What would make a “law is everything” Pharisee of Pharisees with a credential list longer than a giraffe’s neck to consider such things as rubbish (Philippians 3:1-21)? What could be SO over the top glorious and valuable?

And consider this: That same thing that caused Apostle Paul to give up his legalism also caused Stephen to testify as he did. That same thing cause normal religious, upstanding people in Israel to shout Crucify! What invoked SUCH anger and jealousy in the religious people who just wanted to live a moral life under God’s law?

“[God] brought me to see that the real cause of all my troubles and ills, and that of all men, was an evil and fallen nature which hated God and loved sin. My trouble was not only that I did things that were wrong, but that I myself was wrong at the very center of my being.”

Yes! Please say more… We all would benefit highly from gospel-rooted articles such as this one. The question “What is the gospel?” could generate a year’s worth of exciting, healthy dialogue!

Ah but ubfers don’t have time to talk about such “foolishness”…gotta get “back to the bible” and can’t chat now because we “gotta prepare for our conference”.

Yes unfortunately our non-juicy articles typically get only a handful of comments. Only our juicy articles get a real response :(

“When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.”

Recently Brian discussed his personal mission to preach the gospel to UBF leaders. I’m reminded of the words written by Bonhoeffer in “Life Together” on the importance of community for reminding one another of the truth of Christ. In a season where the truth of Christ is weak in me, it is strong in my brother. In community the Spirit may use my brother in whom Christ’s truth is strong to strengthen me in whom Christ’s truth is weak. (Can anyone link me to that article?) Thus we all have the mission as Christians to preach and receive the gospel to and from one another. As we do so, Christ is built up stronger in our midst. Thanks all of you for being a part of this community with me; may Christ be built up in us through our online community!

I think that sin management comes from the unfortunate idea that we are sinners when we sin (so we need to control it!), not realizing that it is because we are sinners that we sin.

One of the first things I learned from our new pastors (and from the Sermon on the Mount) was that this is a lie: “It kept me busy so that I had no time to sin.”

We are swimming in sin, if we are honest. The idea of sin management is really just a white-washing of the cup.