This week has afforded me some time at work for podcast and sermon listening, due to the combination of a fairly empty calm office and compiling 2010 giving reports, which is a long and monotonous project in need of less brain activity than usual. The up side to reducing my mind to dull machine-like operations is that I can actively listen to some audio.
I re-listened to a couple sermons from the 2010 Pastors Conference: John Loftness on "The Advantage of the Small(er) Church" and Kevin DeYoung on "The Prayer of Exasperation." These are excellent, and I'm so glad I got a second listen. You can find them here.
Kevin's message spoke to me powerfully this fall, and once again brought much conviction and encouragement. There is so much I am thankful for about this message, but I'll share one particular. He described being grounded in your sin versus groveling in your sin. Being grounded in a sin is like running full force into a brick wall, realizing it hurts, and doing it over and over again. Groveling in your sin is running full force into a brick wall, then sagging down and wallowing over the fact that you crashed into the wall. While you are moping and whining there, God is calling you to get up and move away in a different direction.
That is a somewhat lame attempt at relaying his illustration, so you will just have to check it out for yourself. But basically, I can identify so much with groveling over my sin. And it is not a humble, mature, or godly thing to do. God's grace offers repentance. The blood of Christ is powerful; is it precious to me? Oh that it would be, ever increasingly precious and sweet to my soul.
photo: Bolzano, Italy 2007
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