Bavo mate, bravo!!!

I read it and I went through it all step by step in my own head, remembering all those times. I still wonder why God let you learn to love and be loved and still has not given me the chance, but I’m sure He is in control. What startles me most, and we’ve discssed this, is how much of what you went through and go through still parallels what I have gone through and go through still.

Our experiences are often shared and yet still vastly different. For you, you met a girl and then found the distrust. For me, I met a girl tried to chase her was rejected and that was it for me. The specifics of things are very different, and more so lately, but I am so glad to know you and have you as a mate because, among other things, we have followed very similar paths in many ways, and have been there for eachother through most of it.

You have inspired me to really ponder the steps of my testimony too. Perhaps one of these days I’ll be able to write something on my blog to show the parallels we share.

I also want to say how much your post made me think of Ian and Vino. I miss them both terribly. Like I missed you when you were off learning how to love and be loved. I know neither of us put in enough effort then, but I’m glad we’re in the mates business for life.

It takes courage to express all you have said here mate. Thanks for being corageous enough to tell the world. God bless you and peace be with you. Amen.

a story beautifully told. really nice stuff, well expressed. i feel privileged to have had an opportunity to meet you and share in your life to some small extent. the event that brought us together was a real knock-around but things have been improving for you since and it’s a joy to see that.

you’re a wonderful guy and a great living testimony for God not just because of your steadfast faith but because of your reality as a person. your empathy and openness and ‘real’-ness in the time following luke’s death was an enormous blessing to me, your friendship and love were a great help in getting me through, and your commitment to following God helped me to maintain that mindset at least to some extent through what probably could have been the easiest time for me to turn away from it all completely. see, even when you were at what you may perceive as one of your lowest points you were still ministering to me by looking at me like you understood, by holding me, by letting me call you late at night, by talking things through with me, by standing by me and by encouraging me to keep going to church, encouraging me to think about God in that situation, encouraging me to get through it and not forget that the important things in life stay the same yesterday, today and forever. if it weren’t for the lovely, Godly influence of you and dan and the durkins and the herdens and the rest of the boys etc, the way i muddled my way through that situation may have been quite different.

and, one of the most important church-related lessons i’ve ever learned i learned with you, my friend, by my side after a long night at michelle’s place on the sunshine coast. don’t drink before church.

it’s been great to be your friend and to see your life develop since i met you. the joy i’ve seen in you since you met melly is wonderful to behold, and your certainty about your commitment gives me hope that the rest of us might one day find something we’re that sure about too.

thanks for sharing your story with us all here, and thanks for letting me be a part of it, no matter how small.

hugs
ez

A powerful testimony Josh!

I really enjoyed reading it, because it gave me more of an insight into you. I’m working on something similar

Josh, you mention your site is about a sinner… you. Just a thought on that…
If I were to call myself a runner I’d be misleading you. Although I run sometimes I certainly don’t make a habit of it (in fact I’d be quite happy never to run again), and therefore would be misleading anyone to label myself so. I’d see “sinner” in a very similar light. You once were a sinner, but now your focus has been changed. Although its something you still do occasionally (as do we all), its not the core of who you are anymore and not something you try to make a habit of. Perhaps a more fitting name would be exsinner?…

exsinner! i love it!!

i don’t know, for me at least no matter where my focus is i still suck at not sinning… it’s hard to make a call on what the core really is…

Dan L: I see your point mate, and to an extent I agree. Though I wouldn’t feel right about calling the site exsinner, because I feel it implies that I have stopped sinning, in the same way that an ex-husband has stopped being, in any way, a husband. It’s what he used to be, not what he is anymore. Now, fleeing from sin IS what I try to do, and at times to God’s glory I do aright. Sooner or later though I stumble, it’s a fact of life.

Personally I feel that the label “sinner” is less about focus and more about nature. My nature tends towards sin, therefore I’m a sinner. The apostle Paul talks about this very thing in Romans 7. I don’t mean to imply that I focus on being sinful though. A better way of saying this is:

I sin, therefore I’m a sinner.

I don’t think that the frequency of sinfulness changes anything about what we are, for if we stopped being sinners, we stop needing a saviour.

To interject on Erica’s uncertainty on the true core of humanity, I’d sooner say that we are sinners capable of doing good, than good people capable of doing sin. But then maybe that’s a matter of perspective.

In any case, by using the label “sinner” in my domain and banner, what I’m trying to do is contrast what I am not (i.e. righteous), to what God has done for me out of His grace (righteousness), making me appear righteous through the spiritual sunglasses that are his son Jesus. Like my spiel goes, “The Journey of a sinner, saved by grace.” I guess the last thing I want is for someone to think I am fooling myself in my beliefs, or that I believe I am better than someone else who does not believe. I want them to see the only difference between us is that I am saved and they are not. In the end I basically want to be honest, and honestly, I sin.

In regards to your argument, Have a think about this: Using the same analogy, you say that you can run, but your don’t always run, therefore you’d be misleading anyone to call yourself a runner. But even a runner doesn’t run all the time. In like manner, I sin, yet I don’t sin all the time, but I’m still a sinner. I know this makes sense to you, so I wont labour the point.

I guess what I was thinking about when I started this website was that there are so many websites out there that are run by believers, where you’d think that the person running the site didn’t seem to remember that they haven’t yet finished their process of sanctification. In short, arrogant, know it all, selfrighteous brats. Sanctification (purification) is a life long, ongoing process, one that isn’t even perfected until we go home to our Lord. Yet so many believers seem to totally miss this point. I wanted to show everyone who arrives here that I have no misgivings about what, when it all boils down, I really am in the sight of God… without his sunglasses.

I think maybe the Church would be better off remembering this humbling fact more often. I find personally that ever time I seem my domain, I am reminded of God’s tremendous grace in looking on me just as if (justification) I had never sinned.

Touche Josh, touche. I wholeheartedly agree with what you have said, and I stand in awe of how well you have said it. Very clear and wonderfully written. Something I needed to hear again too. Thanks mate.

mmm – point taken. I still see it from a different persective – but how boring would this world be with only one perspective afterall! I’d say that we not only “appear as rightous” to God because of Jesus, but rather we a made righteous – as righteous as Christ himself, through the cleansing and forgiveness he gives to us. Indeed maturity and even cleaning is a continual process throughout the rest of our lives, cause we always stuff up and stain again what God had just made white. There’s some really cool scripture about all of this if you’re interested to know where I’m coming from but I can’t remember the reference of hand – I’ll find it if ya like…

I can see both sides of the argument here, and I think (although I may be wrong) that the major difference between your perspectives hangs on your personal definitions of the wrods used. You see, what Josh is saying is quite right, for according to what I know, we are “passed over” by death simply because we have the blood of the unblemished passover lamb painted on the doors of our heart. All the analogies about stains and whitened souls serve to describe the process in a way we can relate to, but we should be careful to hold God to such a rigid perspective. In truth, none of us really knows exactly how God sees us, and all we have to work with is words told in a manner that we can comprehend. Anyway, it’s interesting o see your comments. I should like to know the reference you spoke of Dan L, just for the sake of learning more.

References coming up…
For the sake of time and not writing a huge posting, I’ll only give the references but I implore that you look them up, and where necessary research them further using commentaries if need be to help understand them properly. These scriptures are absolute gems and if taken on board can help rewrite the way our mind views people, God and life in general.

1 John 3:7-9
2 Cor 5:17,21

Those 2 scriptures explain the reason for my perspective (along with many others I haven’t included). Two other references below simply remind us that God speaks of us as righteous.

Matt 25:46
Prov 12:10

Happy reading!

Thanks Dan, I’ll look those up. I don’t deny the fact that God speaks of us as righteous, but I just don’t think we are inherently so. There is the good old verse that Jesus himself spoke: “Why do you call me good? Only God is good! [Do you know what you're calling me?] For it is written, none are righteous except the Lord.” You see, I reckon we are made righteous through Christ who makes us live again. Anyway, I’ll check out your references. THanks again.

I agree whole-heartedly. We are only made righteous through Christ. The point I’m making is that this “righeousness” isn’t just a sheath or image that is assigned to us or put over us. It is what we a made to be. I’ll be keen to hear any more comments after you’ve read those first two scriptures I mentioned above…

Hi guys,

You don’t know me (obviously) – but I know Tom who is a friend of my brother Kim… so there’s the link for you.

Anyways, thanks for your testimony Josh. Encouraging to see others who moved into the light.

Just to throw my thoughts into the mix, I think Dan L’s comments about 1 John are interesting in the light of the rest of the book of 1 John. ‘Walking in the light’ – which the book basically begins with – is symbolic of living in honesty before God about who we are – sinners -and who God is – holy and pure.

Walking in the light is not us being righteous by ourselves. We need Jesus for that. John counters the claims of others in 1:6-10 where he makes very clear that we are sinners still. Thank God that we have our advocate who purifies and keeps on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

I too stand with you Josh as a beggar who has found the feast of eternal life – but remains a beggar in this life – bereft of any internal goodness.

I think what it all comes down to is definition and interpretation of the scripture. I know full well as I’ve already said that it’s only through Jesus that we are made righteous – not of our own accord. Almost the entire book of 1 John speaks about this one theme. The finer details of whether the core of our hearts (who we actually are at the center of our being) has truely been changed may have to remain a difference of opinion. That’s cool though In the end, we all still follow the same God who by his grace allows us to enter into his kingdom despite our short-comings!