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Monday, March 09, 2009
Does Satan ever come to you and whisper, "Is God really THAT holy?" or "Is God really THAT intolerant of sin?" or "Did He REALLY demand perfection?" or "God's not looking, a little bite won't hurt anyone." He certainly does to me. Recently, I've noticed a creeping apathy or outright negligence in my life toward certain, as Jerry Bridges might call them in a book I desperately need to read, "respectable sins" (not to mention plenty of sins which aren't "respectable"). I believe that's because I tend to see God as Satan wants me to see Him, instead of as Jesus commands me to view Him (Matt. 5:48).

I need to see God as the utterly Holy, completely Good, everlastingly Pure and Perfect King. I need to know God as first wrathful toward me as a sinner BEFORE I know Him as loving toward me as one under the cleansing of the Lamb. I need to remind myself of the God who in His divine wrath wiped out whole nations and civilizations because of sin. I need my eyelids stuck open with toothpicks until I fathom just how infinitely holy the Father is; until I can honestly cry, like Isaiah, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips [and an even worse heart]... and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Lord, may I see your holiness. May sin make me queasy to my stomach. May even the temptation of a lustful thought or a prideful attitude make me feel like spiritually puking before You! And when I do fail to honor your holiness, may I immediately repent and cling evermore tightly to the Cross, knowing confidently that though I am a great sinner, Christ is an even greater Savior!

2 comments:

D.J. Williams said...

I'm about to finish Respectable Sins, and it's a fantastic read. Highly recommended.

Anonymous said...

I read his "Pursuit of Holiness" last summer for a discipleship group, that book was very good. Currently reading Desiring God and have a full plate of reading already on my agenda, but I look forward to getting Respectable Sins later this year.

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Darius' book montage

The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Overcoming Sin and Temptation
According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
Disciplines of a Godly Man
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Respectable Sins
The Kite Runner
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, ... anabaptist/anglican, metho
Show Them No Mercy
The Lord of the Rings
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
The Chronicles of Narnia
Les Misérables


Darius Teichroew's favorite books »