Tonight at our LT main session, there was interview between friends Chris Mann and Greg Van Nada that I thought was really insightful at points. The full audio is here:
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But I thought I’d just share some of my notes & quotes in case you wanted th shorter version:
- Paul preached the grace of Christ so recklessly that his opponents (Judaizers) accused him of promoting sin so that grace could cover it all ( Galatians 2:15-17, Romans 5:20-6:2). Could people accuse you or your church of the same?
- If I think I’m spiritual, then when I sin, I will blame-shift because I need to defend my pretentious position, but if I embrace my lowliness, only then can I grow.
- I will only look for help if I’m needy.
- Why doesn’t God take the sinful nature away when we become believers? It is crucified, and we have died to it, but it is not dead, it remains. This is a complex dichotomy (Romans 6:6-7 /Galatians 5:17, Romans 8:1-16 / Romans 7:14-25).
- Having your life together isn’t the solution. Adam and Eve had no sin nature, but still desired to “be like God” and committed the worst of evils. Therefore, ridding yourself of your sin nature is not the solution to your problems. The solution is dependence on the Father (which Christ did, though he also had no sin). This is what separated his actions from Adam and Eve’s.
-Perhaps Christlikeness in your life has more to do with depending on the Father than it does with ridding yourself of sinful behavior.
- Perhaps God doesn’t take away our sin nature when we believe because our sin makes our need for dependence on the Father more apparent, which pushes us toward Christlikeness.
- We don’t disrespect failure or mistakes in others, we disrespect hypocrisy. Therefore, apologize and tell the truth at every opportunity. It reflects Christ more than hiding your failures.
- Sin and temptation don’t get easier or diminish as we get older, the shame and insecurity still come, but we can choose to accept God’s grace and love sooner.
- In order to fight temptation better, I don’t need to grow in strength, I need to grow in weakness, so that I can be more surrendered and possess the Spirit’s strength rather than my own, and that is what can conquer temptation.
- If all the pain in your life brought you unprecedented intimacy with Christ, would it be worth it to you?
- Greg: “My weakness has made me a great dad.”
- Greg’s son: ”I’m never going to be perfect, so I don’t want a perfect dad; that would frustrate the hell out of me. I need someone to show me what to do when I make mistakes.”
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