Hi there,
So, yes, I have sort of started to warm, in my heart, towards Christians. I know it says "come on, love your brothers as well", but I had a hard time reconciling my own walk of faith, with the walk of others - the narrow path, seemed to lead me further afield than most Christians were going (dare I say "all"?). But after a while, I started thinking "no, I just have to love, Christians".
Then I started to think "well, what is stopping me from loving, Christians - more than I am?" and the Holy Spirit brought me to a point, where I could see Christians suffering; and I started to ask "what is that suffering?", like how do I reconcile myself to the fact that to the ignorant, it looks like Christians are inviting suffering? The answer was simply this: "Christians, don't want to sin!" That's it. I looked at it and I thought, I am not in a battle to love Christians, I am in a battle to understand how they want to be forgiven.
However, I thought about it some more - why I was in that battle - and I started to realise that the rest of the conviction, the Holy Spirit was sharing with me, wasn't to do with Christians, it was with the world: that is, that the world was objecting to the righteousness of the Christian faith. The Holy Spirit showed me plainly "the world does not want to be judged". This then became a conflict - Christians wanting sin to remit (not be forgotten), the World wanting judgment to be impossible (but not further sin). And as I look at it now, I think I can understand what the Holy Spirit is saying - because the conflict, is the Devil's doing!
It is the Devil that says "the world is acceptable, in my sight; it's not wrong to be tempted with its sin, if you can still relate to God". The problem is, that if you sin with the world, you can no longer relate to God - He stands outside the world and reserves judgment, for the Day of His Wrath (at which point, it will be impossible to hold the wrath back). So you see? Our enemy is death, even after all this time, in faith and labouring with the world, that our prayers should fall short of intervening between the Devil and God, before the world can be tempted - yet taking the high ground, won't save us, if we still have sin in our hearts.
So that is my prayer, in love for you, my brothers: that we would take the high ground over the Devil, in the faith of Grace (God's Grace), but that we would also confess the sin that is in our hearts (that the righteousness of God, be fully expressed in us). We do have love for each other, and it does mean something (even something tremendous), we just must be mindful:
I hope that is of some encouragement, to you.
So, yes, I have sort of started to warm, in my heart, towards Christians. I know it says "come on, love your brothers as well", but I had a hard time reconciling my own walk of faith, with the walk of others - the narrow path, seemed to lead me further afield than most Christians were going (dare I say "all"?). But after a while, I started thinking "no, I just have to love, Christians".
Then I started to think "well, what is stopping me from loving, Christians - more than I am?" and the Holy Spirit brought me to a point, where I could see Christians suffering; and I started to ask "what is that suffering?", like how do I reconcile myself to the fact that to the ignorant, it looks like Christians are inviting suffering? The answer was simply this: "Christians, don't want to sin!" That's it. I looked at it and I thought, I am not in a battle to love Christians, I am in a battle to understand how they want to be forgiven.
However, I thought about it some more - why I was in that battle - and I started to realise that the rest of the conviction, the Holy Spirit was sharing with me, wasn't to do with Christians, it was with the world: that is, that the world was objecting to the righteousness of the Christian faith. The Holy Spirit showed me plainly "the world does not want to be judged". This then became a conflict - Christians wanting sin to remit (not be forgotten), the World wanting judgment to be impossible (but not further sin). And as I look at it now, I think I can understand what the Holy Spirit is saying - because the conflict, is the Devil's doing!
It is the Devil that says "the world is acceptable, in my sight; it's not wrong to be tempted with its sin, if you can still relate to God". The problem is, that if you sin with the world, you can no longer relate to God - He stands outside the world and reserves judgment, for the Day of His Wrath (at which point, it will be impossible to hold the wrath back). So you see? Our enemy is death, even after all this time, in faith and labouring with the world, that our prayers should fall short of intervening between the Devil and God, before the world can be tempted - yet taking the high ground, won't save us, if we still have sin in our hearts.
So that is my prayer, in love for you, my brothers: that we would take the high ground over the Devil, in the faith of Grace (God's Grace), but that we would also confess the sin that is in our hearts (that the righteousness of God, be fully expressed in us). We do have love for each other, and it does mean something (even something tremendous), we just must be mindful:
- of the brother, whose conviction of sin is crippling him - because of the world
- of the temptation, to rebuke the world, because of a lack of righteousness - because of the Devil
- of the heart, which we must not harden, in the way - because the Devil may insist on accusing us, even to his peril (for God is not mocked)
I hope that is of some encouragement, to you.
