We had a non-regular Sunday. Lori had a trip to Edmonton planned so their family came over for lunch. And then Lori left and all the guys stayed. Then in the afternoon Vana, Teri and Ray came over. I made Teri’s favorite meal in honor of her birthday and we had lemon cake with strawberries as well for her birthday.
Here are some of the things we discussed:
- I have a saying about babies…. “that every baby is to be celebrated no matter the circumstances it comes to the world.” And recently my family found out there is going to be a new family member coming in the fall. My cousin is pregnant (she is 21 and unmarried) and not all family members have positive feeling towards her situation. One said family member finds herself not able to congratulate my cousin on her coming baby. Her feelings are that my cousin is too young, she has her whole world in front of her, and the fact that she is not married makes the situation much worse. I am saddened to hear this view coming from her because she herself got pregnant outside of marriage and was judged by people, and I don’t know why she would want to do this to someone else. So we chatted about this situation for a while, how it could/should be handled. How do we love her through this and come along side her and the baby’s father to encourage and support and hopefully redeem this reality they now find themselves in. For me, the baby is not the sin, is not wrong… the situation is what is wrong (wrong meaning not the ideal situation to be bringing a new life into the world… broken). But broken can be healed and be made right be made new through love and encouragement and choosing Love.
- Vana watched the film “I AM” this week and was sharing about it with another person. This person was guarded and declared the film ‘too new age’ for them to watch.
So we discussed how we can trap ourselves by our ideals and views and what our paradigms might be. I have found some people unable to step outside their box of what they deem acceptable by what their denomination or religion dictate. From what I can see, to me their faith is weak and they do not feel strong enough to view material that might challenge what they choose to live their life by. For me, I think I am in a position where my faith in God is pretty solid and at this point don’t think material outside of my comfort zone, or well accepted beliefs would derail my faith. I also think that sometimes we need to read or discuss or watch things that challenge us to help our faith grow and become more solid. It reminds me of a quote I read, “smooth seas do not make for a skilled sailor”. If we only ever stay in smooth seas of our comfort zone beliefs, how do we become strong and firm in what we know to be true, if it is never tested?
- Next we went over lesson 5…
- so we started with question one and Josh’s answer spoke about sin being an evil act. That made me squirm. Is all sin evil? So we batted around that question for a bit. I looked up how evil was defined in my concordance, it said – “morally bad or wrong; something that causes harm or distress.” It amazes me how my view is tweaked whenever I look up the definition to words. ‘Something that causes harm or distress’, and that means to others or myself. Wow… makes me think differently about what evil is.
- Question number two asked why we should avoid sinning. We came up with that sinning only leads to more and more sinning. Jordan came up with a great word picture that had a big impact on me. Jordan shared this picture… a group of Christians on a raft in the middle of the ocean. The ocean is the worlds ways (sin). As we drink the ocean we become more thirsty and so we drink more of the ocean and become more thirsty and we keep doing this until eventually we die. However if we drink of the pure water that God offers us, we no longer crave what the world offers and we have real life.
- Questions three and four talked about the results or consequences of sin and obedience. Of course the obvious answer is death or life. But we also discussed how there are earthly and spiritual consequence to our choosing sin or obedience. If we sin we end up hurting ourselves and others, there are broken relationships, poor health and more. Same with choosing obedience, we have better relationships, etc. However Wes also pointed out the spiritual consequences --- when we sin the spirit gets hurt and we continue to choose sinful things to try and mask that hurt or to make us feel better. And for choosing obedience we will have the fruits of the spirit… peace, love and joy and more.
- Question number six…. we discussed the word ‘slave’. Slave seems like such a strong and negative word to apply to believers. When I picture a slave, I see one who is in chains, forced against their will to do things. Is this what God wants us to be? So I had to look up the world slave. A slave is one held in servitude to another; one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence. What difference is there in a servant and a slave? The Apostle Paul often refers to himself as a servant.
- Paul mentioned the Hebrew practice of slavery. After 7 years a slave was set free but if the slave chose to stay with the master, the slave was then required to stay for life.
- There are only two possible masters in the spiritual world… God or sin. So we either choose God or by default we are slaves to sin.
- we discussed that the Law was the master in the OT not God. We were slaves to what the Law said. The Law did not save us, God did when he declared us righteous because of our faith. Righteousness comes from God.
- Question seven…. why oh why do we continue to struggle with sin??? Because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We will address this in chapter 7 with Paul’s do-do statement. :)
- Question eight… Johanna wrote that she was going to rethink what sin was, that she needed to learn what defiles us. Wes wants to add that sin not only defiles us but defiles others around us as well.
- Next we batted around the question of sinning in the body versus sinning in the spirit? How do these differ? How do they affect each other? We know we move towards sin FIRST in our mind then act it out with our body. So if we can conquer our mind we will sin less in the body.
- Where is the mind? What part of the body/soul/spirit does the mind lay?
- Paul shared about he read called – “As a man thinketh, so is he”
- Next we read through the bible verses listed with this lesson. The concept that we as believers no longer sin sent up red flags to question. Because we do sin, we can’t stop sinning…. right? What are these verses trying to tell us. So I read some of them from the Message because I think it helps. In the Message it talks about not practicing sin in our daily lives.
1 John 3:4-9
The Message (MSG)
4-6All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backward.
7-8So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.
9-10People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.
