Call it Christmas

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On Mon, 16 Sep 1996 11:54:17 -0400, you wrote:

> If you believe 
>something is (or even might be) wrong and do it anyway, you 
>are in direct defiance of God, whether the act was in fact a 
>sin or not.

This is an excellent point. This might be considered everyone dealing
differently with God, for God never changes but people do. :)
 
>In this way, God does deal with us differently.  

> So while certain things 
>are sins, other things may be a sin for one person and not
>for another.  It is not necessarily the act, but the defiance
>of God.  

You have highlighted perhaps the single most important aspect of
justification: the willing heart. This heart is saved by the gospel.

>Now I don't mean to say that if a person thought it
>was ok to, say, commit murder and then went ahead and did it
>that this would not be a sin for them.  Clearly certain things
>are sins in an absolute sense.  But acts which are not sinful
>can become sins if done with a certain attitude.

I appreciate your illumination on the rebellious nature of sin. It was
certainly present in the prototypical situation of Eden. To seek
confidence in the strength of some authority other than that which God
has revealed, even if unexpressable in terms of written or spoken
language is indeed sin, in that it rejects the covering of God and
makes us naked, in the biblical sense.

> Different people have different weaknesses.  God
>must then deal with each of us in a slightly different 
>or tailored way.

Great example, and great conclusion.

God's mercy is able to comprehend each and every possible situation or
sin. We must never doubt that God's ministry to us by the word and by
the Holy Ghost is *personal*.

-mwb