Compromised Christian

When John Calvin used the term "total depravity," he wasn't trying to say that human beings were totally, completely evil through and through.  

What he was getting at is that whatever we do, good or bad, is "tinged" (a little bit colored, a little bit spoiled) by sin.  This is my personal test:  Did you ever do anything selfless and good?  Are you proud of it?  Well, there ya go.  I like to think of it as being a "blue man" - we look like respectable people, we want to do the right thing, and sometimes we can do good things, but there's always that little bit of blue that won't scrub off, and leaves a smudgy fingerprint on everything we touch.

Pentecost has me thinking about how Jesus is Lord over the whole world and all of life whether you've asked Him to be or not.  It can't be any other way.  Christ is either Lord of all of life or none of it.  "Brothers and sisters, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37b)  "...What kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives."  (2 Peter 3:11b)

In nearly every crisis situation there is some spiritual aspect, where the person or persons involved have tried to do something they thought was a good thing (like getting married, raising children, starting a new job, lending money to a friend or family member, and on and on), without considering what God's will might be for their lives, or what Scripture says about it.  The protests usually begin, "But I thought..." or "Why would God..."  God gets blamed for plenty of things God didn't do...

Week after week, people go back to whatever it was they were trying to do on their own, thinking that spending family time at a sports event is as helpful - or better - than being in church together; children are dropped off at Sunday School while parents go out to breakfast, leaving the church to attempt to accomplish in one hour a week what God tasked parents to do on a daily basis; couples go off to spend a weekend at a swanky hotel hoping that it will save a marriage the same way that praying together and having the support of a church family can; singles rush to nightspots looking for "Mr. or Mrs. Right" on Friday and Saturday nights instead of waiting on God's choice.

Of course, we thank God for grace.  Of course, we will all continue to make mistakes.  Of course, nobody's perfect.  Of course, the blood of Jesus gives us "white fingerprints" instead of blue ones.

"What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to sin and death?" Romans 7:24 

 But how much more likely are we to grow in grace if we quit working so hard to make our own lives turn out the way we've planned, and instead make room for God to work on our behalf while we worship and pray together?  Why not call a "time out" and back off yourself, your kids, your spouse and your employees for awhile?  What would happen if we got your eyes off of ourselves and back onto Jesus?