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Struggling with condemnation

longwait

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Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So there's nothing wrong about the reason why you repented. As long as you repented and changed the way you are living then you are fine. Its our free will and choice which way we should go and you choose the right thing. Good for you.
 
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Chinchilla

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I miss having assurance that if I died tonight, I'd be going to heaven.

Jesus said you can know that you have eternal life so did John.
Read
John 5:25
1 John 5:13
John 5:39
John 10:28

If you do not believe that you have eternal life you never trusted Christ to begin with , you believed in temporary life based on your works and it's not Scriptural Galatians 2:16 , Ephesians 2:8-9 , Ephesians 1:13-14 .

By grace meaning undeserved , gift meaning not of works , not boast meaning you cannot say you did something which somebody else did not so you deserved it more than him , eternal means forever and not for a weekend . Simple as that .
That's what people who trust in themselves do , when they fail they lose faith because it was not put in Jesus first but the faith was put in themselves so when bad things happen you lose it , but Jesus said he is faithful to forgive , not you are faithful to be forgiven .

1 John 1:9
 
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frater_domus

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Noone will be free from sin while living on this earth. However, it is good that you are so distressed about your sins, because now you can see just how much is forgiven through Christ, so that you may grow in thankfulness, humility and ultimately faith
 
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joshua 1 9

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They say that God does not judge with His eyes or His ears, He uses His nose. The most sweet smelling prayers before God has to do with a truly humble contrite heart. Prayers of genuine repentance, cleansed soul & a changed life. I remember when I first got saved it was as if there was no ceiling or roof on the building. Not that it was much of a building to begin with. But it was as if the roof was gone and the ceiling was open and many thousands of angels and people in heaven were watching that event and what was going on that day. Later on I learned about portals in Heaven and how interested Heaven is when a loved one repents and comes to a saving knowledge of the truth. I wonder if God likes to use a humble, lowly, contrite building like that before He uses the fancy church that people spend so much money on.

God looks for prayers of thanksgiving, forgiveness, intercession, praise and adoration, showing our utter dependence, seeking wisdom, knowledge, understanding, seeking peace and salvation. This is a sweet fragrance and these are the prayers that the angels put in the golden bowl on the alter before God.

We can compare this with the prayers in the bronze bowl in the outer court for the people that never see and never experiences the Holiness and purity of God.
 
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Invalidusername

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I did. However falling into sin for a long time can cast doubts on your salvation.
 
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Thir7ySev3n

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Edit: After reviewing this, I see it is longer than it felt when I finished writing it. But please read over what I've shown you from the Scriptures here as I believe you will be blessed by it.

We have incredible encouragements in the Word of God, one exceptional example that demonstrates aptly the depth of God's grace and kindness and severity. I want you to endure through this desperate problem and receive this encouragement, but it must be received how it was intended: with a sober mind and the fear of God, considering not only His kindness but His severity. For "There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Romans 2:9)."

Consider the example of David, who is recorded in 2 Samuel 11:2-27 as having committed adultery with Bathsheba and conspiring to murder the man who was the woman's husband, Uriah, so that his sin could be concealed since Bathsheba became pregnant. To compound the depravity of this sin, before having the man killed, David twice met with this servant of his, whose wife he had just laid with, under the pretense of wanting updates on the present war.

The first time they met, David, after conversing pretentiously with the man, told Uriah to go down to his house and wash his feet hoping that Uriah would lay with his wife and conceal the alternative cause of her pregnancy. The next morning, David discovered that Uriah instead slept at the entrance of the King's house with his Lord's other servants. When David discovers this, he is displeased and extracts from Uriah the reason being that Uriah refused the pleasure of enjoying time with his wife and his home while all his fellow soldiers and servants were denied this pleasure. This was manifestly a noble man. So David met with him again, inviting Uriah to eat and drink with him, this time intoxicating him in hopes that his compromised senses would circumvent his noble self-denial on this occasion. Uriah still did not go to his house and slept again on a couch around his fellow servants. This displeased David and he ordered that the man be sent into the most vulnerable position in his next battle so that he would be killed. Subsequent to succeeding in this plan, David takes Bathsheba to be his wife and attempts to live casually as though he is innocent in this affair, until confronted by the prophet Nathan.

Before I briefly conclude with the severe consequences of this sin (which for soberity's sake and to compliment your understanding of God's grace properly I recommend you keep reading), I want to have an intermittence to explain the significance of what you just read. David commits adultery with a woman he discovered was married prior to laying with her, attempts to conceal his sin by manipulating her husband, discovers his servant who he betrayed is a noble man who will not lay with his own wife in consideration of his fellow servants and instead of being convicted, David, frustrated in his plots, decides that murdering this man is the only alternative. After succeeding, he takes this woman to be his wife and only repents when confronted some time later. Add to this how long David must have been enduring in this sin, the time it would take to pursue the woman, lay with her, meet with her husband and plot; the time elapsed before Uriah went into battle and died, the time it took for David to receive the report, to take Bathsheba and then finally the time during the delay in Nathan the prophet confronting him.

Here's the part that can be most perplexing: David was saved while doing this! Although this time was prior to the first coming of Christ, the just were always saved by faith in their looking onwards to the Messiah, trusting in God's mercies (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17), and prior to committing this sin, God declared David to be a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). David, writing in a Psalm concerning the brokenness he experiences in his sin, said "Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation (Psalms 51:12)..." David had the Holy Spirit and he sought restoration of the joy of his salvation, which implies he was already saved and indwelt by God.

So here's the conclusion of the point on God's grace in kindness: even a saved person can fall into terrible wickedness, and even for a season endure in it and harden there heart, as David did. So do not be quick to think that your sins have separated you from God or that you in any way have necessarily demonstrated you were never saved. However, and this is a part you MUST understand to have the whole picture of the nature of God's grace or you will send yourself to hell presuming on the promises of God as a license for immorality (which the book of Jude deals fiercely with), when God confronted David on his sin and the terrible consequences of it, he repented. What were the consequences? Because David stole another man's wife, God had sworn an enemy king would now come and not only take David's wife, but all his wives, and not only do to them what David did with Bathsheba, but that it would be done in broad daylight as opposed to secretly as David had done. Worse than this, God assured him that violence would never leave his house, and four sons that we know of in the Biblical record were killed (Bathsheba's first son, 2 Samuel 12:18; Amnon, 13:28-29; Absalom, 16:14-15 and Adonijah, 1 Kings 2:25). The account of Nathan's confrontation of David is in 2 Samuel 12.

So what David had done was paid back to him many times over. Not only did he not get to keep what he had gained in sin, but he lost what he had prior and lived in great anguish for a time long enough to ensure he received many more times of pain than pleasure from his wickedness. He was acquainted with the impartial justice of God. Yet, after this punishment was decreed, David accepted it's brutality and repented, not insincerely, knowing God was going to cause his sin to not have been worth its time. This is the proper response of the saved person, because the Scripture promises us that those who are saved will be disciplined, and that only a spiritual bastard who is not the child of God will proceed without present discipline in this life until Hell (Hebrews 12:4-8). As Paul says to the Corinthians:

"For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!" (2 Corinthians 7:10-11)

If you have sinned, you will experience godly grief and it will be allowed to have it's intended effect until God's will is accomplished with it. I want you to also take note of Paul's words "what punishment!". The context of this is the desire of the Corinthians themselves; they wanted to be punished and longed for the satisfaction of God's justice against themselves! If you are saved, God will bring punishment in your life fitting for the sin, and when He does you must endure it and will endure it if you are truly repentant.

"And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." (Matthew 21:44)

So fall on Christ and be broken.
 
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Yarddog

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Trust God's love, not what the spirit of the world which always tries to drag us back. No one can be worthy of heaven by themselves. As long as you have breath in your lungs trust in the cross.

When we are baptized, God gives us his Spirit and that Spirit can change us from within. That is the only way. Don't be scared to let go of the world and surrender to God's Holy Spirit. Don't focus on the sin which permeates the mind but on the Spirit and that Spirit can remove the desire to sin. It works.

May God live within you. Listen and talk to our Father in heaven. Share all with him. He listens and loves as a good Father always will.
 
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Chinchilla

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I did. However falling into sin for a long time can cast doubts on your salvation.
If it's not by works then how one can lose it by works ?

You just feel guilty that's all , but should not feel condemned .
 
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Invalidusername

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Good and honest post. Thank you. I am indeed paying the price for my sins. I only hope God judges me in this world so he won't in the next world.
 
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Invalidusername

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If it's not by works then how one can lose it by works ?

You just feel guilty that's all , but should not feel condemned .

We don't keep it by works but we seem to be able to lose it by defiance and disobedience. The entire book of Hebrews deals with this.
 
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lamb7

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From reading what you wrote you seem to struggle a little bit with fear... I understand what you are going through. Try not to let fear have dominion over you. (Easier said then done)

Also porn is an addiction and is very hard to let go, doesn't mean you are not God's.

I agree with others about Hebrews verses you shared. Remember the context and who it is written to: The Hebrews. I have come to learn that not all scripture is prescriptive and some is just descriptive. I am not saying at all we should live in sin on purpose, but do not beat yourself up! Ephesians 4:30 30And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

See that! SEALED.
Instead of fear use love to motivate you. (I am working on this daily it is so hard!)
1 John 4:18 King James Version (KJV)
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

God Bless you Brother
 
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lamb7

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I hope this is wrong because if it isn't I am doomed

We sin everyday, sometimes without knowing it. We are not sinless. You are not doomed. If you are trusting in Jesus as your savior and his righteousness then you are ok. We should produce good fruit and not sin but let the Holy Spirit do His job. Do not worry ♥
 
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Chinchilla

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We don't keep it by works but we seem to be able to lose it by defiance and disobedience. The entire book of Hebrews deals with this.

No you can't lose it that's why you have dubts yourself . Eternal means forever , not for week or untill you will be bad person because everybody is bad Romans 3:10 , Romans 3:23 .

Book of Hebrews tells you there is no more sacrifice than this one , if you reject it then there is no more sacrifice for you .
 
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Stringfellow_Hawke

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You're in good company friend. I'm there with you and have struggled with the same question. Its easier said than done, but just simply trust the Bible. Don't lean into feelings as they are often deceptive.
 
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fhansen

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The truth is that you're now in a better place than you were before because now you're more convicted of sin, more certain of your need for God and His mercy, more desirous of righteousness, more like the Prodigal running back to the Father. The very purpose of our being here is so that we can taste of-we can know-both good and evil and finally begin to choose rightly between the two. It doesn't happen overnight; we don't start out holy, thinking so would be the sin of the Pharisees, which really just describes all human self-righteousness.

Jesus forgives continuously: seventy times seven; God's mercy is boundless for those who turn to Him, or back to Him. So don't let your interpretation of a few bible verses confound you or make you overly-scrupulous; Scripture isn't always perfectly easy to understand on all points.

This life is a journey, where we're challenged and expected to struggle and grow towards whatever God would have for us, towards being who He created us to be, doing the best we can with whatever we've been given. It's never a place where we assume we're already "there", and must not move or else we'll lose our place or our perfection or whatever. Rather God knows our weaknesses, Jesus died while we were yet in our sins; we'll stumble and fall but then we're expected to get back up again, to keep moving forward, to strive, to persevere, with His help.
 
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NYH

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Same for me. I nearly died from a stroke at age 48 and I had awful sins after being saved years ago...Maybe because the stroke saved me and I repented...When I wake up I say to myself that "thank god for giving me another day..." I put my faith in God and Jesus all the time...I need communication with Jesus every minute of every day....
 
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Southernscotty

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Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
It is your faith that saves you, Not your deeds. There is none that are righteous except Jesus. That is why we need a Savior. WE cannot stop sinning on our own!!
So what are we to do?

Repent, Confess your failures to God and explain that you cannot stop on your own and you need Him to remove them. and then Believe...
You are on a proverbial merry -go- round of faith and works friend. You cannot and will not ever be anything but a sinner just like everyone else.
However you are saved by Grace through your faith and this not of yourself, It is a gift.
1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
 
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aiki

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I backslid pretty bad after being saved for a long period of time... years. Did some pretty gross sins.

Why? What was it about your walk with God that allowed you to backslide?

After realizing that life is short after an event with my heart that gave me a scare, I've been cleaning the garbage out of my life.

God doesn't accept obedience to Him that isn't from a love motive. Do you love God? That's the reason you should desire to live a morally pure life. See Matthew 22:36-38 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

I want to live the rest of my life as a faithful Christian but I fear I've disqualified myself from the faith or in better words become a castaway.

True "castaways" don't desire to return to fellowship with God.


So, what does the Bible tell you is the means to victorious Christian living?

I try to place my faith in Christ and his sacrifice and then Hebrews 10:26-31 pops up in my mind. No more sacrifice for my sins remain?

Only if you've rejected Christ's sacrifice in favour of a life of sin. So long as a person lives this way, the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice can have no benefit to them. Any time, though, that you want to return to fellowship with God, you may (1 John 1:9). And when you do, Christ's sacrifice is once more of benefit to you.

I try to love people but then Hebrews 6 come to mind and then I wonder if my repentance is fake and if I am Esau.

All of your doubts will dissolve when you love God with all of your being. Do you love Him above all? That's the key to resting secure in your relationship with God. When you do love Him above all, you will never wonder if you're one of His.

2 Peter 19-21 pops up in my mind. 2 Timothy 2(I think) comes to mind where I've been disqualified. Goes on forever. So many verses condemning me. Even Ezekiel has a verse that condemns me.

Romans 8:1
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.


How do you know you are in Christ Jesus?

1 John 2:3-5
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.


What is the First and Great commandment of God? Where does obedience to God begin?

Matthew 22:37-38
37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and great commandment.


If you want to be confident that you are one of God's children, learn to love Him with all you are.


These thoughts won't bring you into loving fellowship with God. The apostle John explains:

1 John 4:16-19
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us.


Any thought or feeling that doesn't draw you nearer to God you ought to reject. Such thoughts and feelings are not of God. The devil, in particular, likes to drive a wedge of fear and condemnation between God and His children. Don't let him!

Let your mind dwell on the love that God has for you. Let it settle into your heart and mind. Believe it. And then daily, moment-by-moment, surrender yourself to the Holy Spirit who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. (Romans 5:5)
 
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