It seems to me that the greatest paradox we struggle with in this life is this. We who claim loving God can at the same time also love our sins. Whether we are instructed to die to self, or to love what God loves and hate what God hates, our struggles continue. Spirit over flesh! Self sacrifice! Every word of God spoken or written seems to address and highlight this issue! We are asked to forsake ourselves even unto death if necessary. Foregoing the familiar and stepping out in faith into unknown and unfamiliar spiritual realms. Quite a foreboding endeavor indeed. This certainly goes beyond the choosing of right over wrong, or good over evil. This can not simply be characterized as a wise choice. But rather a committed heart to the accomplishing of this task, even with the knowledge that failures shall accompany each of us. Again this endeavor reaches far beyond any religious teaching or expectation! Though there is likeness and similarities in our struggles, this speaks of a unique and personal challenge. There are no molds, no cookie cutter Christians as it were! No list great enough or specific enough to accommodate God's purpose for each of our lives. The Holy Spirit who is the heart of Heaven and God, and He alone can oversee the daily workings of this justification. The justification the Lord needs to give us His heart and allow into Heaven. Seemingly this ever present paradox must be finally broken, resolved and be addressed in such a way as to release us from this our greatest battle! As such my prayer has often been to thank the Lord for His saving us unto Himself, as well continuing to save us from ourselves! TR As long as we have this fleshly body we all are going to sin until we get our glorified one. Out of all the Bible Characters ... the one I admire the most is Jacob’s son Joseph. He seemed to always have the right attitude through all the horrific unfair trials he had to endure from his jealous evil siblings. And yet he still lived a life pleasing to the Lord and forgave his brothers. I wonder if he will be allowed to wear that coat of many colors up in heaven? Or how about Isaac who was of a good age and fully grown. He could have easily overpowered Abraham or ran away. Instead, he submitted to the process of self sacrifice and can be considered a wonderful example. As like any martyr! TR True, I have to admit that was admirable. But the thing that disturbed me about Isaac was he favored Esau just because he loved deer meat and Rebecca favored Jacob. The Lord gave the prophecy that 2 nations are in Rebecca’s womb and the elder will serve the younger. So was Isaac trying to upstage and prevent that from happening? There seem to be some manipulating games going on in his household so that is why I over looked him as a hero. If you can keep a secret, I'd appreciate it. Men of old were just as human and broken as we are! I'm not naming any names, but I have that on the best authority! TR One thing about this great paradox is that we are constantly reminded that Heaven is totally unattainable by us on our own. The daily battle against personal sin is a constant reminded that without Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are doomed! There is no escape from our flesh while we live in it and no matter how righteous we pretend to be we will never come close to the standard. But we serve a loving God who knows our weakness better than we do and has made provision for us through His sacrifice. Truly ALL praise belongs to Jesus! This then makes the gift of salvation all the much sweeter. TR Again, how ironic that Heaven shall be filled with only sinners and Hell with many good people! This certainly speaks of the discerning love of God. Heaven cannot be given to people who don't love Jesus! And Hell cannot contain those who do love Him! TR
