Last evening following President Bush’s State Of The Union speech, I finished a book that I have been reading. The book authored by Tony Evans, Senior Pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and President of The Urban Alternative. It is entitled Returning To Your First Love.
The premise of the book is how we as believers can have our relationship with God not be the relationship that it can and should be due to our sin nature. Our sin nature if not kept in check can and will cut off an effective relationship with God. Sin that has not been confessed to the Father will lead to a life not fulfilled.
There are excellent action points after each chapter. The first part of the book deals with sin and that as carnal Christians we will and are faced with sin everyday. The second half deals with three items to effectively get us on course, First, Remember, Remember we are sinners, saved by Grace, Remember the flesh has a sin nature. Second, Repent, Repent early and often – in other words Repent as you are made aware of each sin, don’t try to lump all your sin into a generic “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer. This diminshes the sin itself and doesn’t place it where it needs to be acknowledged and forgiven. We must recogize that sin is serious and that God sent his only son Jesus to the world and that Jesus paid the highest price for our sin. When we sin again, it is as if we crucify Christ anew. Finally Redo, Foresake the temptation that led you to the sin in the first place. We must acknowledge that our flesh or body has a sin nature, whatever your sin nature is whether it is alcohol, pornography, lying, when it comes simply say “flesh I am not feeding you that anymore.”
He also deals with the some of the current teaching that is going on in within the church today. The teaching that if you live a postive life and do your best God will reward you for it. The sin causes us to lose the fellowship that we can and should have, sin keeps us from our first love, keeping us from our first priority.
Tony Evans was the featured speaker at a mens conference in 2001 at Sevier Heights Baptist Church located on Alcoa Highway in Knoxville in 2001. I attended that mens conference, He has also been a teacher at Promise Keepers events that I have attended in the past, where he is a regular speaker. His website is located here.
