8 replies to this topic

[Candice]

"I do what I ought to do
When I ought to do it
Not when I want to do it
No excuses!

Guess that settles doubts I have on procrastinating!

Candice

[chipped china]

Good luck trying to get me to live by that! lol

[Kevin Blankenship]

And we have a winner!!!!!!  Chipped China......your answer and my answer are SO very alike.  As a Christian, I feel DUTY-BOUND.....to READ MY BIBLE.....and SPEND TIME IN PRAYER.  (And there are OTHER musts....but those are two main one's).  But by 9pm, and an hour and a half before any decent persons bedtime........I, all of a sudden, think: "Wait!!!! I haven't even read a single bit of the Bible today!!!! And I have not prayed for ANY lost souls!!"  That sort of stuff should just come naturally to me. And it does not.  I have read pleanty of testimonies of people saying: "When I invited Christ to be the Lord of my Life, I immediately started LOVING my Bible and Loving to pray."   Those testimonies would bring me up and give me SO MUCH hope when I first felt the draw of God upon my soul to have a closer walk with Him. But as time passes......and it has.........I find that I have been such a miserable failure at Loving God and neighbor. And reading the bible and prayer.  I have to inventory myself and find out how much or if God has changed me AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!! I have now taken to calling myself a man of faith.  Because I DO have this......'not so popular with the world'....ability to believe what is written in the Bible.  I just have a very difficult time trying to fit myself in there!!!! Me? A person who is so fraught with so many quirks. And so little resolve. It's almost as if (and this scares the daylights out of me) I am trying to force my way in to the Kingdom......but since i wasn't one of the 'predestined'.......I am seeing so few results.

   Sure....I quit drinking and doping. I know MANY nonbelievers who have done that and can name them.

  But just tell me!!!!!! What choice do I have???? (I have digressed.....sorry).   I SURELY am not going to willingly embrace HELLFIRE!!!!! I believe what is written in the Bible!!!!!  I believe that we will be separated some on the left, some on the right......goats and sheep.  I woke up this morning with the horrifying thought that I am not happy. I have prayed that God take away my "too intense" love of my hobbies. He has done that. No longer do they give me ONE OUNCE of fulfillment. I am sitting here just a shell of a man. I keep saying this over and over and over and I am often chided and y'all likely roll your eyes saying.....there's Kevin's typical response. But it's my eternal destiny at stake here!!!!! And I feel that I am failing at being a good Christian. I feel that I am UNABLE to be a good Christian. And I have asked God to help. He seems to have given up on the notion.  So now......my hobbies are no longer ...fun. And I have lost interest in opening the Bible and reading words written thousands of years ago and then trying to apply it to me. Am I possessed by a demon?????!!!!!! I have prayed that God would deliver me if I am. I am so cold. SO unmoved by things that should bring tears. By lost people going to hell as they die everyday. The long and short of it: I just don't 'get it'.  How can what happened 2000 years ago have any bearing on me now. The heavens remain silent. (listen to my hypocritical hind-end trying to wax spiritual.....'the heavens'......something I picked up in my reading.)  I conclude that I am all talk. I have learned the talk.  I cannot walk the walk.  Sorry for this complete bummer of a post. I truly pray that no one who has never been saved reads this. They will likely run from Christianity. But where else do I say this. My pastor?  Yeah, right.  To him, I am just a new member. The numbers are growing. The last few days have been so cold and empty. If my post is boring anyone, please.....for YOUR sake......pass on by.  The thread is a good one. Started by a good person. Please...respond to her first post. Not my ceaseless drivel. It's becoming sickening even to my own ears. I can only imagine what it's like to have to read it over and over by me. To know God.....and NOT to KNOW God.  What a horrible thing.

  PS: Chipped China.......thanks for your wonderful honesty. I am drawn to that type of candidness. At first I was going to post a similar thing. But I think that you have got your ducks in a row. You are on that narrow path. I keep getting tangled in the brambles on either side. 

[Candice]

Settle down now little doggies! This is the point someone keeps driving at and it's my rhetorical post to question anything but GRACE to be saved!!

I have at least 20 tasks to complete but my own winter laziness has me waiting for warmer weather. Then , I thought of this person's favorite slogan which I heard a lot recently (from my newly saved neighbor and how I can minister to her about this with much prayer) and it was then applied to what I hear on Lordship salvation which is an overarching theme of what some (MacArthur, Sproul) term real salvation which is just grace plus works equals salvation. I'm priming the pump since I will hear the whole deal in Sunday school this morning. Pray for me to sit in my seat gracefully hearing and willingly forgiving the works mentality of the teacher.

Do you all think I believe this or do this?? I'm being funny

After the Roman Catholicism I grew up in, this is sickening

Of course, we have lots to do. But we are not under the ought to laws

[Ginger]

Welp, old earthy and gut level sort of come to my rescue.... Kevin... I can get all tuned up and beat myself down so reckon it's a bit hard for me to restrain meself from writing in a manner that I've come to view as unbecoming... it's not unbecoming really just unacceptable to basic Christian verbiage ...  Reckon if I were to think of Peter, or Paul, or Timothy or John or Matthew, or Mark, or any of the men of the church beginnings ... well, reckon there is a little written of their daily difficulties.... Some men have said the Christian life is not difficult that it is impossible.... These men were and/or are godly God fearing men.  So I pray that the LORD will take ya to the place of just being able to be Kevin his beloved disciple who has quirks is human and can't live the Christian life any better than you do .... your honesty is a blessing!!!!  God is at work in 'us' to will and to do of His good pleasure and reckon He knows something about pleasure and letting 'us' enjoy Him and the things that He blesses us with.  Being blessed to easy does it as I ponder the quirks of Mary and Martha .... each had things to do and we don't get to enjoy but a bit that is written..... unless..... <Grin>  we can read a little and ponder about how things may have been and the LORD grace us to come to an understanding.... in the mean time it can be mean at times..... Here Candice and Chipped China and you are sharing and my we self is most comfortable with each of you in heart, spirit, and thoughts.... About all the things people do or don't do.... welp, reckon one may enjoy an air gun, and another may enjoy the breeze blowing and the sun shining.... while another may enjoy cooking up something to eat.... some clean house, some clean a barn, some go fishing, some run companies, whatever any person does each and every breath is because God's design works as He designed it to work... you, Chipped China, Candice, any and all of us who are HIS body .... we are HIS WORKMANSHIP and HE IS AT WORK IN US TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE.... hmmm.... Reckon the LORD is more satisfied with HIS beloved than any one of us ever will be.... Reckon we can enjoy an inhale and an exhale, maybe the pets He's let us have... or a bird or a squirrel or whatever... smelling a flower or a pot of coffee brewing.... We can enjoy and we can easy does it coz it's the blessing of he LORD that we have this moment to do any function from breathing to being productive... in anything and in nothing at all too.... Tis all for us to enjoy and give thanks for coz He KNOWS how messed up we can become in a heart beat with thinking something.... we are loved by God and it's good to move out to do any wee thing as 'being loved'.......... God give you  some more of His tender mercies .....  .... ya dun got grace and faith and are a man of faith... and also being sanctified and matured as each of us are moment to moment UNTIL.... we see HIM. GRACE, MERCY, PEACE.... I be glad to just be glad this right now moment... the next I trust will be okay too....  LOL remember 24/7 in Catholic girls school for last year of basic schooling.... had some real surrogate Moms who could be really human at times... <Grin>... It is what it is... and our thoughts can be blessings at times and well that be nuff for this now moment.... I hush..... and give thanks.... Praise God I didn't go and get uncouth... and forgot the uncouth thoughts I had too... I doubt that I'll fret meself over them there exhortations to not procrastinate.... When GOD HIMSELF wants me to do a thing it gets DUN...most other stuff is jus 'stuff'.... Grace upon Grace to you!!!!!

Edited by Ginger, 23 February 2014 - 04:41 PM.

[Kevin Blankenship]

Sorry for hijacking your post Candace.  I was in a foul mood and should have taken it elsewhere......but I SINCERELY appreciate the great replies.  I really do.  And I'm not so selfish as to think that they were just for me.......but I was edified by them. For real!!! Edified!!! 

  You brought up an interesting phrase that I read (and hear, when I am listening to Tozer's sermons online) about sometimes. Lordship salvation. If I understand Tozer correctly.......during the time of his ministry,  there was a popular teaching going through the evangelical circles that said: "You can accept Christ as your Savior this morning.,......and then, at some later date, you can take Him as your Lord." And then Tozer, in the way that only he can do, goes on to say that this is all fallacy.  Dividing the offices of Christ  cannot be done no more than dividing the person of Christ.  He goes on, and I quote.....but not verbatim:  "You cannot take Christ as Saviour and then decide later, at some opportune time, to take Him as your Lord.  When one receives Christ, one must take Him all of Him. For He cannot be divided."   Now, I never heard Tozer actually use the term "Lordship salvation".  I haven't really heard the topic brought up in current circles of Christians. I always just assumed that when I made the decision for Jesus to take First Priority in my life......that it meant that Jesus is now the Lord of my life.  I mean.......Jesus Christ IS referred to as "Lord" in the Bible.  And He is referred to as Savior. And Alpha. And Omega. And God. And Emmanuel. The Word.  And, if the Bible calls Him all those things, then I have absolutely no problem in believing that He is everything the Bible says He is. Or else, the Bible is errant.  And I just simply cannot believe for one minute that the Scriptures contain anything but the truth, and nothing but the truth.

   Candace, I am certainly not taking issue with your stance. Because I am uncertain of what it is. It seems, from your first post, that you are not too keen on Lordship Salvation.  So since I am fairly ignorant of much of that aspect of theology, I really don't know why I launched into the sentences that I wrote. I just wrote 'em. Just to clarify my position I reckon. Not to spar with ya. (I'd have to study up to do that...lol) (Have y'all had a hard winter in Wyoming?  We have had a colder than usual one here in Tennessee.) Peace.

[Candice]

Kevin and Ginger,

I can't put this kind of thing out here any more. When will I get it that people don't get my sarcasm which is really not godly! Well, Paul was sarcastic, but he had entire epistles to explain his views based on grace and I don't. Sorry Kevin and Ginger. Really. I'm making a point that I hear this and think there's truth in it. Kind of like "Just Do It", but I want to help my newly saved neighbor to look at this against the light of God's grace.

[Kevin Blankenship]

Ohhhhhhhh. Okay. I get it now. Sorry about that. I never have been accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer. lol It's all good.

[Ginger]

Candice

 

Wrote a lot and deleted it coz it was just me be' n wordy...

 

I thank God for you Candice.

 

God bless.

 

Love and prayers,

Ginger

PS and I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer either.... LOL....