How Now Shall We Live?

[tsth]

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

In His Love,

Suzanne

[tsth]

There is a difference between the need for the feet to be washed daily from the dirt that is acquired from the daily walk.............and the intentional wading through a puddle of mud because it feels good. Can you see it?

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The law reveals to us what is sin, it is what we do about it when we are convicted, that sets us apart as His!

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Keith]

Excellent, Tsth!

Sin is an ugly truth we all have to face. If it's avoided, sin grows.

God gives us several resources for overcoming sinfulness. The Bible, The Holy Spirit and Prayer are the obvious ones. The other one is the Church. I think this is the resource many people tend to overlook/avoid. We are very uncomfortable confessing our sins to each other for fear of the shame, guilt and gossip that we make ourselves vulnerable to.

In Acts, the missionary journeys were sent out two by two. Not alone because where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in their midst (Matthew 18:20).

He commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, (which is what some do. I used to.) but to use that time for encouraging one another in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).

He tells us to confess our faults to one another (James 5:16). In the Old Testament, we are told that as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend (Proverbs 27:17) "A threefold cord is not easily broken." There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12).

Some people I know have brothers or sisters in Christ who get together by phone or in person and share how they are doing in their Christian walk, how they may have struggled, etc. and commit to pray for each other and hold each other accountable in applying God's Word to their relationships, etc.,

[Constant]

True that!

[Christ's Free Servant]

Excellent, Tsth!

Sin is an ugly truth we all have to face.  If it's avoided, sin grows. 

God gives us several resources for overcoming sinfulness.  The Bible, The Holy Spirit and Prayer are the obvious ones.  The other one is the Church.  I think this is the resource many people tend to overlook/avoid.  We are very uncomfortable confessing our sins to each other for fear of the shame, guilt and gossip that we make ourselves vulnerable to.

In Acts, the missionary journeys were sent out two by two.  Not alone because where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in their midst (Matthew 18:20).

He commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, (which is what some do.  I used to.) but to use that time for encouraging one another in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).

He tells us to confess our faults to one another (James 5:16).  In the Old Testament, we are told that as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend (Proverbs 27:17) "A threefold cord is not easily broken." There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12).

Some people I know have brothers or sisters in Christ who get together by phone or in person and share how they are doing in their Christian walk, how they may have struggled, etc. and commit to pray for each other and hold each other accountable in applying God's Word to their relationships, etc.,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Keith,

You are right on! And, so is Suzanne! Oh, how I wish these young adults would comprehend this, or even some of our older adults. We are trying to teach our young adults how to Overcome Sinful Habits in order to not "keep" sinning. We are trying to establish accountability partners. And, we are having some success, but I think this just fights against human nature. We are so afraid someone might judge us if they know we are struggling with a particular sin. But, what if? What if God, instead, helps us to encourage a brother or a sister who is struggling in the same way by our mere admission that we do not have it all together? Wow! That's a novel idea!! When we keep our sin a "secret" then it is too easy to keep on sinning. When we tell someone else, yes we risk their rejection, but a true friend loves at all times, but we also make ourselves then accountable to another person and that helps us then to not keep on sinning. And, that's the bottom line!!

[tsth]

Now we're talkin! This should be the working growth and function of the church. It is called accountability and encouragement. It is also a restrainer, which proves why in today's society things have gotten out of control, because THIS component and teaching of the church has as a whole gone by the wayside. We're having a hard time keeping the word "sin" within the sermons, muchless dealing with "how to deal with it" and acknowledging that ***gasp*** the church has to deal with sin within itself??? Oh my??? How can that be?

Sorry......ixnay on the arcasmsay...

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Keith]

CFS,

You said the dreaded "A" word: accountability. People, including Christians, seem to absolutely detest the idea! As I said in a previous post, it means becoming vulnerable to judgement, rejection, gossip and unacceptance from others. The wonderful thing is, God knows it all anyway! As Botz so plainly said in another thread about Jesus knocking on our door and would we let him in, "He already knows the state of my house and He already knows the state of my heart, so, yes, I would let Him in." (Paraphrasing)

It's a matter of placing time (and our relationship) with God as our first priority. As you so eloquently put it in another thread (again, I'm paraphrasing), we wouldn't ignore or treat someone we were in a love relationship the way we sometimes ignore/treat God! And His love is unconditional!

Knowing we are in a battle against the spiritual forces of darkness, Satan and his army, then we should want as much help as we can gather.

[Shane]

A quote I love from a Puritan preacher

John Owen

"Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until he be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so will he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death."

- John Owen

[Christ's Free Servant]

Honestly, I think churches are not talking about sin, because they don't want to offend anyone and it might mean people leaving the church, heaven forbid!

I think I told this story before, but I'm going to tell it again. We had our college ministry under a church (our choice) because we thought it would bring in more people. It got off to a great start, and we chose a new name for the ministry. My son chose the name "This Space Available." At first I thought he was just kidding, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the name. I thought, you know, that really says it.

The next step, among many, was to choose a logo (because that is what we do these days). So, we got thinking about the space that was available. I pictured people in the church with the doors open and a feeling of welcome, and then I thought, "what if we are not that friendly?" Is that really where we want to put our focus? I actually had a lot of thoughts running through my head and tried several different scenarios with the help of my husband and our very own graphics artist.

Then, one night at our meeting everything fell apart. People did not show up to help who were supposed to help, the band was not that great, people were not friendly to visitors but instead hung out with people they know (typical of this age group, I know), the food wasn't that great, etc. Then, during P&W we had two songs that really hit the nail on the head for me.

The first song was: "I'm coming back to the heart of worship. It's all about you. It's all about you, Jesus. I'm sorry, Lord, for the things I've made it. It's all about you."

And, another one:

"It's still the cross

It's still the blood of Calvary

That cleanses sin

And sets the captive free

It's still the name

The name of Jesus that has pow'r

To save the lost

It's still the cross."

I knew what God was saying to me. He said it is not about us or about our programs or our band or our speakers or our food, because all those things will disappoint us and they will not satisfy the longings of our soul. The cross is the space that is available, and it was made available to us by Jesus.

So, our graphics artist drew the crucifixion with an arrow pointing to Christ's empty cross with the words: "THIS SPACE AVAILABLE" meaning it is available for us because he died for our sins and he rose again and now he has made the space available for us to be crucified with Christ.

So, we put the new logo on our college newsletter and submitted it to the church for publication. We got it back with this note attached: "We have removed the logo from your newsletter, because it does not represent what this church is about." Wow! I thought if this church is not about the cross of Christ and our need to be crucified with Christ, then this is not where our ministry belongs. But, we continued to submit to the authorities and we removed the logo. Then, the ministry died a slow, painful death.

The head deacon met with the remaining members of our ministry and told us that he believed we should go Independent because he believed God had something he wanted us to do in this community and he prophesied that God had a building for us, too, which we are still waiting on God to provide (waiting in full faith and expectation). He knew we were not welcome in that church. He knew the undercurrent, even though we had been completely submissive. God had given us the message of the cross and the crucified life, but that is not what people want to hear. They want to hear the good things. Hey, I think there are some scriptures about that, aren't there?

[Christ's Free Servant]

CFS,

You said the dreaded "A" word: accountability.  People, including Christians, seem to absolutely detest the idea!  As I said in a previous post, it means becoming vulnerable to judgement, rejection, gossip and unacceptance from others.  The wonderful thing is, God knows it all anyway!  As Botz so plainly said in another thread about Jesus knocking on our door and would we let him in, "He already knows the state of my house and He already knows the state of my heart, so, yes, I would let Him in."  (Paraphrasing)

It's a matter of placing time (and our relationship) with God as our first priority.  As you so eloquently put it in another thread (again, I'm paraphrasing), we wouldn't ignore or treat someone we were in a love relationship the way we sometimes ignore/treat God!  And His love is unconditional!

Knowing we are in a battle against the spiritual forces of darkness, Satan and his army, then we should want as much help as we can gather.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Keith,

You are so right! The other difficult part of the whole accountability partner thing is finding an accountability partner of the same sex (or with your spouse). Some have friends or spouses that are not believers or who are not at that level in their relationship with Jesus to where they would understand the whole accountability thing. Now, I think marital partners should tell each other everything - there should be no secrets between a husband and a wife - but if the other partner is not particularly sensitive or understanding or helpful or if that marital partner seizes the opportunity to prey on that person's weakness and to exploit his or her weakness, or even if that marital partner (or accountability partner) is not strong enough in his or her faith and perhaps has a similar weakness, then that person could actually end up encouraging that person to sin instead of helping him or her out of the sin. Or, you might actually help lead your accountability partner into sin (not on purpose) by sharing your sins with him or her if he or she shares a similar weakenss and is not strong enough in his or her faith to handle it. My point is, you have to find an accountability partner that: 1. you know you can trust, 2. has a great relationship with Jesus, 3. will not lead you into sin and 4. will actually hold you accountable. This is a rare find indeed these days.