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First, recognize when you have sinned. Now think about what you were thinking just before you

committed the act of sin. Keep working backwards till you find when the temptation to sin first

hit you. This is actually the first step in the OODA loop. Observe what was going on. What were

you thinking? Note the pattern of thought and the stimulus to sin.

Even secular minded people realize this and do it without knowing that they are actually usingOODA loop. One example is the actor Tim Robbins who got rid of his TV:

Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins says his experience directing a play

based on George Orwell's "1984" has prompted a life choice as personal as it is

political: He's living without a TV.

"I have done an experiment for the past three years: I got rid of my television. One

of the things Orwell talks about in the book '1984' is this thing called 'the

two-minute hate,'" Robbins told reporters in Bogota on Monday.

"People go in front of their television screens and they yell at the person theyobject to politically. I realized I had been doing that for two hours every day

during [a particular politicians time in office]. I said, 'I've got to stop hating.'"5

In at least some way he recognized that hate (anger) was wrong. He identified what the stimulus

that produced the hate and he dealt with it. Too many Christians dont even get the first part

right. They make excuses, just like a worldling would do; anything but man up and take

responsibility. Where Robbins got it wrong was in eliminating the stimulus and thinking that this

means that he has solved the problem. The stimulus will simply re-occur in some other way and

hell find that he STILL has an anger management problem. We should all hate sin and when

people are being hurt by others, but its how you deal with it that counts.

Now you can re-orient your thinking in response to the temptation. Ask yourself this question: Is

it easier to resist temptation when it first hits you or, say, an hour down the road?

The second problem with our habitual thought patterns that has led to failure is you may assume

that resisting sin is perfectionism, or perfectionistic. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus said Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Was He a perfectionist (in the

negative sense of the term)? [Id love to argue with God about this one: you know that theres a

reason why we call each other meatheads, right? Dead from the neck up. ] The critics always ask:6

5 http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/145830185.html

Other terms are frequently used: dimwits, nitwits, half-wits, bird brains, knuckleheads,6

airhead, etc., or phrases like the lights on, but no one is at home, the elevator doesnt go all

the way to the top, not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, or, the old favorite: A few

fries short of a Happy Meal. One wit noted that Sometimes were Sherlock, other days were

Watson. Or, for most of us, most of the time, were Larry the Cable Guy.

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/145830185.htmlhttp://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/145830185.html

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are you perfect yet? What the problems with this thinking? They are looking to us, rather than to

Jesus. The answer to this question is, of course, that when you are in Christ, you ARE perfect.

Once youve observed what pushes your buttons towards sin, and youve changed your

orientation towards it, you can now decide how you are going to respond. The reason many of us

fail to gain the victory over sin is because we dilly-dally, we parley with temptation, we wonderwhat would it be like? When we do that we practically guarantee that well fail in the fight and

then the guilt and shame come back to haunt us.

Assuming youve made the only real choice, the decision, to live a victorious life, now you can

act: when we are faced with temptation to sin the best response and the only way to overcome sin

is to immediately say No and to instantly ask Jesus for help.

So, how do you overcome sin and live the victorious life? You go through the OODA loop and

make the right choices. After awhile Satan wont be able to tempt you on that point because it

has become a habit in your mind to resist temptation.

See http://dan.hersam.com/lists/not_bright.htmlwhich has a list of 171 one-liners.

I realized one time that in terms of IQ, my cat (IQ of about one) is closer to us, than we

are to God.

http://dan.hersam.com/lists/not_bright.htmlhttp://dan.hersam.com/lists/not_bright.html