Gregor:
I will pray for Allen Taylor and for your efforts to reach him for the Lord. However, Allen should realize that Salvation is not about beating a drug addiction, it's not about getting a good job, or a car, or wealth, or happiness while we live here on Earth. In fact, the Lord warned us, and experience bears it out, that there will come times when we will experience difficult times precisely because of our relationship with the Lord.
Salvation is about a relationship with God the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ and with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Using Salvation as a way to attempt to beat a drug addiction obscures the true point. Allen, and all who seek, must earnestly desire the personal, one-on-one relationship with God. Once they seek that relationship by confessing their sins (we have all fallen short and sinned) and asking for forgiveness through the power of the Lord Jesus, then these other things will fall into place in due course.
Where before there was a relationship with drugs, that relationship can be replaced with a relationship with God. Where before there was a relationship with illicit sex, that relationship can be replaced with a relationship with God. Where before there was a relationship with the constant attempt to accumulate wealth, or advance in one's job, or to drive a bigger car, or abusing a spouse or child, and every other thing that is driven by our sinful human natures, those relationships can be replaced with a relationship with God.
Gregor, it sounds like Allen is not truly seeking this glorious relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ that we are experiencing. It's the relationship that, once established, becomes the all-consuming force in one's life. I will pray that Allen will come to seek a personal relationship with the Lord.
In Christ, Tom |
