So, maybe you just stumbled upon this blog, or maybe you know me pretty well. Either way, this blog is just kind of gonna be an outlet. I am not really intending for debate or anything like that. If discussion occurs, I won't be displeased.
Here is a list of some things I will probably be posting about and reasons why.
1. Jesus stuff- Being a student at Johnson Bible College and the worship minister of a congregation in Martinsville, Va, much of my time is spent thinking about ways to better my relationship with Christ, refining my views on who God is, and seeking ways to better the body of believers as a whole. I don't plan on outlining my entire theology here, but hopefully along the way you can start to identify with some of my beliefs.
2. Music- I spend a lot of time writing music, and listening to music (Both from the secular realm and the worship realm.), so I hope to post some videos of songs I have been listening to, and talk about what they mean to me.
3. Anything I want. It is my blog after all.
So without further ado (as if you have been anxiously awaiting). My first blog.
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about sin. My own struggle with it may have a lot to do with it, but within my thinking I believe I have developed a strong resentment for that word "struggle." This probably is due to the fact that we were never meant to struggle with sin. Let's take a journey back, shall we.
In the beginning, God created everything. He created land, sea, stars, air, plants, animals, and humans. (Sunday school type lesson there.) But within this creation, God created it exactly as he wanted it. Man took care of the earth, there was no death, and most importantly God walked among man. In order for God to create the one thing he desired, true relationship, with man, there had to be an alternative route for the man. Who wants to have a relationship with someone who is forced into that relationship. Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the center of the garden. We know the rest of the story. They are tempted, eat from the tree, and for the first time decide against their relationship with God.The sin was disobedience to God, yes but I think an even bigger issue is what they gained from the tree of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.
Lately, I have been thinking of what exactly that all entails. From that point on we were no longer naive of our sin, instead we were ashamed of who God created us to be. And on an even more individual level, I think about what that means for me as God attempts to work me back to his original intent. God's purpose is not for me to overcome my sin, it is for me to become ignorant of what sin even is. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Christ did not even know what sin was. Yes, he was tempted, Yes, he was aware of what sin was. But in his mind and in his heart, he knew no sin. I have been wondering what that would look like. What if I was so consumed in the will of God, that I had no idea what sin looked like? What if every time sin reared its ugly head at me, my relationship with God took center stage to the point where people might be able to look at me and say "He knows no sin"?
I think far too often in our struggles we place too much focus on the sin itself, allowing it to bind us as if we weren't free in Christ. Rather than saying, "Oh God, I don't want to cuss, or lie, or steal, or fill-in-the-blank," we rest our struggle in the fact that we want to be more like Christ. Our fight with sin isn't a mere self-improvement exercise, but an exercise that draws us nearer to Christ.
We sang a song in chapel this morning called the Desert Song. I think the words are theologically sound. It talks about the struggles that we face, but rather than attempting to defeat them on our own, we look instead to Christ as our powerful and able Savior.
