Tuesday at Jackson's Bar & Bistro

The weather was great tonight on the patio of Jackson's Bar & Bistro. I enjoyed a Good People Brown Ale and half of a steak sandwich which I only got because Rob was raving about how good it was. Our topic of conversation tonight was from Gregory of Nyssa's chapter in Devotional Classics. It is an excerpt from his most famous work "The Life of Moses." One of his main points was that we are to look at the people in the Bible and take encouragement from them, seeing how they lived the virtous life. I guess if they can do it, we can to it. One of the greatest comments tonight came when we got on the issue of living a perfect life. Some guy had asked Greg what he thought the perfect life is. Greg hem hawed around and finally got to the point that it is impossible to attain perfection since perfection is not marked off by lmits. How would one arrive at the sought for boundary when he can find no boundary? So, someone asked if we can live a day without sinning. Of course, this question has bounced around in my little head before because, coming from the CofC, there is some tendancy, especially in those who are very rigid, to believe that we indeed can purposely and knowingly live without sin for a period of time. One of the verses used to back up this position is 1 John 2:1 where John says that he is writing these things so that they may not sin. Even just looking at it just then I think the context is obviously showing that John wanted to warn people against a particular sin, that partictular sin being (ironicly enough) saying that you are without sin. As we kicked that idea around a little at Jackson's, we said that there would be no way for you to even go about that with the right motive. As soon as you set out to go a day without sinning, you have already sinned because you are wanting to put the spotlight on yourself and your ability to go without sinning for a day. So, you lost before you even get to the starting line (Tal quote). We talked about various other things such as fearing the Lord and the responsibility of teachers of the Word and what to do when someone asks you to pray for him. I love this group. We missed a few folk tonight but hopefully they will be back next week. Pray for me as I contemplate starting my own TOH men's group and look to encourage some female to start a TOH women's group.