, I thought my friend was gonna die and I had to see him one more time and be with him. That's nothing in comparison to the lengths that Jesus went to be my friend.
I had a friend joke with me recently about trying paganism. I joked back, "Do you think Satan will take me back, after all I've done?" It's a sarcastic spin on an excuse that a lot of people seriously use and feel when they consider "turning to God." They feel like there's no way God could forgive them, for all that they've done. That is so wrong.
I remember saying "(bleep) God!" to a girl in my high school. I was just trying to freak her out and that was one of the most "extreme" things I could have said to have done so. Those words were an emotional and fiery insult to my Creator. I was such an idiot to use the very tongue that He gave me to curse Him. But that is what any willful sin is like to Him -- a slap in the face. (At least in my opinion) So, when we look at our sin as an affront to God -- a personal insult using the most extreme language -- then we can possibly know that God is infinitely merciful and will accept our apology for our wrongful behavior. There is nothing "SO BAD" that God won't forgive us. We can "change teams" and be on His side and receive His complete and total acceptance. That is amazing. That kind of forgiveness often leads to deep and un-ending love in response. That is why I think sinners make the best Christians.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at December 12, 2005 09:32 AM