Sin And Sinners

MON., JUNE 26, 1989, 6:09 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is not a theme upon which I want you to concentrate. It is not of major consequence to anyone who accepts… truly accepts… the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you do. Yet as a Christian you must have some picture, reasonably clear, of sin and sinners. You soon will have, o son.

Sin is any moving away from Me, in thought, word, or deed. The seriousness of the sin is “measured” by the extent of the movement away and by the length of time you remain “away.” And another factor is the intent: if you consciously and deliberately reject Me, in any of My “forms” it is a worse sin than if you just are away without intent. So, sin is being away from My will and way, trusting in your own resources alone or conforming to culture patterns of various kinds, including the scientific and the humanistic.

Some sin is obviously minor… as when you spend time going over a dissertation or in preparing for a class or mowing the grass just as work. For if, in the midst of mowing, your spirit reminded you that this is My world and even My grass, given to you for a time to tend, then the sinful nature of this would disappear. The very act of mowing would be a spiritual blessing, which is the counter to sin.

It is a sin to kill with malicious intent. Yet when you are aware of of My earth and its complex interrelationships, you can kill for the needs of your body and even to maintain comfort and not sin. Your prayer before the killing of a rabbit does make this a sinless act. The killing of a fly with malice can be a sin.

Behavior relating to sex, the sex organs, and to sex acts is considered to be the most sinful in your general culture. Yet the principle I have offered you applies: it is not the act, but how you are thinking about it in relation to Me. An act of intercourse with your wife, which is not considered sinful, can be if you are not approaching this as a special blessing from Me. As Jesus, I observed that the sin is in the mind and in the spirit, not in the act.

It is just more difficult to seek My blessing of some acts. The more this is felt, the more obvious a sin is… to you. You can envision a number of varying acts, sexual and not, upon which you just couldn’t easily ask My blessing… or consider Me as you did it. Hence, this is sin. Obviously, then, sin has an individual quality to it, for different person will vary in what they can do “in My presence.”

For most of the men on the ARIS board, with whom you met this past week, sitting and drinking a glass of homebrew would be a sin. They could not comfortably do this in My presence, as you can. Conversely, some good Christian folk can, in some stressful situation swear, suing My name “in vain.” You cannot do this. For you it is a sin… that others would not consider of any consequence.

So, sin is ever present. But so is the antidote. For it is Me and My influence. I am ever ready to forgive sin. You just need to come to Me and be with Me. You said it yesterday in your charge to the congregation – “go out into the world in peace. Be of good courage… love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.” This is, in fact, an invitation to sinfree living!

Sinners are those who live lives mostly, or completely, away from this power. Even as they do good deeds and are good stewards of their time and resources they are living in sin, from My perspective. Yet I still consider the seriousness of sin and the intent of the sinner. One who is a devout humanist, serving his fellow humans in regular, commendable ways is much less a sinner than one who is mean, selfish, and disdainful of the needs of others.