SECRET SINS

I followed with interest the last few years the news Eliot Spitzer created. He gained a reputation as a tough prosecutor who slammed big companies, and later as a politician threatened to steamroll anyone who got in his way.

In his inaugural address as governor of New York last year, Spitzer said: "Every policy, every action and every decision we make in this administration will further two overarching objectives: We must transform our government so that it is as ethical and wise as all of New York, and we must rebuild our economy so that it is ready to compete on the global stage in the next century."

The bold type and italics are added by me. Note the verbs in the last sentence about his objectives: transform and rebuild. Now Mr. Spitzer will be engaged in a quest and struggle to accomplish those twin objectives in his personal life.

As I follow the unfolding facts of his tragic and sordid fall after some of his secret sins were made known, I humbly remember the words of Jesus. “Let him without sin cast the first stone.” The context of Jesus’ words was compassion for a woman accused of adultery. Perhaps she had been caught through a “sting” operation. Where was the male counterpart to the sin???

I wrote a blog entry about the death of Larry Norman on February 25. In my post that day I ended with a reference to some words that Larry wrote on his webpage last December. His words spoke strongly to me then, and his message seems even more urgent to anyone struggling with secret sins after hearing about Eliot Spitzer.

I extract a portion of Larry Norman’s words below in black print. He does not write a theological treatise or sweet devotional. He writes to his fans of Christian rock music to exhort them to live a holy life. I warn you that Larry writes plainly and bluntly.

So let us put away all of these thoughts of the visible and obvious sins, the debatable habits, the social and cultural sins. This is all baby stuff. These sins are easy to kill compared to the hidden, deeply rooted sins that are controlling your will and destroying your joy. And that's all I'm concerned with discussing.

Once you have begun dying the daily death, and this can only be done by asking God where to begin, how can you locate the Inner Door which leads to the Hidden Landscape and Winding Road on the long, Shadowed Journey from Ignorance to Righteousness?

The last series of self-murders are far beyond "the daily death". They are the bloody murders of your soul life, when you take in hand and put away your Favorite Sins. These are the ones that seem so hard to root out, to cut off, and to burn. Are you prepared to take the leap and ask God to help you destroy your most secret sins?

Take a minute and says this out loud, but quietly. "I will never masturbate, ever again. I will never lie or exaggerate, ever again. I will never hold a grudge, ever again. I will totally forgive those who have harmed me or offended me and never hold any judgmental thought about them, ever again. I will only feel love for them."

How do you feel so far? Is this going to be easy for you? Will you have victory over even these few basic secret sins? And make no mistake: "Never masturbate again" would also mean never looking at any salacious graphic material on your computer, and never stopping in the media aisle at the grocery store or a magazine stand, leafing through some magazine while your conscience burns and your guilt weighs heavily upon you. It also means never again letting your eyes dart to a girls bosom or hips or legs, at church, at work, while shopping. It means you will ask God to help you PURIFY THY HEART and CLEANSE THY EYES.

Some of you men are thinking, "well it sounds very idealistic, but it's just not possible. I know I can't really do it, and I doubt if anyone else can either." But you'd be wrong. Because yes, it can be done. You can kill off your favorite sins. You can destroy your secret sins.

"Give It Up"

You can hit it or choke it
It will not cry
The only way to kill it is to give it up

You can stab it or shoot it
It will not die
The only way to kill it is to give it up

And yes. This songs reveals the secret. Give it up.

If someone comes to me and says "I have a terrible problem with this or that. And I have prayed, gone forward for prayer. I've fasted and I've done everything I can think of. But I still have the problem? What can I do?"

Then I will tell them. "There is only one real solution. God will help you in this and you'll be free forever. And this is the singular principle.”

"Never do it again. That's the secret formula for absolute victory. Go and sin no more. Knock it off. Don't do it anymore".

Basically, it is sin that is the ultimate war within ourselves.

As Paul indicated about the battle within his own conscious observation of faith versus flesh, "For the good that I would do, I do not; but the evil which I would not do, that I do." (Romans 5:18-19)

Picture a pyramid, upside down, balancing on the pointed end. Is this the most solid way to balance a pyramid or balance a triangle? No. And yet in matters of Spirit, things often work in the exact opposite construct as we have become familiar with in our material world.

Do you want to be a follower of God? Then plan no grand accomplishment for you are not volunteering to do great things for God. You are submitting so that God might do great things within you.

So at the bottom of the triangle is this admonition: "Root out your secret sins."

And once you have managed to do this then you can move up by increment which eventually leads you to the Solid Foundation. And that is this: "You must die daily unto self and live unto God".

And next is this revelation: "When you have allowed God to help you cut at the roots and die to the self, then you are ready to begin Listening. And at first you will most likely hear nothing. For God shall not speak to you loudly enough to drown out street traffic and television. But as you listen solely for His voice, you will notice that the other voices in your world have begun to be more silent.

And as you begin this new journey you will discover that: "When you hear the Still, Small Voice, you must obey it Without Hesitation."

And next is this: "Be not Conformed to the world but be Transformed by the Renewing of your Mind."

And then begins this: "Let this mind be in you that is in Christ Jesus."

And next you will be instructed: "The double minded man is unstable in all his ways." So stand firm, and unmoved by any force except God.

Now you are some distance away from where you began, the sharp point of the promontory - and your personal life will appear to be closer to the upended base.

But when you allow God to lead you upward you will find that the solid rock you are standing on was all the time balanced on it's foundation and that it was your veiled, sin-sodden mind that perceived the world in a wrong way.

Now forget about this picture of a high promontory above the solid foundation God has helped you stand upon, because this journey really begins with the sound of a door and a faint knocking and then the opening of that door and the revelation of light from Christ Jesus which illuminates your very soul, and all the secret sins growing in the shadows of your crooked heart.

And that is why you must begin any intention for a deeper relationship with God and any liberated walk with Christ by the dying to these dark things first.

What Christians tend to do, is what non-believers also tend to do: they add on layers of righteousness and social propriety, decency and generosity on the outside without first killing that which is within.

If you had spiritual eyes you would see yourselves as whitewashed sepulchers. Filthy rotting things which bring forth death and avoid the life that God has for us yet on the outside seem to be clean and commendable.

This process of self-deception is the same for both "Christians" and for "unbeliever".

We are content to go to church, learn people's first names, give them our winning smile, or join committees, make donations, give our time and energy to some political idea that brings civic pride to us.

And it is SO VERY DIFFICULT to get Christians to give up this comfortable, socially supported, malaise so they can finally enter into the difficult process of daily death.

I've got nothing else to say about this right now. When you are ready to know more and understand what you've just read, God will instruct you personally through His Holy Spirit.

And as long as I am here I will be willing to write more about this sometime in the future.

It is crucial that you Die - so that you might Live.

"For unless a seed is buried in the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit." The revelation of righteous, spiritual life comes only with the thorough destruction of your self and selfishness, through a spiritual death.

If you're still trying to improve yourself or add something to you, it cannot happen. Without your death you will not follow after Him. You will simply try to use the mystery of God for your own self-realization.

There is perhaps no greater deception than this: that being in Christ is a benefit to us. Do you want to partake in the new creation? Leave YOU behind.

Is this not the true message of Christmas? God became flesh and inhabited this world, walking among us. Love and Faith demonstrated Holiness and Healing. Then Jesus, the Christ, lifted himself up as a sacrifice for us, so that through His death might come new life for every man and woman, be it boy and girl, or those about to leave this world for the next. Jesus died so that we might live. He killed sin and the darkness so that we may walk in liberty within the light.

God's Christmas tree was the cross, and the Gifts were those which came out of Christ's crucifixion. Salvation. Sanctification. Confession. Repentance. Restoration. Resurrection.

So Christmas is not about receiving. It is not about food and drink and festivity and caroler in front of the door or gift-giving behind the door. Christmas is about Death. And Resurrection. And Hope. And Faith. And Love.

He who puts himself first shall be last, but he who puts himself last will be first.

To find the beginning of spiritual life you have to start at the beginning of spiritual death.

One person completely yielded to God is the most powerful human force on the face of the earth.

Your strengths shall be your weakness, but your weaknesses shall become your strengths, in Christ. So open your heart to the mysteries of God and watch and pray.

Happy dying my brothers and sisters.