Not having read Malcolm Muggeridge's book Something Beautiful for God, I was ---disturbed by the following excerpt which I read. Allow me to quote/copy it as I read it.
John 5:13-15 (NLT) 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. Lord give me grace, power, and effort to maintain a resilience against sin. Sin is ALWAYS a dark path. It ALWAYS pays wages. The wage of sin is death. Sin will always hurt, always destroy, always wound—you, relationships, stuff, goals, etc. It is a killer. It is a wound-er. It is a consumer of all that is healthy, strong, good, and perfect. Learn to hate sin. Learn to fear sin. Learn to run as fast as you can away from sin. Search deeply for hidden sin. Be disgusted with your sin. Repent, repent, repent daily for your sin. Be afraid of your sin. Be petrified of your sin. Be worried about your sin. And keep repenting, keeping running into the arms of grace and the arm
Dumb Mistakes Why do Christians, pastors, leaders, ushers, —everyday Christians— make real dumb mistakes. Now I am talking about real dumb moral mistakes—lying, cheating, immorality, thievery—-like why? Christine Pohl warns us as follows: “By compartmentalizing aspects of our actions or thoughts, we are able to ignore major inconsistencies and wrongdoing.” Ever heard yourself asking this question: ‘What was he thinking when he did that?’ You think of moral failure or just plain —dumb decisions—and you ask that question! How does that happen? What were they ‘thinking?’ Well, Pohl suggest “he wasn’t thinking he had stopped thinking and reflecting. Instead, the person deliberately excluded a part of his or her life from spiritual and moral scrutiny.” So now a word of help! Do the daily examen! (See. https://pwcusick.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-examen.html ) If there ever was a culture, a time, a season when Christians need to act like Christians —it is now! The ancie
Part # 3 of three Part Blog: Why go to church? What is the ‘church?’ How to find the right congregation? How to find the right congregation? A congregation is what we normally refer to as a church. Here is the distinction I am making. The Church; This is the one described in my previous blog… “what is the church.” It is the timeless eternal body of believers. A Congregation: This is a local gathering of believers who are part of “The Church”. Think of it this way—-three levels: Level # 1- THE CHURCH—the mystical eternal union of all believers. Level # 2- The Church in a town/ city/ area. Because of level # 1, there is realistically only ONE church in a town, city, etc. Level # 3- Congregations: These are various groups of people that meet together for primarily four interactive, communal, things: Word: Preaching, teaching, sharing Sacrament: Celebration of the Lord’s Supper (communion/ eucharist) Worship: Music,
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