Hypocrisy, Honor and Honesty
Music
Steady On. Thanks, guys, for providing the CDs and t-shirt for the giveaway!
Background acoustic guitar music by Mark Steven Brocke.
Contest
Send me an email or call in an audio comment. Tell me when you listen to the Lifespring podcast. Do you listen while you commute to work or school? While you?re at work? During your exercise time? Tell me when it is you share your time with me.
My email address is steve.lifespring@gmail.com. You can send text emails there or comments in the form of mp3s. If you?d like to phone in your answer, call 206-600-LIFE. Just remember to give me a way to contact you in your phone comment, so that if you win I can get your stuff to you!
I?ll also give you a bonus entry for every friend you introduce to the Lifespring podcast this week. That?s how we grow the audience. You tell your friends. Send your friends an email with a link to lifespringpodcast.com. Have them listen to a show. I?ve got a player on the page there.
Send me a copy of the email you sent your friends. I won?t send them anything. I just need to see that you did it.
For every friend you tell about Lifespring, I?ll give you another entry in the drawing.
You enjoy Lifespring, right? So why wouldn?t your friends?
I?ll draw names at 5 pm, pacific time, May 30, 2005.
Scriptures
Romans 7:17-25 (TMNT)
I can anticipate the response that is coming: ?I know that all God?s commands are spiritual, but I?m not. Isn?t this also your experience?? Yes. I?m full of myself?after all, I?ve spent a long time in sin?s prison. What I don?t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can?t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God?s command is necessary.
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can?t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don?t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can?t do it. I decide to do good, but I don?t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don?t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it?s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God?s commands, but it?s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I?ve tried everything and nothing helps. I?m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn?t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Rev. 3:20 (NIV)
20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.