For Thought and Meditation - Sunday, July 03

[Pine Baron]

Good morning all. A humbling, yet encouraging, message for today. Have a safe and blessed day.

The Concentration of Personal Sin
By Oswald Chambers

Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips… —Isaiah 6:5

When I come into the very presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense, but I suddenly realize and the focus of my attention is directed toward the concentration of sin in a particular area of my life. A person will easily say, “Oh yes, I know I am a sinner,” but when he comes into the presence of God he cannot get away with such a broad and indefinite statement. Our conviction is focused on our specific sin, and we realize, as Isaiah did, what we really are. This is always the sign that a person is in the presence of God. There is never any vague sense of sin, but a focusing on the concentration of sin in some specific, personal area of life. God begins by convicting us of the very thing to which His Spirit has directed our mind’s attention. If we will surrender, submitting to His conviction of that particular sin, He will lead us down to where He can reveal the vast underlying nature of sin. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously aware of His presence.

This experience of our attention being directed to our concentration of personal sin is true in everyone’s life, from the greatest of saints to the worst of sinners. When a person first begins climbing the ladder of experience, he might say, “I don’t know where I’ve gone wrong,” but the Spirit of God will point out some definite and specific thing to him. The effect of Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of the Lord was the directing of his attention to the fact that he was “a man of unclean lips.” “He touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged’ ” (Isaiah 6:7). The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
from The Place of Help, 1005 R

[GhostHawk]

Indeed, in the early days I swore, took his name in vain, had all kinds of foul things come from my lips.

Now I am a LOT more careful and if I slip I immediately turn to the Lord and ask forgiveness.
And yes it happens regularly, but I'm working on it. Old patterns of thought and speech die hard.

Keep working on it, keep asking forgiveness when you do make a mistake.
And if I let slip a "God Damm it" it is immediately followed by a "Lord I did not mean that, I'm sorry"

[square butte]

We are all in good company here. Sometimes I am stunned by my slips, but I turn quickly now . . . For the most part. God Bless

[USMC87]

Amen, the convicting power of God's Holy Spirit displayed in our lives!

[hoodat]

I came BACK to the Lord in my sixties. The "unclean lips" thing is a constant battle, but I am also appalled at some of the other deeply ingrained sinful thought and action patterns which have become habitual over the years. A hardened heart is for real, and it is something that we should warn younger folks about before it happens in their lives. jd