Discerning a difference.

We girls gathered around my sisters kitchen with the windows open and the sunlight streaming in.  The kids ran in and out, giggling, laughing and just enjoying the day.  The coffee pot and tea kettle were full and the creamy chocolate mousse pie half gone.

We chatted and laughed.  Told stories and debated favorite authors.  Caught up with our sisters and friends.  Eight grown girls and nine munchkins in a 400 square foot house, but being as we all liked each other nobody noticed.

Somewhere between jiggling my niece on my knee to make her laugh and cleaning the kitchen afterwards our friend made a comment that has stuck with me ever since.   I don't even remember the context, but what she said was, "Condemnation is from Satan, but conviction comes from the Holy Spirit."

I wasn't sure about that at first, which is probably why I even remember the comment, but since then my reticular activating system has been tuned to notice a spirit of defeat that Satan has been wielding unchecked in my life.

Conviction tells me that I've done wrong.  Condemnation tells me that I can't do right.

"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus."  Romans 8:1 NLT
Take that, Satan.

I dare you to die

A couple verses have been playing through my head, as stemmed from a conversation with a friend. We were discussing the balance of being in the world, but not of the world. He argued that when the cares of this world interfere with our heavenly mindset, we'd better withdraw ourselves. Which seems like a good idea at surface value, right?

But I kept thinking about it, and these two passages popped up.

"O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."

"What comes out of a man is what makes him "unclean". For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean."

If anything is interfering with my "heavenly mindset," my relationship with Christ, it's not the world. It's me. Every evil thing that comes out of me is already in my heart. The world didn't put it there. If I sequester myself from the world it won't solve anything. I won't be letting my light shine, I won't be fulfilling the law of Christ, and I won't be purified by removing the source of any problems.

So what then? If the sin is inside me, there's nowhere I can go, nowhere I can hide. What can I do about it?

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin... Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

I dare you to die. Once you're dead, don't be afraid to let your light shine.