9. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith GOD has given you.” (Romans 12:3)

Romans 12-
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.

In giving him everything, we cannot have a piece of us that is held apart because of some sin.

2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

A renewing of the mind comes from a closeness to God. We are more likely to be able to discern his will if we are of one accord with him. Thus sin cannot have a hold in our life.

3 For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Here we learn that people are given a measure of faith. Why are we given measures of faith? I think it’s to take away our ability to even brag about that. The faith we have, the grace we experience and the gifts God gives us are all products of him not us. This call to think of ourselves with sober judgment is essential lest we start to think we are becoming better than those around us because of our “self improvement”

4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,

5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

The call to self evaluate is important here because we are essentially in this together. Those we offend are all members of the same body. So it would be as if the arm has offended the foot. If that were to happen, the body is in confusion and is not efficient.

1 Corinthians 11

26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

Without that self examination, you might not notice that you are unworthy of eating and drinking.

29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

It seems from the last couple of passages that we must always be in examination of everything we do so that we are conscious of when we are not living with the heart we should.

31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.

Amplified Version: 31 For if we searchingly examined ourselves [detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition], we should not be judged and penalty decreed [by the divine judgment].

God calls us to recommit always. Why?

Week 8
12 Christian Steps of Sinners Anonymous & Biblical References

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23, 24)

Settling our differences has a twofold purpose. On one hand it creates an acknowledgment on our behalf of where we have come short of our real goal. It is a public admission of something we have done wrong. Secondly and maybe more importantly it is done so as to remove any malice we have caused in another persons life. By provoking them and doing them wrong, we have create a sin in someone elses life. Much like Tim talks about those girls at the farm show wearing next to nothing, they hold a certain level of responsibility for tempting someone as does the person allowing themselves to be tempted. This also alludes to the thought that our gift to God is worthless until we have reconciled those transgressions. God does not want our gifts if they are given while we still bear burdens of the flesh. If you are beholden to another person because of the wrongs you have done specifically to them, God may not have your full attention.
Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
He is also acknowledging that in harming them, you have harmed him since they are his creation. While not the same as the golden rule, it carries a more serious connotation. If we mistreat people it is as if we are mistreating Christ.
Matthew 25:45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”
I don’t think I am going out on a limb here to say that while Jesus is talking about the hungry, homeless and sick, this train of thought applies very heavily to our seeking forgiveness from others. If we are not seeking their forgiveness in our transgressions we are not seeking his forgiveness truly. Are we trying to mask our shortcomings by offering gifts.

Galatians 5:26 “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
We also have to be careful that when we are prepared to make amends, we may not necessarily be required to do so. There are circumstances and times in life when it would do far more harm to bring up the sins of the past for the injured party. They may have already forgiven you for the transgression and revisiting it only opens up the wound fresh.

Week 7

12 Christian Steps of Sinners Anonymous & Biblical References

Why do we have to ask?

In sales the number one thing you always have to do, no matter how good or bad the sales pitch was, is ask for the sale.  Close, close, close. 

The same principle applies for forgiveness.  We will never get forgiveness if we don’t ask for it.

In asking we acknowledge that we did something wrong.

Have you ever asked for forgiveness for something you didn’t believe you should have to?  Disingenuous much?  If we genuinely ask for forgiveness we will receive.

Many rallies and youth events rely upon emotional responses to get faces up to the front.  While emotion plays a role in forgiveness and salvation, it can’t be a completely emotional decision.  We have to have some thought and logic behind it.  After much introspection and as a result of the last six steps, we have reached the culmination.  Ask and ye shall receive.

James 4:7-10

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

You must first submit to God. If you don’t submit you can’t resist.
You need God’s help to win the  battle so you must submit to His power and authority.

As children we were asked to make up our beds and clean our rooms.  We bemoaned our plight until we began to clearly understand why we were doing it.  That constant reconciliation with the motivation behind our actions is no different than our submission to God.  In the beginning we do as he says because he says so.  As we progress in our walk with Christ we start to understand the reasoning for why we have to do those things.  His will becomes more apparent to us and we no longer bemoan having to leave that part of us behind. 

Then you resist. Fighting temptation takes work and effort and accountability.
Our temptations start with our own desires.  If we didn’t want to it wouldn’t tempt us.
The Devil must flee. He might come back with the same arrows, stronger ones, or new ones.

8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

How to draw near:

The effort here is immense.  It is the same as trying to draw closer to any of our earthly relationships.
We have to want to connect with God.  Truly an earnestly. If you are not earnest in your want to draw near, you never will draw near.   Relieve ourselves of anything that might come between us and God. Understand yourself.  Sin creates a separation from God that until reconciled will continue to prohibit us from drawing close.

How are we double-minded? 

I think of a person with dissociative personality disorder.  They can have two warring personalities in their mind.  Much similar to the plight of Christians.  We have the justified version of our self having to war with the Sinful part of our self.  Until we recognize the dichotomy that exists within our own self, we cannot take action to fix it.

9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

We have to properly grieve something for it to be truly dead to us.  Not mourning something will allow it to exist in our minds and hearts for an extended period of time.  In the name of submission we should be able to acknowledge our shortcomings and failures in Christ.  As such truly we should be saddened by our sickness.  Being humble is not the same as shame.  Humble is in admission, shame is in hiding.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
All of this work on ourselves results in a feeling of immense failure.  Until he lifts us up.  Then we can and will experience a Joy.   As we see in the story of the Tax collector at the temple, with his admission of his guilt publicly he exhalted the grace God has shown him.  He showed that he is not comparing himself to others, rather he is looking inwardly at his shortcomings and is to be exhalted.