Quote from Forum Archives on November 4, 2010, 7:53 pm

Posted by: edwrather <edwrather@...>

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11.04.10

Gurners

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive
with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone
is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his
natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and
immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the
perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer
but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone
among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but
deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled
religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in
their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. - James
1:21-27.

Are you a gurner? I have seen some people do this before, but never knew
that it was almost a sport. Gurning contests are a rural English tradition
that have been around for a couple of hundred years or more. Gurning
consists of making a face, i.e. distorting the facial features. At least one
man had his teeth removed so he could more easily contort his face. A face
frequently made in these contests is known as the duck face. Anne Woods has
won the contest at the Egremont, England Crab Fair 27 times. Tommy Mattison,
the men's champion has won it 11 times. Both Woods, and Mattison will be in
the next Guinness World Records book.

Some people purposely distort their faces, and some people purposely distort
their thinking. The apostle James writes about some mental gurners in his
letter. Apparently, there were people who heard what God said they should
do, knew what God wanted them to do, but still they did not do it. Hmm, that
sounds a lot like the majority of the people who call themselves Christians
today. We go to church on Sunday, and then go out and live like the devil
the rest of the week. Maybe, it isn't quite that bad, but surveys have shown
that the goals, the desires, and actions of those who call themselves
Christians - are not much different from those who do not consider
themselves to be Christians. James says that this kind of religion is
"useless"!

The apostle Paul has this to say about the mental gurning of Christians in
Romans 6, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through
baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Paul
goes on to say in verses 12 - 14 of chapter 6, "Therefore do not let sin
reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not
present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present
yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under law but under grace."

Are you a Christian gurner, mentally distorting the Word of God to fit your
life, and your circumstances? If your mindset is that you will go ahead and
commit a sin, because you know God will forgive you, then you are gurning in
your thinking. There is always a cost to sin because ".the wages of sin is
death (Romans 6:23a)." The price of sin will always be more than you want to
pay.

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