<\/p>\n
They say that you become what you look at, and I think in many ways they’re right. \u00a0For example, if we spend a lot of time watching violent movies or video games we can become desensitized to violence, and some studies suggest that we are much more likely to behave violently. \u00a0If we focus on everything that is bad then we are more likely to see bad everywhere. Likewise, when we focus on looking for the good and the beautiful, we are much more likely to discover it more often. The same is true when we focus on sin.<\/span><\/p>\n There is a story in John 9 (1-39) where Jesus and His friends were walking down the street together and they saw a man who was born blind. \u00a0This prompted Jesus\u2019 friends to ask Him whose fault it was; was it his or his parents sin?<\/span><\/p>\n Jesus replied \u201cYou\u2019re asking the wrong question. You\u2019re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. \u201c(MSG). Jesus encourages His disciples to a beautiful new way to see. \u00a0This perspective takes us from assessing blame to a call to something deeper. \u00a0Jesus takes our focus off of sin and looking to blame and judge someone, and instead He points us to God and what God is doing!<\/span><\/p>\n Many of us today can get stuck like the religious folks of Jesus’ day. \u00a0Our shame, guilt and twisted sense of justice makes us more likely to look for who to blame and to determine who is acceptable to God and who is not. This chronic judging can seem so pious and spiritual (and that’s why I think it appeals to our spiritual pride). \u00a0Is it possible that in being so sinned focused we are missing what the Father is doing all around us? \u00a0Is it possible that in our misguided piety we too miss the Kingdom of God? \u00a0Consider Jesus\u2019 closing remarks in verse 39 as He says:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.\u201d (MSG)<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When we Christians focus on sin we are promoting the Tree of of the Knowledge of Good and Evil not the Life we have in Christ. Perhaps more grievously, we partner in the work of the Satan as the accuser! \u00a0Can we not see that we are not helping anyone (including ourselves) with our ministry of condemnation?<\/span><\/p>\n Yes, sin is serious. \u00a0The plague of sin separates us from God, hurting ourselves and others; it is not to be ignored. But sin and condemnation is not the Good News. \u00a0If the wages of sin is death, why do we focus on sin looking for life? \u00a0Who looks for the living among the dead? Life begets life.<\/span><\/p>\n Conviction of sin is much different through the eyes of love. It’s the gift of conviction of sin that helps us learn what is sinful. \u00a0The gift of conviction however is never condemning or shaming rather it is an invitation to deeper life and authentic freedom. \u00a0Conviction of sin is much more about healing, freedom, seeing, an awakening and a call to be who were are created to be!<\/span><\/p>\n In this light, repentance is as much turning to something (someone) as it is away from something. \u00a0The difference is key. \u00a0Turning to Jesus, to the Kingdom of God is a \u201cget to\u201d. \u00a0When we are sin focused, we are focused on what we have to leave and produces a \u201cshould \/ have to\u201d heavy obligation and often self-righteousness. \u00a0A \u201cget to\u201d is more inspiring, empowering and compelling (it is Good News!!!) than a message of fear, shame and condemnation. \u00a0More importantly, it focus’ us on the source of our reconciliation and healing, the One who loves us with a perfect love; the source of genuine and lasting transformation. It rescues our faith from merely another form of moralism, and into the expanse of freedom and joy of relationship with the Lover of our souls. \u00a0Where the plague of sin separates us from God, Jesus is the cure that reconciles us to God. When we keep our focus on Jesus, the fruit is a growing experience of relationship with God and transformation. \u00a0As we do so, our capacity to sin is progressively diminished and our capacity to genuinely experience and express the love of God is exponentially increased!<\/span><\/p>\n “It seems the more I think about not sinning, the more I sin, but the more I think about just loving Jesus, the less I seem to sin. Falling in love seems to be the key.” ~ John Wimber<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They say that you become what you look at, and I think in many ways they’re right. \u00a0For example, if we spend a lot of time watching violent movies or video games we can become desensitized to violence, and some studies suggest that we are much more likely to behave violently. \u00a0If we focus…","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[58,71,99,152,196,260,553],"class_list":["post-9772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soul-significance","tag-authentic-living","tag-big-picture","tag-christian-formation","tag-discipleship","tag-forgiveness","tag-hope","tag-wholeness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}