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RE: Be Holy? - 11/13/2008 3:18:05 AM
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MsMerry
Posts: 1
Joined: 11/13/2008
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If you confess your sins he is faithful an just to forgive you an cleanse you from all unrightiousness, he never leaves you never forsakes you.. and will always love you an forgive you. He's my best friend. To know him is to Love Him. Be .. like Jesus to do his will from the heart. and with his help it is possible, to live his word to do his will to be his people.
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RE: Be Holy? - 11/13/2008 10:57:44 AM
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drmark
Posts: 4522
Joined: 7/10/2006
Status: online
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quote:
God, please make me aware of temptation so I can refrain from sinning! Can a person commit a specific sin if s/he is not aware of a specific temptation?
_____________________________
Jeremiah 31:31-34. The time is NOW, fellow saints!
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RE: Be Holy? - 11/13/2008 5:51:40 PM
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jbow
Posts: 232
Joined: 2/16/2007
From: Dixie
Status: offline
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Well... I read a couple of page, scanned a few more, skipped to the end and scanned a bit more.
So often I see people who I know agree but cannot seem to see it. We all know that we shouldn't sin and we all know that we sometimes do. Some seem to think that sins of omission are the same as sine of comission, and maybe they are in consequence. Some seem to think that sins of thought or sins that we don't even realize we are comitting are on the same level as sins like adultery or murder. I reckon that they are all going to result in death without Jesus.
This is what I have come to believe through a lifetime of failure and grace...
I believe that God saved me. I used to thing that I decided to come to Him but I have come to see that He gave me faith and I believed. I believed as a child. I had a very simple faith that was attended by no knowledge. It was only a faith that Jesus was born of a virgin, was the Son of God, lived a sinless life, died for my sin, was buried and was raised three days later, that He saved me and I believed it. I went into my teenage years as worldly as any other boy in America. I hit 18 in 1970 and did my part to support the drug culture... all the while knowing that I was saved. I had VERY little knowledge, but I never for a second thought I wasn't saved. In my early 20s I went to a David Wilkerson crusade and from that began to go to an AG church... I became very interested in all things Bible and had quite an enfatuation with it but I still had no understanding of grace and when the "new" wore off and the flesh came with it's sparkly things and I wanted them... I began to drift to sin. Since I didn't understand grace I based my new found relationship with the Lord, (as opposed to my faith), on my performance and the deception of sin made me hide, like Adam. I went on several decades of being on a spiritual "roller coaster"... trying really hard to be perfect, only to fall and slide way down because I did not understand grace.
Finally... finally... I have begun to understand grace. Let me explain what I mean... I thought that the gospel was that Jesus was the Son of God, lived a sinless life, died for my sins, and was raised for my justification. I did not see that I was made RIGHT WITH GOD through it. I fully believed in the ghistorical event but failed to see what I did for me. I failed to believe the gospel as it applies.
To believe the gospel is to believe that what God has done is that He has removed the wall between Him and me. He has removed my sin from me. He has made me clean. He has made me white as snow. He has made me spotless and without wrinkle. He is NO LONGER MY ENEMY... HE IS MY FATHER...
He LOVES me... there is no condemnation for me.
Now, if I forget who I am and what I have in Him... I sin. I have no power over sin in myself. If I forget or become deceived into thinking somewhere in the back of my mind that God may be unhappy with me... that He may be going to judge me and condemn me... I lose all power over sin. For me, the power to live a holy life comes through faith, by grace... just like justification.
If we are justified... we are justified. If we are justified, God does not impute sin to us. He has laid it all on Jesus. Some may say that this is a liscense to sin but it is not, it is the power of God unto sanctification. Being relieved from the guilyt of sin also relieves from the ppwer of sin. We are dead to sin, sin has no power over us, it cannot condemn us because we are in Christ. We may bring sorrow upon ourselves and upon others, we may live a miserable life but we are still justified.
See... when we are born again we are made alive. Up to that point all we have is 'flesh', all we have is the capacity to sin and no inclination toward God or righteousness. Before we are born again all our thoughts are rebellious and evil all the time. When God regenerates us, we see the Kingdom of God and we see His truth and we believe... and are justified.
From that point we are made alive. We no longer have only the 'flesh' but now we live in the Spirit!! However, we still have the capacity to walk in the flesh but we also have the command to walk in the Spirit.
So, we go from being dead with only one option to being alive wiht two options.
If we don't understand grace we will inevitably try to establish our own righteousness, even though we are totally righteous already. We cannot see it because rather than believing God we believe our own mind which deceives us. Grace says that we are justified, forgiven, clean, and pure. That we cannot sin.
Paul said that it is not longer us, but sin in us.
If you cannot feel the struggle, you have not been born again. Once you are born again there is a war. There is awar because there is now LIFE in you. If you walk in the flesh you'll be miserable, not lost but miserable. If you walk in the Spirit you will have peace and joy... It is a matter of understanding who we are in Christ, a matter of understanding grace.
That is what I believe. I believe that we may sin but we are still justified. I believe that once we understand that God is not our enemy but always our Father and that we are eternally secure with Him... then we can overcome sin and the flesh.
It is His love that brings us to repentance. It is His love that draws us, justifies us, and sanctifies us. It is His love that will not fail. He will complete what He has started. That is my faith... and only when I know I am secure in Him do I have power to live any sort of godly life.
So, I don't sin to become holy but since I am holy, I don't sin. Since sin is not imputed to me... it has no power over me. I have died to it and am freed from it and it's power.
I'm not the best at explaining myself so I hope I have not been confusing.
I have done horrible things in my life, most of it after being saved and God has NOT tossed me out. He still loves me and He still loves you...
I've been re-reading a book on sanctification by Walter Marshall. I recommend it highly...
http://www.monergismbooks.com/The-Gospel-Mystery-of-Sanctification-PB-p-17152.html
I've also been reading Thomas Watson and re-reading "Experiencing God's Power Today" by Smith Wigglesworth (an odd mix I know).
All i really know is that God has had ample excuse to blot my name out from His book of life, if you connsider sin to be a reason. He is still here. I only have power over sin when I understand that I am forgiven and secure and that if I sin.. He does not throw me out. It take's the power of sin away.
Julien
_____________________________
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
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RE: Be Holy? - 11/13/2008 8:37:20 PM
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drmark
Posts: 4522
Joined: 7/10/2006
Status: online
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quote:
However, we still have the capacity to walk in the flesh but we also have the command to walk in the Spirit.
So, we go from being dead with only one option to being alive wiht two options. Julien, how long can a Christian remain "alive" while walking in the flesh?
quote:
If we don't understand grace we will inevitably try to establish our own righteousness, even though we are totally righteous already. We cannot see it because rather than believing God we believe our own mind which deceives us. Grace says that we are justified, forgiven, clean, and pure. That we cannot sin.
Paul said that it is not longer us, but sin in us. If we "are totally righteous" then why do Christians still sin? Are you saying that we only sin when our minds are deceived? So does that mean we're not responsible for our sin? Please cite a Bible passage that states God's grace makes us unable to sin.
_____________________________
Jeremiah 31:31-34. The time is NOW, fellow saints!
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