Battling Sin

"...the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. Your being dead with Christ virtually, your being quickened with him, will not excuse you from this work."

From Mortification of Sin, by John Owen.


       I used this today as a cattle prod or poke.  I often find puritan quotes to serve as good coffee when we lie with our sin.  When we cuddle up next to it or permit them on our grounds with promises of no harm to us or our families only to find them pouring the shot or priming the hammer.  John Owen here just nails it, don't tolerate them, those lying faces who betray us time and time again.  We cannot make peace or treatise with our poisons.  We must persevere, we must kill it. and in case that didn't kick your butt enough here is video from those guys over at illbehonest.com 

C.S.Lewis " God in the Dock"

I recently came across a quote from CS Lewis from God in the Dock, which I think helps those when dealing with opposition to the Christian worldview, especially coming from obscure places or philosophies.  I can not take credit for this discovery, it was brought to my attention from a podcast I am subscribed to of Greg Koukl's Stand to Reason.  I think however, it makes a good point.

 C.S. Lewis stated in his book, God in the Dock, “You must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. “ (C.S.Lewis)  


      You will find in college or through your encounter with the internet that many young adults are exposed to movies such as "Zeitgeist," that there are many opponents to the Christian religion, claiming among them that even the historical account of our savior Jesus Christ life was stolen from ancient egyptian belief or greek thought, this dates back to the myths of Horus and even Mithra.  And one can spend tons of time researching each claim and debunking them, feeling as though it's our responsibility because they introduced the idea, we must vet these claims on our own.  But here Lewis gives us a clever response.  


   It is not our responsibility to explain away every little coincidence, if there are any, Jesus was a real person, who performed miracles and was resurrected from the dead. These are historical facts and most atheist don't discredit this. So in redneck laymen's terms when someone presents one of these new ideas simply say "so," prove to me He never existed first then we can discuss the similarities.


Again, I am no apologetics savant, just came across this and thought it might be helpful.


Soli Deo Gloria, 


Darren

Beginning thoughts

From time to time I will be opening discussions on real life issues and theological approaches to those issues.  As a father of three with two of them being  teenage step-daughters, I know I don't have all the answers I need to present Christ to them on a daily basis.  I know I fail miserably alot of the time.  It is my hope however, that we can form discussions and threads in which we can share with one another stories and accounts of successes and failures, sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating but always helpful.  Please fell free at anytime to post personal stories and any references to scripture you might feel helpful to further the discussion.  After all, our words are vain and empty at best, but The Word, will never become vain but will work His purpose.

         Welcome, let's let iron sharpen iron!