superliminal

Lisa: But you have recruiting ads on TV. Why do you need subliminal messages?
Smash: It's a three-pronged attack. Subliminal, liminal, and superliminal.
Lisa: Superliminal?
Smash: I'll show you. (opens the window and shouts at Lenny and Carl, who are standing on the corner) Hey, you! Join theNavy!
Carl: Uh, yeah, all right.
Lenny: I'm in.

It struck me the other day that temptation has moved to this 'superliminal' method.
banners on the internet which say "be naughty", the classically identified use of 'sinful' in chocolate advertising campaigns etc. it's not like in the spiritual battle that anyone's trying to hide what is going on any more. we're not falling into traps, we're coming up against clear options to obey or disobey God. and still, we're walking into it (willfully?).

my friend and i talked about the misuse of the word 'struggling'
when we say we're struggling with a sin we really mean that we're giving into it. we noted that if someone said "i'm struggling with x" we should say "praise God! you're in the fight! i'm just giving into sin but this guy's struggling that's awesome!"

but we're not really struggling all that much, are we?

"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."

hebrews 12:4
that's sure true. i've barely resisted to the point of my own discomfort.

the next verse of hebrews 12 says "and you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons" - is our failure to fight sin tied up in our forgetting that we're adopted and ingrafted and we're sons and daughters of I AM? without a clear understanding of our identity we will start to think that our lives are trivial and that decisions should be made on our personal (and immediate) preference