Truly an important word for all of us. Excellent message my friend.

Interesting….. Evangelical Pastor preaching on the Jesus Prayer and using images of iconography.

If I went to psychiatrist and she diagnosed me with a mental illness, would my entire identity be that diagnosis? If I went to the doctor and they told me I had cancer, would that be my identity? Why identify as a sinner at all? Why label myself se easy? I wouldn’t want to do that to myself or other people, I’d love myself as though I were human, so much so that your first thought about other people or myself is acknowledging their humanity. I keep wondering wether “sinner” is a useful descriptor anymore. You’re a (disease) [insert any physical or mental illnesses here]. I’m might be sick, but I, myself am not a sickness. This is just a thought, I’ve watched a lot of your sermons before, and I’ve got When Everything is On Fire waiting to be read. A disease is not a moral failure, yet the language used with “sin” and “sinner” tends be associated with morality. Sin, I think is just harming oneself and/or others. Feeling like a sinner implies unnecessary shame not guilt. Feeling as though I have sinned against someone implies guilt, and the potential to receive forgiveness and make amends. What is sin, what are sins? Maybe my problem with sin, sins, and the label “sinner” is what I understand those words to mean, maybe sinner just means human, or maybe to sin is to lose touch with your humanity and acting inhumane. I guess, for it’s all just endless language game, and eventually everything must boil down to loving my neighbor as myself, which is difficult to do if I don’t already love myself. I think a person is justified when they no longer consider a need for their existence to be justified. Shame makes a person long for justification. I think Love makes a person feel unashamed, but it is that because they never needed to be justified or because they needed God to justify their existence so to speak? And this question makes me dwell on those words in Genesis, “who told you that you were naked?” or who told you to feel ashamed?