No explanation needed:
The Perfect Couple
I spent almost all my drive time today on two wheels. Rode the motorcycle into Goodyear for lunch with my daughter, then to Glendale to do some measuring for more vinyl, then to the lab for a blood draw.
I had to make a 4-mile round trip to the hardware store in Stealth Reliabity, but about 4:00 I went for a bicycle ride.
When it comes to wheels, less is more.
I offered to trade pinks with a guy. He pulled up alongside me at a light and asked if I liked my Beemer. I said yes but that I'd trade rides if he was interested. His wife hollered, "NO!!" so I figured the deal was dead on arrival. He was driving a pristine 1976 VW bus. White over yellow. Beautiful! I told him we had a '72 bus and I wished we still owned it. Then the light turned green.
In Foundations we're working through what will be our doctrinal statement and this week the topic is our sin nature. Which caused me to pay special attention to the news story this week about the Roman Catholic Church and it's latest pronouncement on the matter of sin.
First, a little background for those of you not familiar with RC doctrine on the matter.
For centuries the RC church has distinguished between two kinds of sin - venial and mortal. The latter are also known as deadly sins. Commit one of the mortal sins and you're headed for hell. The only thing that can rescue you from that destination is making confession and receiving absolution, forgiveness from the RC church.
Venial sins, by contrast, don't rise to that level. Venial sins are relatively minor and don't send anyone to hell, they just add to the time you spend in purgatory after you die. No matter how many venial sins you commit they don't add up to the level of a single mortal sin.
Though not strictly synonymous, the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy & pride) are mortal sins. Accordingly, overeating will send you to hell but murder will not.
This week the Church issued a ruling that adds offenses to the list of mortal sins. These additions include pollution, drug dealing and pedophilia (yep, the dog turns to bite its tail).
Doesn't this raise some interesting questions?
Was drug dealing venial last year?
Are priests guilty of pedophilia OK so long as they get absolution?
How much pollution gets a mortal ranking? Tons of smog, or a candy wrapper? The napkin that got carried off in the wind?
Does anybody know if former Gov. Spitzer is a Roman Catholic?
The biblical teaching on sin is very different from the above. All sin, regardless of its type, violates the holiness of God. And it's not acts of sin that condemn the individual to hell, it's the guilt that comes to us through Adam's sin (Rom. 5:12). No one can give absolution and no penance will remove the guilt. Only Christ's death on the cross is adequate payment for sin, and it is fully adequate for any and all guilt.
There's more, but you'll have to come Sunday to get it.
Hey, it's a blog, not a theology text.
The house where I did electrical yesterday...the neighbor's place...he's a golfer. We have a tentative date to play 18 at the executive course tomorrow afternoon. Par is 60. Gerry's a really nice guy from Minnesota. Winters here. I don't know him real well so there won't be any trash talk. But I have to admit that my competitive juices are already starting to flow. Which is probably not a good thing at this stage in my return to the sport. I should be concentrating on my game, not our relative scores.
Sin nature, eh?
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