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- Apr 25, 2006
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Forward thinking
'No ... I have not achieved it, but I focus on this ... forgetting the past and looking forward' Philippians 3:13
Flip through any Christian biography or sit at the back of a big, bouncy Christian festival and before long you can feel a little bit of a spiritual featherweight.
On stage there's this blue-eyed, Colgate-teeth smiling, haloed evangelist who has raised orphans from the dead, cured lepers and tweaked the nose of Satan (all before his first mouthful of Weetabix in the morning), and crouching at the back is little old you (who'd be doing somersaults if you could make it all the way to your Weetabix without sinning for one morning).
Scenarios like this do nothing better than remind us how weedy we are and how everybody else seems to have this God-thang thing sorted. Not true. Every wild-eyed evangelist, every holy heavyweight has had and still has struggles in some shape or form.
It's part and parcel of the Christian walk. The trick is to not let it hold you back. Paul, the daddy of missionary, admits his faults but he won't let it hold him back: 'I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing on ... forgetting the past and looking forwards'.
James 3:2 says, 'we all make many mistakes'. The way to forge forward, though, is to own up your mess to God, get forgiven, forgive yourself, forgive others, forget it and then move on. God said, 'I ... am He who blots away your sins ... and will never think of them again' (Is. 43:25). Forget your mistakes (God has) and know grace instead.
written by Bob Gass
'No ... I have not achieved it, but I focus on this ... forgetting the past and looking forward' Philippians 3:13
Flip through any Christian biography or sit at the back of a big, bouncy Christian festival and before long you can feel a little bit of a spiritual featherweight.
On stage there's this blue-eyed, Colgate-teeth smiling, haloed evangelist who has raised orphans from the dead, cured lepers and tweaked the nose of Satan (all before his first mouthful of Weetabix in the morning), and crouching at the back is little old you (who'd be doing somersaults if you could make it all the way to your Weetabix without sinning for one morning).
Scenarios like this do nothing better than remind us how weedy we are and how everybody else seems to have this God-thang thing sorted. Not true. Every wild-eyed evangelist, every holy heavyweight has had and still has struggles in some shape or form.
It's part and parcel of the Christian walk. The trick is to not let it hold you back. Paul, the daddy of missionary, admits his faults but he won't let it hold him back: 'I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing on ... forgetting the past and looking forwards'.
James 3:2 says, 'we all make many mistakes'. The way to forge forward, though, is to own up your mess to God, get forgiven, forgive yourself, forgive others, forget it and then move on. God said, 'I ... am He who blots away your sins ... and will never think of them again' (Is. 43:25). Forget your mistakes (God has) and know grace instead.
written by Bob Gass
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