Better

 FROM MWB ARCHIVES (Oct 2010). No, I'm not a football fan but I sure wich i was! It would make this time of year so much more tolerable. If we had ten televisions, I'm sure each one would be on a football game. I ask myself sometimes, "how can i possibly despise football yet live in a house full of football fans!" Have you ever done the Do-Better Plan?  Oh, I have (and do) far-too-much.  Sometimes Mister Bill and I call a Do-Better family meeting.  We get all pumped up with warm-fuzzies and happy-smilies (as much as guys do that), and everyone actually does better ... for a few days.  In the end, however, we need another meeting!  Believers can’t expect to just decide on-our-own to hate sin and spiritually … do-better.  Sure, we can muster-up lots of oomph and get all fired-up against our sin but apart from Christ, all we get is tired and flustered!   John 3:3 explains why this happens, “flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.“  I love how Spurgeon expounds on this truth of God’s Word: “Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them.”  See, that’s how it works!  We must trade-in the ineffective Do-Better Plan for divine workmanship in us.  That’s how and when we become acutely conscious of not offending God and others in word or deed. Maintaining a “short list of sins” keeps Believers’ hearts in right-standing with The Father and His Word effective in us.  This late in life, I don’t expect my thoughts towards football to improve but I know [without reservation] God-in-me makes all things … better.