G
gideons300
Guest
I say this in love, even though it is blunt truth. I fear that the gospel as commonly preached in our churches has nothing to offer the drug addict, the prostitute, the sex addict, or the soul addicted to alcohol. NOTHING. We cannot offer them deliverance, for if we have not been delivered ourselves from the sin in our own lives, we have nothing to give, for the principle of God is still "Such as I have, give I thee."
We cannot even truly offer them friendship or Christian fellowship, even if they say the sinner's prayer, even if they repent of their sin. They will still, after all, remain bound to their sins as we are to ours, yet most of ours are "socially acceptable"...whereas theirs are not. Be honest here. If a saved former addict struggles with his sin like we struggle with ours, and if they show up one Sundays unbathed, high and wasted, falling again into the sin that binds them, do you really think they will remain welcome in our midst? I doubt it sincerely. Their sins are simply not "acceptable ones" as ours are.
If we ourselves do not serve a God who can set free from sin in our own lives and our sins are "small", what hope do we have to give someone who needs an answer and needs it yesterday to a sin that is decimating their lives?
Is stopping sinning simply a choice? If it is, then what is our excuse for continuing on in our own pet sins? And if it is not, we best be on our knees seeking the answer, and not falling into a contentment without godliness. That, friends, is dangerous ground indeed.
If we believe that holiness is simply a matter of choosing to obey, then we simply do not understand the power of sin and the weakness of the flesh of man. Choice is not enough. The power of God must be on display.
Simply put, it takes God Himself to break the chains wrapped tightly around a man's soul. How I long for us to see this, holiness, as our greatest need, and His even greater supply. God help us to become a church full of delivered saints, who can testify openly, proudly and loudly, that Jesus is able to "save to the uttermost them that come to the Father by Him".
We all have our religious form, our doctriones of belief, but it is a scary thing to think we may be those He had in mind when He said that there would be those in the last days who would have a form of godliness but yet in our actions, deny the power of it in our lives. Do we serve a God able to deliver us from us, or one simply able to forgive? How strong is our God?
Fellow believers, please do not take this as a putdown, for it is not. It is but a loving call for us to examine our very foundations of what we believe about Jesus and His purpose in our lives. The early church was not made up primarily of "religious folk", but social outcasts and vile sinners who found a loving God who delighted in setting people free from their sins that bound them. Delivered saints are excited saints, and this excitement spread the gospel around the known world like wildfire. Saints who have been forgiven much love much.
Could this be the reason why we seem to have such little true love for our Lord, becasue we do not see ourselves as needing much forgiveness...just enough to cover our "little sins"? Perhaps this explains why we see the church basically shifting members much like musical chairs, with plenty of new members, but they are just replacing those that moved in due to boredom themselves. I am afraid we have plenty of smoke, but no fire.
God has not changed, nor has His purpose for us. he wantsot change us into the image of His son. he wants to make us holy...in thought and in action.Thus we have a huge decision to make. It falls on our shoulders to either walk on in an acceptance of defeat, an acceptance that we are "just human" and to tell God in effect, "I am not hungry for real liberty, for I am satisfied in simply being forgiven and going to church".... or to cry out to God in a loud unified voice to deliver us from the sins that bind us, large and small, and to show us the secret to tapping into the power of godliness.
Make no mistake. God still takes great delight in delivering us from our fleshly nature, and by doing so, setting us free from the sins that so easily beset us. Our God has promised us freedom from that old nature, freedom to abide in Him in victory all day, every day. He offers us a "new creation" whereby He sups with us daily, and through the abiding experience, causes us to walk in His statutes, giving us not only the desire to be holy, but the power to be as well.
If we are to offer hope to the lost, shackled and chained to their sins, we must first ask our Lord to remove the shackles from our own souls, and believe that it is God's will that we walk in the free indeed that Christ offers us. May our faith rise to apprehand that for which we were apprehended.
Gideon
We cannot even truly offer them friendship or Christian fellowship, even if they say the sinner's prayer, even if they repent of their sin. They will still, after all, remain bound to their sins as we are to ours, yet most of ours are "socially acceptable"...whereas theirs are not. Be honest here. If a saved former addict struggles with his sin like we struggle with ours, and if they show up one Sundays unbathed, high and wasted, falling again into the sin that binds them, do you really think they will remain welcome in our midst? I doubt it sincerely. Their sins are simply not "acceptable ones" as ours are.
If we ourselves do not serve a God who can set free from sin in our own lives and our sins are "small", what hope do we have to give someone who needs an answer and needs it yesterday to a sin that is decimating their lives?
Is stopping sinning simply a choice? If it is, then what is our excuse for continuing on in our own pet sins? And if it is not, we best be on our knees seeking the answer, and not falling into a contentment without godliness. That, friends, is dangerous ground indeed.
If we believe that holiness is simply a matter of choosing to obey, then we simply do not understand the power of sin and the weakness of the flesh of man. Choice is not enough. The power of God must be on display.
Simply put, it takes God Himself to break the chains wrapped tightly around a man's soul. How I long for us to see this, holiness, as our greatest need, and His even greater supply. God help us to become a church full of delivered saints, who can testify openly, proudly and loudly, that Jesus is able to "save to the uttermost them that come to the Father by Him".
We all have our religious form, our doctriones of belief, but it is a scary thing to think we may be those He had in mind when He said that there would be those in the last days who would have a form of godliness but yet in our actions, deny the power of it in our lives. Do we serve a God able to deliver us from us, or one simply able to forgive? How strong is our God?
Fellow believers, please do not take this as a putdown, for it is not. It is but a loving call for us to examine our very foundations of what we believe about Jesus and His purpose in our lives. The early church was not made up primarily of "religious folk", but social outcasts and vile sinners who found a loving God who delighted in setting people free from their sins that bound them. Delivered saints are excited saints, and this excitement spread the gospel around the known world like wildfire. Saints who have been forgiven much love much.
Could this be the reason why we seem to have such little true love for our Lord, becasue we do not see ourselves as needing much forgiveness...just enough to cover our "little sins"? Perhaps this explains why we see the church basically shifting members much like musical chairs, with plenty of new members, but they are just replacing those that moved in due to boredom themselves. I am afraid we have plenty of smoke, but no fire.
God has not changed, nor has His purpose for us. he wantsot change us into the image of His son. he wants to make us holy...in thought and in action.Thus we have a huge decision to make. It falls on our shoulders to either walk on in an acceptance of defeat, an acceptance that we are "just human" and to tell God in effect, "I am not hungry for real liberty, for I am satisfied in simply being forgiven and going to church".... or to cry out to God in a loud unified voice to deliver us from the sins that bind us, large and small, and to show us the secret to tapping into the power of godliness.
Make no mistake. God still takes great delight in delivering us from our fleshly nature, and by doing so, setting us free from the sins that so easily beset us. Our God has promised us freedom from that old nature, freedom to abide in Him in victory all day, every day. He offers us a "new creation" whereby He sups with us daily, and through the abiding experience, causes us to walk in His statutes, giving us not only the desire to be holy, but the power to be as well.
If we are to offer hope to the lost, shackled and chained to their sins, we must first ask our Lord to remove the shackles from our own souls, and believe that it is God's will that we walk in the free indeed that Christ offers us. May our faith rise to apprehand that for which we were apprehended.
Gideon
