something to think about
I was taken aback by this passage from one of the featured sermons at Desiring God.
...There is a difference between feeling miserable because sin has made our life miserable and feeling broken because our sin has offended the holiness of God and brought reproach on His name... The issue is not admitting that we have made our life miserable. The issue is admitting that there is something much worse than our misery, namely the offended holiness and glory of God.
We all know how unbearable the agonizing emptiness of pursuing the idols of the heart is. Sinning is trying to fit the square of the world's pleasures into the immeasurably round hole in our soul.
And when we ram it in too hard, the jagged edges rip our own flesh into bloody chunks. Then we just break down to our knees and bawl like babies because our self-inflicted wounds hurt like hell.
But John Piper challenges us to further examine this heart-issue ourselves; shouldn't we feel far greater remorse for turning away from the perfectly fit Circle who offers all of Himself for our delight and satisfaction, for rejecting and insulting the sovereign and perfect God who loves us?
Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:12-13
2 comments:
We all know how unbearable the agonizing emptiness of pursuing the idols of the heart is. Sinning is trying to fit the square of the world's pleasures into the immeasurably round hole in our soul.
And when we ram it in too hard, the jagged edges rip our own flesh into bloody chunks. Then we just break down to our knees and bawl like babies because our self-inflicted wounds hurt like hell.
AGH, JEF! WHERE DO YOU GET THOSE WORDS? again, you have blessed me with your writing. and my heart aches with the realization that indeed i have undervalued God's holiness and grace. and i am thankful that His lovingkindness goes beyond my own unfaithfulness.
i was meditating on Romans 7 just a few days ago. i think it still is one of the best expositions on man's struggle with sin.
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24–25 KJV).
Thanks, Kuya Butch. :-) Those paragraphs are the product of much painful post-sin meditation. But oh, thank God for His abundant grace and mercy!
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