Communicating about God in Spite of Ourselves

Readings:
Psalm 10
II Corinthians 13

Focus:
II Corinthians 13:7: "Our prayer to God is that you may do no wrong, not that we should win approval; we want you to do what is right, even if we should seem failures."

Sometimes when I write a blog like this I think that it's kind of presumptuous for me to be writing about God and how to live for him, and how to live the way he wants. I'm keenly aware of how I mess up all the time.

My prayer in writing this blog is to communicate about God in spite of myself. People who know me well know that I'm all too human, and that I am riddled with flaws--just as everyone else is. I don't always succeed at doing the things that I talk about in my blog.

But I do want to be what I talk about--and it's what I want for everyone else, too. And I believe that God's word is strong enough to communicate past me. So that's what this blog is for.

Let Us Cleanse Ourselves

Readings:
Job 41
II Corinthians 6:14-7:1

Focus:
II Corinthians 7:1b: "Let us therefore cleanse ourselves from all that can defile flesh or spirit...."

Many people think that Christianity is all about rules. They think that the main thing about Christianity is that Christians can't do a lot of things. This is not true. Christianity is about a relationship with God who loves us.

However, it is true that it is for our own good not to do many things. There are things that are just plain bad for us, that bring us down. As Paul says earlier in this passage, can light associate with darkness? We are happier and more able to be comfortable in God's presence if we don't do those things that are unbecoming. Let us cleanse ourselves from those things.

Keeping the Law Is Not Sufficient

Readings:
II Chronicles 33
Romans 3:7-20

Focus:
Romans 3:20: "For no human being can be justified in the sight of God by keeping the law: law brings only the consciousness of sin."

Paul is building the case that trying to keep the law is insufficient for salvation, because it is not possible to do it perfectly. By law he means the whole moral and ritual law as found in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament.) Perhaps if one tried very hard, one might succeed in observing the ritual law perfectly, but it is beyond anyone's power to succeed in observing the moral law perfectly.

For example, among the succession of kings that we have been reading about in II Chronicles, some have been terribly bad, and some have been good, but even the good ones have had failings.

And we ourselves may be good people, but we are unable to be perfect. When we really think about it, we are aware of our shortcomings, even little things like irritability. As Romans 3:20 says, law brings the consciousness of sin.

There is no way to be saved if we are trying to do it by being good. We can't do it.

Thanks to God that he has provided Jesus! The book of Romans will tell more about that.