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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sidney Reilly who wrote (11163)	2/22/1998 8:53:00 AM
From: Sidney Reilly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

To All Visitors, Welcome; I want to say something about one of the devil's favorite and highly successful ploys to keep people away from Jesus. First understand that when a person is born again and accepts Jesus as Savior it is a spiritual transformation that takes place. We are then sealed by the Holy Spirit as a promise. Consider what we were saved from. A state of sin. This state of sin is a state of being, not the acts of being sinful (things we do that we call sin, stealing, lying). When we have a cold and cough we don't call the cough a cold because it is only a symptom of the state of having a cold. If we have a cold we cough, when we are in a state of sin we steal, lie. So then we are saved from the state of sin and sealed, but the flesh profits nothing from this!! As the word says we are still in "this body of sin". So then every christian is thrust into conflict with his/her body of sin as sin tries to rule through the body and righteousness through the Holy Spirit. So as a result of this conflict christians are seen coughing, sometimes manifesting symptoms of sin that still struggles to rule through our flesh. Now the devil has been very clever and used this to alienate hords of non-believers who see the outward sign, "coughing", when the "body of sin" gains a temporary advantage. The devil says look at him, he is sinning and he's a christian, dripping with sarcasm. People are put off by this outward sign of what they think is hypocrisy not understanding the meaning of what they see and the underlying struggle. This successfully keeps a lot of people from going to church and being saved. If we could look at our brothers and understand the struggle (and maybe they are losing the struggle at that particular time) we would have more compassion. We have to be overwhelmingly grateful to the Lord for our forgiveness in the face of our unworthiness. Now what about the ones who give in to the sin and quit for a time to struggle sincerely against the "body of sin". Well first there is grace but after a time discipline by the Lord. God says he will not be mocked (by those who use His grace as a license to sin). Whatever we sow we will also reap (in this life). So God's judgement is just. We all suffer loss for our deeds now if our deeds are sin and we do not repent, but in the next life salvation with our Lord. The devil's schemes are many and some are tailored for the masses and some for individuals. That schemer hates to see any slip from his grasp and he has the full court press on to anyone who is getting close to turn them back from Jesus and His salvation. How can anyone be saved? Romans 10: 8-13 8 "But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that is if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED". 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; 13 for,"WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED". Have a great day, Bob

To: Sidney Reilly who wrote (11163)	3/8/1998 12:00:00 PM
From: Sidney Reilly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 39621

The Freedom Of The Will It is inherent in the nature of man that his will must be free. Made in the image of God who is completely free, man must enjoy a measure of freedom. This enables him to select his companions for this world and the next; it enables him to yield his soul to whom he will, to give allegiance to God or the devil, to remain a sinner or become a saint. And God respects this freedom. God once saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. To find fault with the smallest thing God has made is to find fault with it's maker. It is a false humility that would lament that God wrought but imperfectly when He made man in His own image. Sin excepted, there is nothing in human nature to apologize for. This was confirmed forever when the Eternal Son became permanently incarnated in human flesh. So highly does God regard His handiwork that He will not for any reason violate it. For God to over ride man's freedom and force him to act contrary to his own will would be to make a mockery of the image of God in man. This God will never do. Our Lord Jesus looked after the rich young ruler as he walked away, but He did not follow him or attempt to coerce him. The dignity of the young man's humanity forbade that his choices should be made for him by another. To remain a man he must make his own moral choices; and Christ knew this and permitted him to go his own chosen way. If his human choice took him at last to hell, at least he went there a man; and it is better for the moral universe that he should do so than that he should be jockeyed to a heaven he did not choose, a soulless, will-less automaton. God will take nine steps towards us, but He will not take the tenth. He will incline us to repent, but He cannot do our repenting for us. It is of the essence of repentance that it can only be done by the one who committed the act to be repented of. God can wait on the sinning man; He can with-hold judgement; He can exercise long-suffering to the point where He appears "lax" in His judicial administration; but He cannot force a man to repent. To do this would be to violate the man's freedom and void the gift God originally bestowed upon him. Where there is no freedom of choice there can be neither sin nor righteousness, because it is of the nature of both that they are voluntary. However good an act may be, it is not good if it is imposed from without. The act of imposition destroys the moral content of the act and renders it null and void. For an act to be sinful the quality of voluntariness must also be present. Sin is the voluntary commission of an act known to be contrary to the will of God. Where there is no moral knowledge or where there is no voluntary choice, the act is not sinful; it cannot be, for sin is the transgression of the law and transgression must be voluntary. Lucifer became satan when he made his fateful choice: "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Clearly there was a choice made against light. Both knowledge and will were present in the act. Conversely, Christ revealed His holiness when He cried in His agony, "Not My will, but Thine be done." Here was a deliberate choice made with the full knowledge of the consequences. Here two wills were in temporary conflict, the lower will of the Man who was God and the higher will of the God who was Man, and the higher will prevailed. Here also was seen in glaring contrast the enormous difference between Christ and satan; and that difference divides saint from sinner and heaven from hell. But someone may ask, "When we pray 'Not my will, but Thine be done,' are we not voiding our will and refusing to exercise the very power of choice which is part of the image of God in us?" The answer to that question is flat No, but the whole thing deserves further explanation. No act that is done voluntarily is an abrogation of the freedom of will. If man chooses the will of God he is not denying but exercising his right of choice. What he is doing is admitting that he is not good enough to desire the highest choice nor is he wise enough to make it, and he is for that reason asking Another who is both wise and good to make his choice for him. And for fallen man this is the ultimate use he should make of his freedom of will. Tennyson saw this and wrote to Christ, Thow seemest human and divine, The highest, holiest manhood, Thou; Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, we make them Thine. There is a lot of sound doctrine in these words - "Our wills are ours, to make them Thine." The secret of saintliness is not the destruction of the will but the submergence of it in the will of God. The true saint is one who acknowledges that he possesses from God the gift of freedom. He knows that he will never be cudgeled into obedience nor wheedled like a petulant child into doing the will of God; he knows that these methods are unworthy both of God and of his own soul. He knows he is free to make any choice he will, and with that knowledge he chooses forever the blessed will of God. A.W. Tozer from That Incredible Christian