Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 40
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life
Ministries International
Littleton, Colorado
Notice: this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the
Wilderness. Why a blog? So that many can receive the weekly
thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner.
Trying
to explain, rationalize, excuse away, or biblically posture the fact that
Christians do sin is a never-ending work for some folks. Michael addresses what is probably the #1 “reason”
many give as to this dilemma…albeit it is a non-winnable position.
CONTINUED
CONFLICT?
excerpt
from pages 112-114 of SIW (5th printing,
March 1998)
excerpt
from pages 109-111 of SIW (14th printing,
March 2012)
(used with permission from
ALMI):
One of the problems
associated with unbelief is its tendency to protect God. …God has spoken…we have not been able to
experience it…we cannot admit the fault lies within us…neither can we let the
blame lie with God…we whitewash what God has spoken and give it an alternate
meaning…protecting God and…freeing ourselves from the accusation that we might
be failing…
…we still sometimes
find ourselves in the same sins, behaviors, and feelings that we had before we
were crucified with Christ and born again.
Why?
Some have suggested…the
Adam-life or old nature never really died…the Christian possesses two natures
that battle against each other.
…the concept of
having two opposing forces or natures dwelling within us is, besides being
contradictory to Scripture, hardly novel.
We find that notion in most world religions, many of which predate
Christianity, and most notable of which is Taoism, which has a similar teaching
concerning the yin and yang…
…Christianity does
not originate in the tree from which all other religions do; it springs from
the other tree that was in the Garden, the tree of life, rooted in the person
of the Lord Jesus and based on something much deeper than a mere struggle
between good and evil.
In John 15, Jesus
uses the illustration of the vine and the branch. It is quite clear from nature that once a
branch has been grafted on, its old life is completely replaced by new life
from the vine. There is no warring
between old and new lives. Even though
the branch might remember what it felt like to be cut off and dead, it now
receives a new and different life from only one source.
Michael
shows the incorrectness of trying to explain a Christian sinning due to the old
nature having “never really died.”
Michael’s last paragraph in this portion of the book describes the true
essence of what occurs when our old man was crucified (cut off from our old
life) and we became a new man (receiving the life of Christ). Next time he gives us what it is like to “remember”
(the old mind is still with the new creation).
And therein lies the Scriptural look at what is taking place in the life
of a Christian that is attracted to the old sins, idols, and feelings of the
past.
Note:
if you don’t have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books,
please contact ALMI
(www.abidinglife.com) and get one today!
To access ALL past weekly
blogs, go to Getting
Out of the Wilderness by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com
Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
leemccm@gmail.com
1737 CR
2051 Nacogdoches, Tx 75965 936-559-5696
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