chipping away

Saturday May 30^th, John 15: 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.  One of the jobs of the Spirit is to convict us of our sin.  We are never given the spirit to help guide us in convicting others of their sin. It is not for us to convict “Others” of their sins.  When we try to live our lives focused on the sins of others, we keep chipping away at our life, forcing ourselves into an ever smaller and smaller world.  This seems to be what the political right is about these days. In the process, their world and ours becomes smaller, meaner, less jubilant.  In convicting us of “our” sins, especially the one of making the world smaller and smaller, we find ourselves at the foot of the cross looking up at Christ.  It is there we find salvation, and that salvation is for “our” sins.  The Spirit leads us to Christ by removing the scales of sin from our eyes where we can truly see ourselves for who we are and others as our brothers and sisters with us on the journey.