What is Sin anyway?

I thought I should share this amazing quote with you, just so you can ponder it with me as we proceed with this blogging.

The question that is often posed about same-sex-attractions is, "Is it a sin?"
The answer to that is so well defined by what Bill Johnson wrote:

IS THIS A SIN?
"It's easy to latch onto a rating system or some set of rules that will make it clear what we will and won't do as a Christian. But no rating system can replace a heart that wants to please God. If we're to honor God with our choices, we must be willing to carefully scrutinize and evaluate how what we do attests to our love for and obedience to God. We must be willing to wrestle with our standards and often refuse to engage in behaviors that others think is permissible, if not God's permissive will.

When he was in college, the famous evangelist John Wesley wrote a letter to his mother asking her to give him a clear description of sin. Sounds like he wanted a list of do's and don'ts. But Mrs. Wesley didn't give John what he wanted. She gave him something much better.

In response, she wrote:
"Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may seem to be in itself. It doesn't matter how others feel about it; or how popular it is, or how seemingly innocent it appears. If it hardens your heart toward God, if it obscures your awareness of the ugliness of sin and the holiness of God, if it takes the edge off your spiritual hunger, then it's sin."(Taken from "Not Even a Hint: Guarding your heart against lust," by Joshua Harris, Multnomah, 2003).

Amazing wisdom shared from mother to son. What do you think about it?

Honestly, I am so humbled by it, it makes me want to get real still and listen to the Spirit of God as He gently, yet truthfully, searches over my soul. It's kind of like going to the skin doctor to see if there are any irregular freckles. You hope the doctor doesn't find any, but if he does you let him cut them right out of your hide! And you are really glad he saved you from the horrors ahead if it was left un-checked and grew into cancer and killed you.

Sorry for the word picture, but sometimes that's what it takes for me to grasp a deep concept.