Being able to confess and repent to God is huge. It's a big deal.
Being able to suck it up and apologize to another human being, especially a non-believing one, is another deal. It takes humility. It sucks up your pride. It makes you feel small and sad. But I think that it teaches us so much about God and forgiving ourselves and having confidence in the fact that God Himself has forgiven us and loves us, and we will answer to Him, not the other person we harmed, in the end. It reminds us that everything we thought or uttered will be showcased someday. It reminds us that when we bow down at His feet, we will all be sinners. Every one of us. And then the time will come for some of us to go home, and some of us to go to the place that we all deserve for our sin. And Jesus will be the Judge of that.
Quote of the day:"One of the smarter dumb movies I've seen in a while..." A.O. Scott, about the movie I, Robot.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Ah, me. Just finished book three of Lord of the Rings. I'm takin' it nice and slow, finally. It's soooooo good.
So there's this 'event' during the month of August called "Hot August Nights," during which the whole of Reno's casino parking lots are filled with old restored cars. Cool. I hope I get to go at least a few times!
Life is so strange and twisting and winding. I remember Mr. Joe Z one time saying that God's pathways aren't always perfectly straight; no, in fact, as I recall him saying, they are curving and winding and sometimes go backwards and zigzaggy and stuff. He doesn't mean that the way to Heaven is twisty-turny (Matthew 7:13-14), but that God's will for our personal pathways can be. Everything isn't always crystal-clear; everything doesn't always work out how we planned it, and that's why life requires faith. It requires a step out into the unknown, which in itself demonstrates a heart desiring to find out if that first step was a step into the 'right' direction--a direction that God wills. I am finding out more and more that I need to live by the Spirit, not the flesh. There are two desires fighting within me. But sitting around feeling bad about myself because I don't automatically do the right things all the time because I am not perfect inside is not going to change me. Doing what I know is right despite desiring to sin inside will help me change. Of course, it is God's work. But like I said before, this sort of acting oneself into doing the right thing is an act of faith in the belief that I profess, which is that God has made me new and clean and a new creature, a child of God. (1 John 2: 28-3:10; specifically 3:4-10) And that, my friends, is way cool. Let us live by grace. Let grace be, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, the answer to the equation, and not the data for the equation. Something huge that I learned in Mammoth (and keep forgetting) is that I do not always believe that I am a child of God; therefore, no wonder I do not behave as one! But if I believe in what He says I am...a child of God and no longer Adam's flesh...well then, why should I not behave as one!
So there's this 'event' during the month of August called "Hot August Nights," during which the whole of Reno's casino parking lots are filled with old restored cars. Cool. I hope I get to go at least a few times!
Life is so strange and twisting and winding. I remember Mr. Joe Z one time saying that God's pathways aren't always perfectly straight; no, in fact, as I recall him saying, they are curving and winding and sometimes go backwards and zigzaggy and stuff. He doesn't mean that the way to Heaven is twisty-turny (Matthew 7:13-14), but that God's will for our personal pathways can be. Everything isn't always crystal-clear; everything doesn't always work out how we planned it, and that's why life requires faith. It requires a step out into the unknown, which in itself demonstrates a heart desiring to find out if that first step was a step into the 'right' direction--a direction that God wills. I am finding out more and more that I need to live by the Spirit, not the flesh. There are two desires fighting within me. But sitting around feeling bad about myself because I don't automatically do the right things all the time because I am not perfect inside is not going to change me. Doing what I know is right despite desiring to sin inside will help me change. Of course, it is God's work. But like I said before, this sort of acting oneself into doing the right thing is an act of faith in the belief that I profess, which is that God has made me new and clean and a new creature, a child of God. (1 John 2: 28-3:10; specifically 3:4-10) And that, my friends, is way cool. Let us live by grace. Let grace be, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, the answer to the equation, and not the data for the equation. Something huge that I learned in Mammoth (and keep forgetting) is that I do not always believe that I am a child of God; therefore, no wonder I do not behave as one! But if I believe in what He says I am...a child of God and no longer Adam's flesh...well then, why should I not behave as one!
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