Re: [TruthTalk] Read it and weep!

[Judith H Taylor]

In a message dated 10/1/2004 5:44:19 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I am not certain how common this is in other areas, but it is very common here and among "Christian superstars".  Sin was (could still be) the pattern of the life of Jimmy Swaggert.  Benny Hinn is as phoney as a three dollar bill, but some people think He is God's right hand man. John writes: And one more thing  --  sin is no longer the deciding factor in our relationship with Christ.  Romans 3:23 is constantly ignored on this forum by several who want to make personal and individual righteousness the issue that determines our saving relationship (is there another kind) with the Lord.   You know what it says but I will remind you: All have sinned and fall short (present tense action --  "are falling short even as we speak") of the glory of God.   jt: Sure because no-one is there yet not even the "all encompassing incarnational crowd" but we need to read on.  There is Romans 7 where Paul describes his own battle with the part of him that is not wanting to be Spirit led... and then we read on further to Romans 8:2,3 and learn that there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus - and here is the condition ... who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.    There are three venues in which sin works its ugly will, two of which are pertinent to this discussion:   historical sin and sins of character.  Smoking, drinking, cursing, doping, etc are sins commited in time  --  they are historical, having a beginning and an ending.   Sins of character are very different.  They are with us all the time and form the basis for those things we commit (the historical sin).  Pride, conceit, bigotry, anger, selfishness, and the life  and so we sin and continually fall short of the glory of God.    jt: Sin is sin - what purpose is there is dividing them up, we need to repent and depart from all of them. I would see your "historical" category as the iniquities of the Fathers because these kind of attitudinal things are often passed down in families.  But... however they come we need to repent and finish it right now in our generation.  This is why John can say that we "have sin" at any time  (I Jo 1:8.)  We are no better than those whom we dispise.  It is Christ who makes us right.   It is His faith and victory that saves and this never changes.   We always need Him and are always lost without Him.    jt: It is impossible to walk in love and despise others and if this is where we are walking we are not walking in anything belonging to Christ.  His faith and victory only avail for us when we walk in them.  John also wrote "he who sins is of the devil" judyt