tsth Posted August 6, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 297 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 5,586 Content Per Day: 0.69 Reputation: 193 Days Won: 1 Joined: 04/09/2002 Status: Offline Author Share Posted August 6, 2014 Dear Willamina, I'm so glad to hear that your previous church got on the right track...it sounds like it really needed to. And your current church sounds on track too. You're so very blessed that your church does practice this. I hope these things are stressed with regard to your young adults and teens. This is the group I'm really concerned about, as they are constantly faced with decisions of purity...and if they are being held accountable I think it helps to build them up...especially if they are holding each other accountable. It's so important that someone is teaching this to them. In His Love, Suzanne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlelambseativy Posted August 6, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 6 Topic Count: 230 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 4,941 Content Per Day: 0.95 Reputation: 2,003 Days Won: 14 Joined: 02/08/2010 Status: Offline Share Posted August 6, 2014 I can think of no better place for a sinner than in a church. You say to go out to them - how many of you go out to the sinners in the streets on a regular basis ? If so, I would then imagine you do not invite them to church until the accept Jesus? We are all sinners saved by the grace of God and perhaps unlike all of you I need God's forgiveness daily and I would invite any sinner to my church. Am I a part of Jesus' church, the Bride? Absolutely!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenEagle Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 764 Topics Per Day: 0.18 Content Count: 7,626 Content Per Day: 1.81 Reputation: 1,559 Days Won: 44 Joined: 10/03/2012 Status: Offline Share Posted August 7, 2014 I can think of no better place for a sinner than in a church. You say to go out to them - how many of you go out to the sinners in the streets on a regular basis ? If so, I would then imagine you do not invite them to church until the accept Jesus? We are all sinners saved by the grace of God and perhaps unlike all of you I need God's forgiveness daily and I would invite any sinner to my church. Am I a part of Jesus' church, the Bride? Absolutely!!! Curious as to your definition of "saint" Little? A typical definition is "a Christian believer" which is what I think Qnts2 was basically trying to say. Our identities are no longer as sinners as Believers. Not because of anything we've deserve or done in our own strength. We are all who believe in Jesus saints because when God looks at us He only sees Jesus's holiness. His holiness trumps our sin. Make sense? I think a lot of Believers have a hard time with the idea that we are all saints who are part of the Church. It's not just Mother Teresa or others. God bless, GE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Openly Curious Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 55 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 4,568 Content Per Day: 0.68 Reputation: 770 Days Won: 0 Joined: 01/18/2006 Status: Offline Share Posted August 7, 2014 I agree Qnts2..........and technically, we've misunderstood the great commission and the setup of the church. Church was supposed to be, if you will, a classroom setting for the believer, to be equipped to fulfill the great commission, which was to "GO out unto them", then if they are willing to receive The Word of Truth, they come into the church to be equipped, edified as well, to be able to "go out" and lead others unto the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church of today, has it all backwards and just like the breaking fellowship issue, we have not set up the church correctly as instructed in the Scriptures. But, rather have set it up according to the desires of men, rather than the desires of God. In His Love,SuzanneI agree tsth wholehearted that the Church is for equipping the believers that the Lord adds to the Church after salvation. The Church should be a training ground according to Ephesians 4 bringing the babes in Christ to a place of Christian maturity or adulthood in the Lord. In order that they can do the work of the ministry. This biblical structure of the Church is becoming more and more abandoned in churches of today.Any sexual immorality of any kind that is permitted or allowed to continue within the members of Christ's body only teaches that it is okay to do. There are so many churches and church leaders today that are accepting those living in fornication instead of breaking fellowship with them. This is to be done in order to teach them not to sin. There is a church in the area that I live in that put a peron out of the church because she was having sex outside of marriage. It was a young lady who had two children out of wedlock and she lost a third child out of wedlock as it died at birth from complications from the umbilical cord. But today she has gotten back in church though in a different church in another area as she has moved since then. She no longer is in fornication today and is still single. I believe if the Church she attended had not excommunicated her then she would not have learned not to sin in Christ's body and been restored to right fellowship.The scripture passage in 1 Cor. 5 shows to hand them over to Satan that they may "learn" not to sin. Fornication shouldn't be accepted to go on within Christ's Body the Church or among it's members. Those in fornication need to "learn" and excommunication will do just that it will teach them and give them time to consider their lifestyle in hopes of coming to a place of repentance and reconciliation. I seen it work firsthand in this ladies life so I know it works and I believe in the practice.Great topic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsth Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 297 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 5,586 Content Per Day: 0.69 Reputation: 193 Days Won: 1 Joined: 04/09/2002 Status: Offline Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 I really do wonder why 1 Cor. 5 is not received as Truth and taught as Truth to congregations? I'm sure that the church is no longer viewed as "the salt of the earth", because of the lack of this teaching and the lack of the teachings on purity. My dd who was being ridiculed within her own college age group, for speaking against fornication and breaking fellowship w/another because of it, was really hurting. It was difficult for her to see that within the church body this idea is greatly contested. I gave her these passages for edification: 1 Thess. 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. Did you see these words? "your sanctification" Wow, in this day and time, especially for young adults where fornication is recreational, this is so true! This is what will set them apart. It really has been difficult for her, within the church! Because the elders are not speaking about purity in blunt terms..with regard to the fact that Christians should be behaving differently, (in sanctification) They should be living differently! And the young adults should be encouraged in this. As I started looking into the passages above, I started seeing a pattern in Scriptures with regard to sanctification and sexual purity, in other places in the Bible. Sexual immorality IS the issue today, and we've got to start strengthening our kids/young adults to realize that purity is what will set them apart. In His Love, Suzanne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneLight Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 22 Topic Count: 1,294 Topics Per Day: 0.21 Content Count: 31,762 Content Per Day: 5.23 Reputation: 9,762 Days Won: 115 Joined: 09/14/2007 Status: Offline Share Posted August 7, 2014 The brother that was put out was a representative of the body, not someone who has not accepted Christ. I would go as far as to say that they were not a new believer either, but one who was considered a solid member of the local church. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsth Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 297 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 5,586 Content Per Day: 0.69 Reputation: 193 Days Won: 1 Joined: 04/09/2002 Status: Offline Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 The brother that was put out was a representative of the body, not someone who has not accepted Christ. I would go as far as to say that they were not a new believer either, but one who was considered a solid member of the local church. Dear OneLight, I'm assuming that you are commenting on the passages from 1 Cor. 5. I also would add that when these things happen with one who claims to be a believer, it brings shame upon the name of Christ...in a sense one is using the name of Christ in vain(Christian) when they behave in this way and are a "known/professing Christian". Makes me think of this passage: Romans 2:21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as it is written. Christians are supposed to behave as Christians. In His Love, Suzanne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlelambseativy Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 6 Topic Count: 230 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 4,941 Content Per Day: 0.95 Reputation: 2,003 Days Won: 14 Joined: 02/08/2010 Status: Offline Share Posted August 7, 2014 So, to get this clear in my mind, all of you say the church( not the body of Christ) is for Christians only. No sinner should attend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsth Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 297 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 5,586 Content Per Day: 0.69 Reputation: 193 Days Won: 1 Joined: 04/09/2002 Status: Offline Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 Dear Littlelambs, Please go back to the original post, and just focus on what the Word says. This is what the topic is about. In His Love, Suzanne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenEagle Posted August 7, 2014 Group: Royal Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 764 Topics Per Day: 0.18 Content Count: 7,626 Content Per Day: 1.81 Reputation: 1,559 Days Won: 44 Joined: 10/03/2012 Status: Offline Share Posted August 7, 2014 So, to get this clear in my mind, all of you say the church( not the body of Christ) is for Christians only. No sinner should attend! No idea where you got that idea from? Saints are Believers. The Lost are those who have not believed in Jesus. The local church is first for evangelism (proclamation of the Gospel) and second for discipleship (growth through the Holy Spirit's teaching, prayer, reading God's Word, studying God's worth with others, fasting, etc.) . God bless, GE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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