Growing insensitivity to sin

Okay, I have said that darstadly "Christian" dark ages word: 'Sin'.

How about I follow it up with the the word Hell and Fire and Brimstone, just for good measure.... 'old school' preaching of the old time gospel hour...

To some degree Sin is just not a great word for our ever accepting, ever relative world, where tolerance, non-judgement and moral windows are never set but each ever sliding according to "my world"view.

Eckhart Tolle, the 21st century sage/philosopher/spiritual teacher, famous for his book"The Power of Now", writes in his book "A New Earth" this of sin: that we have forgotten to be aware of our 'connectedness' with the whole, the intrinsic "openness" with every "other" as well as the Source.

His inspiration for the title of his book, funnily enough comes from Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21:1.

His view of Jesus was that he was mis-understood, mis-interpreted and his disciples recorded incorrectly his teaching.

You, may have a similar view of Jesus: meek and mild, a great teacher, sage, prophet of some kind, children loved him, taught us to love others as we love ourselves..... so lovely isn't it.

But what happens we Eckhart and I bypass this teaching:

"No and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish too" (Luke 13:5)

"So watch yourselves! "if another believer sins, rebuke that person,then if there is repentance, forgive" (luke 17:17

"Go your sins are forgiven"

"There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck that to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin" (Luke 17:1--2)

"If you eye causes you to sin, gauge it out, if your arm causes you to sin, cut it off"

"So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins....." (Luke 5:24)

and on and on and on and on Jesus goes, Sin here, Sin there, Sin everywhere!

The parable of the vineyard owner and the workers that killed the owners son, the parable of the prodigal son, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the warnings to Korazin and Bethsaida for not repenting, the parable of the money owned to one man by two servants, the parable of the seed scattered by the farmer.... Jesus goes on and on about Sin.

He goes on and on forgiving people and declaring the Kingdom of God is near.  He goes on about teaching about forgiveness and loving your neighbour and forgiving them 7*77.....

Guys are you getting this, Sin is a big big deal.

Do you ever reflect on the fact that the world has lost it's "moral compass"? And who is the world? you and me.

With this topic, I can't help but be jolted back into a spiritual truth, that Sin is everywhere - rebellion from and towards the Creator, God our Father. And satan has a sneaky time using his tried and true method of trying to water down my sensitivity to sin.

"Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8)

 "Did God really say you couldn't do that? Isn't he a kill joy..."
"It's not that bad, it's not really a sin"
"Look, everyone does it, it's just part of the Australian culture, it's not like the Government is going to really worry about a few dollars"
"Why should my wife need to know it will only hurt her..."
"Look, I don't swear much, God takes me as I am, besides He's more concerned that I am a 'good person' "

[Interlude: Just to temper this discussion of Sin, I am not ignoring the fact that Jesus has brought ultimate forgiveness of sins and new life, and it is by grace we have been saved, not of our own doing, but that of the power of Christ, that he loved first and gave everything up, so that we could have righteousness with God and everlasting new life]

But isn't it interesting that I feel I have to write that caveat, so that I don't come across as all judgemental and damning.

To me, it's the evidence itself that we (myself included) have maybe swung the pendulum too far to grace and left sensitivity to sin out on the porch.

Paul states in Hebrews and Corinthians that we need to move past the milk of salvation and onto meatier things.

My question to us is what areas are we slacking off on, allowing the ever increasing sliding window of sin to creep back into our worlds?

In our language, the things we watch and read, the things we say about others, the taxes we pay, the way we conduct business....

'Forgive me my sins and help me forgive those that have sinned against me'.....