Darryl's Blog
How cool is Pernell? (a rhetorical question)
Last week I was working on a sermon about how God doesn't just forgive us, he also changes us. I got to thinking how we don't always feel like we're being changed when I came across this post by Pernell:
I Am No Better Than You...I am likely worse. Please keep that in mind as you read my blog. I am a mess. I am arrogant and stupid. I am selfish and pig-headed. I am confident, and yet a total chicken. I am opinionated and rude. I pretend to know stuff, and speak well "on my feet"... but I know very little, I just have the need to sound smart and together and right. I am lazy and forgetful. I am rarely the person I should be, or the person I really want to be, or the person Jesus created me to be. I am a miserable failure in many ways.
I knew that a lot of people would relate to these words. I know I do. Yet in a way I was taking issue with them, saying that even though we feel this way, God does change us.
So, I thought this would be a good place to start off and talk about this issue. Pernell was cool enough to give me permission to use it even though he didn't know what I would say. Also, it's a little unfair to pick on someone who sounds a lot like Paul did in Romans 7, which opens a whole other topic of discussion...
I got to thinking today: how cool is Pernell to let me do this? He's taught me a lot, and he's involved in some pretty amazing stuff, and he even lets me use and abuse his blog posts. So thanks, Pernell. I take my hat off to you and bow my balding head in thanks.
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Darryl,
If balding heads must bow then I must grovel!!
I identify with Pernell in many of his personal assessments. But none of what he says means that he hasn't or isn't changing. I note the following: a) the quote you provide reflects a disatisfaction with his own faults. That is a big change from the way he and all of us are before we meet Christ. Before Christ we defend our sins, b) to see such things (and others) in oneself is a mega change from our condition before conversion. We are blind to our sins but then the Holy Spirit awakens us to them. Such an assessment is evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit c) such an assessment will lead, in the Chrisitan, to a fight against the sins that mark us. Before Christ we do not fight them, we welcome them.
I hope that the quote goes on to revel in the grace of God. It is the grace of God that teaches us to say no to ungodliness and it is the grace of God that brings us to see where we are ungodly. Paul, in Romans 7 finishes off with "there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ."(The chapter and verse makers really missed the mark here!) This, in answer to the question "who will rescue me from this body of death?" He is thrilled at God's grace while hating his sins.
What a God!!