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12 Proofs Your Sin Nature Won’t Be Eradicated

December 21, 2020 by EnnisP 4 Comments

Christians May Not Always Agree
But Scripture Doesn’t Contradict Scripture

In my last post, I stressed the fact that we are all sinners and sinners sin. It’s what we do.

I’m not saying it’s beneficial to sin or suggesting we should enjoy it. I’m not saying you should want to sin or prefer to sin.

I’m saying we all have a sinful nature and that makes us sinners. Even before you commit your first act of sin you are a sinner.

According to James, who made the point rather bluntly, even temptation is an indication we are sinners.

Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire. (James 1:14)

And I can hear you asking “What about Eve?” She was tempted. Was she also a sinner before she ate the forbidden fruit?

It’s a good question. Eve didn’t start with a sinful nature. She was innocent, untainted but she was still tempted. Why is temptation proof we have a sinful nature but not for her? Another good question.

Don’t get too confuzzled by that. Jesus was also tempted but He didn’t have a sinful nature. There’s a way to understand the difference.

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Her temptation came from outside influence. The same is true for Jesus. Fortunately, Jesus not only didn’t give in, He couldn’t. He’s eternally perfect.

Sin Can Be Formative

Eve wasn’t perfect. Her character, like all humans, was in the developing process. We all start at zero character – neither good nor bad.

It’s a fact, though, that mistakes and sin are a part of the shaping process. Aside from the fact that Eve was corrupted the moment she caved, and we’ve all inherited the corruption, a more important reality is she gained a great deal of wisdom and insight from the experience.

Once bitten, twice shy. Sins don’t define you. Failure and mistakes don’t define you. How you respond to these things does.

Honesty about your sin nature is also important. Now, temptation starts on the inside and works its way out. We are therefore tainted before we commit the first sinful deed which is kind of what James was saying.

Jesus made the same point: the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45).

What that means is there will never be a time this side of heaven when Christians, though saved from the penalty of sin, will be entirely free of sin. Your sin nature will dog you all your days.

We shouldn’t take delight in that but we shouldn’t hide from it either. [Read more…] about 12 Proofs Your Sin Nature Won’t Be Eradicated

6 Observations From Jesus Healing A Leper

November 14, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

God Sees The Less Privileged Differently
And Honors Them With Accountability

Jesus is often referred to as a personal Savior but you have to break that down to understand what it really means. Saying He is a Savior is one thing. Calling Him personal is another.

The Savior part isn’t that difficult to understand. He died for our sins, all of our sins, a price we could never pay ourselves. That sacrifice makes salvation from eternal condemnation possible.

But what about the Personal part?

We could say “Personal” means He’s interested. His sacrifice was motivated by concern for us. The Bible clearly says that His death was an expression of love (Romans 5:8). What that means is He really cares about the individuals He saves. He not only saves them, but He also wants them to be saved.

He’s disappointed when they don’t get saved and elated when they do.

He’s spiritually and emotionally involved.

That’s personal.

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The caring part shouldn’t be assumed. There are many people whose work involves saving people from calamities: lifeguards, Firemen, EMTs, police, and more. Lifeguards are required to be strong swimmers. Caring about the people they save from drowning is an added benefit but isn’t required.

Jesus did, however, care. He was emotionally involved and His caring is evident as the following story indicates.

12 Reasons Belief Beats Politics

October 10, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Belief Is Easily Possible And Results In Endless Benefits

I’ve been a Christian for decades – more than I care to share – and I’ve spent a lot of time in church services, Bible studies, and general conversations with other Christians. The topics were always related to God, the Bible, theology, Christian living, and the like.

More recently, politics has dominated those conversations and it’s changed the perspective a lot. Now, favored political candidates are as popular as Moses and David. The opposition, of course, is worse than Pharaoh.

Participating in the electoral process is right up there with daily devotions. If you don’t vote you’re backslidden. Even worse, if you vote for the wrong candidate you’ve spurned the will of God. Blasphemous!

When the candidate of choice wins office, it’s the emotional equivalent of crossing the Red Sea!

That line of thinking is problematic. You can’t synthesize government and religion. The purpose of one is totally different to the purpose of the other. The two will never fully mesh.

The church is commissioned to evangelize the world. The government is commissioned to manage it. Neither is commissioned to make it absolutely right. They act separately and for different reasons.

We obey the church not because we have to but because it is supposed to represent the voice of wisdom and reason. Or, that’s the hope. There’s no guarantee. Several churches and church leaders (all denominations) have gone off the deep end (adultery, pedophilia, embezzlement, etc.).

Those that don’t go quite that far can still border on the moronic and we should be careful enough not to follow.

Belief Exercises Reason

No names mentioned but several years ago I came across an individual who was instructed by one of his church’s elders (the prophet) that God wanted him to marry a certain person. The church’s teaching was that elders speak directly from God so he complied.

He married the young lass and after several years of intentional effort, the relationship never gelled. It was then they realized that God had nothing to do with it.

I wasn’t involved in counseling that particular situation.

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All of that is to say that obedience should be taken with a grain of salt. Instead of obeying one person or one tradition, we should learn how to ascertain collective wisdom. Speak to many people and gain a broad understanding of the issues.

There is an art or skill to learning how to do that and the discussion could be quite long but there is no space for it in this post.

From a parenting perspective, however, instead of teaching your kids to do what you say, teach them to think about the “whats” and “whys” of their choices before imposing commands. They’ll be better served in the future.

But you’ll need to be ready for the unexpected. They may choose something different to what you planned and you need to be big enough to live with that.

Back to my line of thought. [Read more…] about 12 Reasons Belief Beats Politics

Trump’s Town Hall More Of The Same

September 17, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Not Sure Anyone Was Convinced

Did you miss Trump’s Town Hall, the one sponsored by ABC? If so, not to worry. You didn’t miss a thing.

You know how some actors don’t act but simply perform, and the performance never varies. What they are in one production, they are in another. Well, that’s what we got in Trump’s Town Hall last night.

The difference is with actors, you know it’s not real so there’s entertainment value. With the President, it worries.

Accept in this case, his performance was reassuring. If his intention was to win a few votes by presenting a different version of Trump, it didn’t work. The performance was too predictable to change voter sentiment.

I admit, there were a few fleeting moments when he seemed to affect a bit of concern, but they didn’t last long. He quickly reverted to his usual mannerisms: dismissal, deflection, condescend, talk past and talk over anyone sharing significant facts.

And there was nothing new. He repeated the same narratives with a few new twists sprinkled, of course, with how great he is and how many people endorse him. If it wasn’t for misinformation and self-flattery he’d have nothing to say at all.

His performance demonstrated no significant change and that’s both good and bad. It’s good because I can’t see how any undecideds were drawn in. It’s bad because if he wins, we can expect the same chaos in the next four years. If anything, we can expect it to get worse. There won’t be another reelection to induce moderation.

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I agree. All politicians lie. And to a point, that is understandable. It’s impossible to answer general questions about policies with full disclosure. It’s like trying to explain why the sun shines to a two-year-old. Some details will be left out, others distorted. You can’t give a short answer to what is a sunspot without expecting an endless number of why’s.

Trump, however, takes lying to an all-new level. He’s bald-faced. There’s no holding back. It’s automatic.

Of course, we know that. It happens so frequently it’s become the norm. Whatever fact reaches public attention is mitigated, not with adjustment, but with a complete rewrite.

I’ll share a few facts but before I do, I need to ask – how is it so many people can trust and defend a man who contorts the truth with such abandon? This is a character issue. Bad character can’t be counted on to make the best decisions at crucial moments. The only thing is in this case, the whole country will pay the price.

We expect five-year-olds to ignore good advice, barge into trouble, and throw tantrums. We expect more from the President.

The Facts

Now for a few Trump sound bites.

Everybody owns stocks.

That was Trump’s response when pressed on why the economic recovery was benefiting mostly wealthy Americans who invest in stocks. His response wasn’t an answer but it was typical Trump. Dismissal. Don’t bother answering the question, just lie, ignore, redirect.

The truth is only about half of all Americans participate directly in the stock market and the ones who invest through retirement funds are woefully underprepared for retirement.

Stock ownership is heavily concentrated.

The complaint, by the way, is not that there are ultra-wealthy people or that those people are getting more wealthy. Personally, I think it’s great that wealth can be amassed!

Party on!

No one disapproves.

May more individuals join the club.

The question is can the President introduce policies that stimulate the economy from the bottom up. It’s easy to feed the top but that approach, long term, is self-defeating. It’s like building up muscles in your right arm while ignoring the left. [Read more…] about Trump’s Town Hall More Of The Same

The Good, Bad, And Ugly In Racial Politics

September 5, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

All Lives, Including Black Ones, Matter To God

George Floyd’s murder caused a fundamental change in the psyche of our nation. It didn’t change the facts surrounding racial issues – yet – but it did change how those issues are viewed by the white public. That is an important first step.

Floyd’s death is only one among many but its galvanizing effect has reverberated around the world.

Even law enforcement is coming around. Although the killing of African Americans in similar situations in the past was often explained away as the police doing their duty to protect the public, an astonishing number of law enforcement leaders have referred to Floyd’s death as “murder.”

However, my focus in this post is not on law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies don’t make the laws, they enforce them and it isn’t strange to believe they take on the attitudes and sentiments of the legislators who authorize their work. So, we need to look at Republicans and Democrats. What is their track record on the matter of race? What have they done or not done relative to racial issues? That is the focus here.

One clarification, though, before I say more.

“Black Lives Matter” (BLM) was catapulted into celebrity following Floyd’s murder but it isn’t a new movement. It got started in 2013 just after the murder of Trayvon Martin. From the beginning, though, they have been the object of ridicule, mischaracterization, and suspicion.

As an example, shortly after recent protests began, I was told on one occasion that BLM, the organization, is communist, and on another that BLM opposes the concept of the nuclear family. That’s just the start. The misrepresentations and insults never end.

If you research the issue you’ll find that BLM is decentralized. It’s chapter-based so you find individual groups spread throughout the States and those groups don’t necessarily connect. There is no single person dominating leadership. The group is concept-driven and the concept is simple: black lives matter.

I’m sure if you look closely you might find a few unsavory individuals involved but isn’t that true of all organizations. The bigger the organization the more likely you are to find individuals harboring off-kilter ideas.

But before you cut me off, and to be quite clear, no, I’m not a communist. In fact, I have no leanings toward any totalitarian forms of government and I’m very much in favor of the nuclear family. From what I can tell, most of the BLM folks are democratically minded salt of the earth types, which means the accusations are more a smokescreen than a concern.

It’s a deflection. It’s an expression of insecurity.

And to be fair, President Trump’s personal life and political manner are arguably the worst of any President to date and it isn’t a matter of debate. Everyone agrees even his staunch supporters and that’s kinda the point. His faults – the ones we know of – are routinely dismissed even his fascistic tendencies, which isn’t communism but it is totalitarian none the less. To quote a member of the Republican Party and an ardent supporter of Trump:

He is egotistical, bombastic, and brash. He often lacks nuance in his statements. Sometimes he blurts out mistaken ideas…that he later must abandon. He insults people. He can be vindictive when people attack him…He has been married three times and claims to have been unfaithful in his marriages. These are certainly flaws, but I don’t think they are disqualifying flaws in this election.

In a word, he’s erratic. Not even Trump knows what he will do next and that should be a concern for all of us. Wars have been started for less.

Make sure you clarify who you’re talking about when you insult BLM because unknowing listeners may think you’re talking about Trump. If you can stand the President’s dirt which glaringly affronts every decent person every moment of every day, then maybe we should give BLM a little slack.

For the sake of clarification, though, when I refer to Black Lives Matter I’m talking about racial issues, not the organization. The organizers – who are relatively few – and their personal philosophies – whatever they are – have nothing to do with the protests. You don’t need to agree or disagree with their personal views to react to the brutal murder of a civilian.

The protests associated with BLM are driven by justice and freedom for all (the ideas we pledge allegiance to in the national anthem). Racial disparities and discrimination are the issues. When I refer to BLM, that’s what I’m talking about.

We must keep the main point the main point: all lives, including black ones, matter. And they are equal.

It’s an unfortunate fact that there are still people who don’t believe that. Racial bias has a long shelf life. It’s been around a long time and it won’t fade easily but the protests are proof that things are changing at least where the white public is concerned.

Minorities, by the way, have understood the problems all along. I’m sure they are happy to see change occurring and this post is focused on the what and why of that change.

Public Sentiment Changes Slowly

With the clarification aside, what is happening right now is quite remarkable because public mindsets don’t move quickly. On most issues, sentiment remains boringly steady but that’s not the case at the moment.

Within two weeks of George Floyd’s murder, public sentiment gained an incredible eleven points and that upswing follows two years of steady upward trends.

Two and a half years ago, January 2018, public support for BLM averaged out at zero. Some were for it and some were against it and the average rating was zero. The movement started in 2013 and it took five years (2018) just to get to a neutral rating. By January 2020 the average moved seventeen points to the plus side. That’s seventeen points in a span of two years.

Then, two weeks following the murder, average public sentiment moved an additional eleven points to twenty-eight!

That’s twenty-eight points over two and a half years and eleven of those points came in just two weeks.

The breakdown in where the support came from shows that everyone except Republicans are seeing the light. The following stats are courtesy of Civiq.com. The NYTimes also has an article on the topic here.

Democrates: +84
Independents: +30
Republicans: -39

Most Democrats get it, a large number of Independents are catching on but Republicans are backpedaling. [Read more…] about The Good, Bad, And Ugly In Racial Politics