On sin, here is what I found on Brandi's blog the other day:
(NB: I've abridged it to get to the point more quickly!)
When John Wesley was in college, he wrote a letter to his mom asking the question, “What is sin?” I think he was looking for a catalog of activities. I can imagine somebody listening to this about media, saying something like, “Okay, well, tell me what I’m not allowed to watch. Kind of give me a …”
Mrs. Wesley wrote him back. I think it’s so wise. She said,
Take this rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.Isn't that ever so helpful...??!
On forgiveness, I found out this morning that in the Eskimo language, they have a 24-letter tongue-twister of a word: Issumagijoujungnainermik
(and if you click on the word itself it'll take you to 'Kisses from the Father' , a beautiful blog where Stacey writes about forgiveness too, amongst other things...)
This rather delightful mouthful means litterally this: 'to not be able to think about it any more'...
I love it! It just says it all - doesn't it?
2 comments:
I had just heard that very quote by Mrs. Wesley in a lesson taught by Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org)...
I too thought it was very thought provoking, I also love a statement Ravi made in that same lesson - concerning a parents' influence on their child - like the influence Mrs. Wesley had on her children... "Parents, we have within our homes those who could change nations; let us pour our lives into them."
But the eskimo definition of forgiveness is priceless...
It sounds a little dualistic to me on first reading, setting body off against mind as it were - it's much more Greek philosphy orientated than the hebrew understanding of the human as a whole, rather than seperate parts.
A couple of interesting definitions that I came across recently was that sin can only be known by confession - the idea of increased awareness over our journey with God as he leads us to recognize sin in our life.
Another idea was around anything that breaks/hinders/upsets community/koinia with God, ourselves, others and the world.
And related the idea of the missing the mark, so when an arrow missed the target an archer would say the arrow had sinned. Perhaps we settle for good rather than what is God's better or best?
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