Post details: License to sin.

09/03/08

Permalink 05:16:24 pm, Categories: GraceHead teaching, By Trent
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License to sin.

by Trent from Sept 05

Here is an true allegory of God's unconditional love as it occurred to me in the seventh grade. You should be able to discover truths about license to sin. Lets discuss it.

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My parents don't remember it, but God etched this episode on my heart. Also there is something magical about your first year in Junior High that makes things all the more memorable, like the first time you ride your bike, or the first taste of coffee. In seventh grade I will never forget the first co-ed dance.

The buzz was intense. I didn't even know how to dance, but I was very excited. We just assumed that everyone would go. How could I have known that not everyone saw it that way?

Monday before the dance, I thought that it would be polite if I at least told my mother about the dance on Friday. The school was only a block away, "So, I won't need a ride, mom." I said, as if I was doing her a big favor. But, the look on her face told a different story.

Obviously holding back, she said, "When your father gets home we will talk about it." *gulp*

What did I say? Why didn't she just say it would be fine?

Well when my parents retreated into their room, my thoughts couldn't escape that I was somehow in trouble. When I was summoned, the hall seemed longer and darker then I had ever remembered.

My father did the talking. Actually, it was a lecture. They never danced when they were my age. (Oh, did I mention that they were Southern Baptist?) Dancing can lead to other things, they indelicately explained. "Frankly, we think it is wrong and something that you shouldn't ... blah blah blah." I had tuned them out completely!

I am not normally rebellious, but the more that I felt fenced me in, the more I wanted out! I thought "I'll pretend to be sick, go to bed early and slip out to the dance! Even if I get caught, maybe rebelling for once will actually give me cool-points at school." It was a win: win! I was so into planning that I almost did not hear what my father said next.

"We leave the decision up to you." *huh?* "Trent, if you go to the dance, we will love you no more and no less than if you stay home." That was my dad saying that! He went on, "You know how we feel about it, but whatever you do does not affect our acceptance of you."

I could hardly believe my ears. Neither could my friends at school ... "Your parents are against dancing?" They did not understand. Why would I change for the long shot that they would accept me, when I was already accepted as I was?

Well Friday rolled around and my mom asked me if I was going to get ready for the dance. "No, I just don't want to." I did not know how to express it fully. The decision was easy. I wanted to stay where I was unconditionally accepted. The last thing that I wanted to do is seek the temporary acceptance of my peers at the cost of conformity and compromise.

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I never needed a license to sin; I sin well enough without one. What I needed, and what we all need is a fresh revelation of God's love and acceptance. Exposed to that, we may never want to sin again.

Comments:

Comment from: Gert Cornelissen [Visitor]
Indeed! I need no licence to sin,but Christ has now become my licence to revel in the unconditional love of our Dad-the only preservative against sin!
Permalink 10/22/05 @ 05:40
Comment from: Trent [Member] · http://www.GraceHead.com
You have it Gert, you GraceHead you!
-T
Permalink 10/24/05 @ 15:29
Comment from: pam [Visitor]
Trent,

You are blessed with very wise parents. Thanks for sharing this wonderful story.

Pam
Permalink 09/03/08 @ 22:23
Comment from: ~NewLifeElite~ [Member]
wow...Trent you are a Man Of God...all praise to the Eternal Father for what he is doing through you and many others, we all need to be consumed in God's Love so that we will know and understand that he is all that we will ever need and want...
Permalink 09/03/08 @ 22:25
Comment from: Offensive Christian [Visitor] · http://offensivechristians.com
Wow! That's a great allegory and full of just powerful truth. I don't know you but this story tells me that you and your parents were richly blessed by God with wisdom.

Thanks for a wonderful post.

OC
http://offensivechristians.com
Permalink 09/03/08 @ 23:34
Comment from: Craig [Visitor]
It is true that grace is not license to sin, but we must always consider whether a given action truly *is* sin. In this case, since dancing is not sinful, the example lapses into the area of tragic legalism. And legalism is itself the sin of blasphemy, since it declares many of the good gifts of God to be of Satan.
Permalink 10/13/08 @ 17:29
Comment from: Trent [Member] · http://www.GraceHead.com
Craig,

I like your comments and agree that dancing may not have been sin ... and that legalism is deadly ... for heaven will full of dancers, but empty of self-righteous people.

Nevertheless, it does not assist grace to loosely define sin. Sin is "falling short of God's glory" and "anything that is not of faith" and "transgression of the law" ... and so on.

Those are broad definitions and could even be broader ... for where sin does abound, grace super-abounds.

Ripening for the harvest,
Trent
Permalink 10/14/08 @ 00:39

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