Bible Discussion Thread

Stanley, I'm praying for you brother. I know exactly what you are saying, firsthand. It is one thing to be reborn, and to live a life with minor setbacks of sin. It's quite another to not be sure of my salvation, because my life seems to be made up of one fleshly sin after another.

Here's where I think we go wrong as believers in the West. We let our eyes, ears, hands and feet take in sights, sounds, objects, and paths of unrighteousness - thinking that it won't have an effect on us, or that we have the liberty to be lazy and lax about what will allow into our lives. But we have not been granted that kind of liberty. Our liberty is that we don't have to obey the O.T. law in all it's detail. But God never said we don't have to obey Him. So where is the problem? Our spirit may be renewed and reborn, but we still carry around a "body of death", a physical body, and a mind - still under the consequence of sin. This body and mind (brain) is the home for our spirit, and this body is dying. Now, we can choose to kill it ourselves by not allowing those things to come into our life that will effect our spirit negatively, or we can choose to take in all the things we want with no remorse or repentance from what the Bible calls "sin". Let me give an example. We set out to live the Christian life, and many times no one has really told us what that will take, what steps it will take, what it will look like daily - at least in many cases, we have no person in our lives to 'guide' us OR we ignore that person's advice. So... we decide to (for example) watch TV, and although we are watching what we think is a Godly show, every fifteen minutes a commercial comes on with a sexy model who is paid to lie to us about a product they would have never used had they not been paid. And somehow, despite the fact in all likelihood, that we will never see that person, we think of that girl as someone who is talking to us personally. She might even have been asked by the commercial's producer to look happy or even seductive. And the same can be said of food commercials, car commercials, etc. - whatsoever a man or woman might covet or desire outside of God's will. This is what caused Paul the Apostle to realize the trappings of sin, that although he might keep one law, he can never escape "coveting", the 10th commandment. Every sin, is essentially coveting something that lies outside of God's will for us - His best for us. So, back to the TV. If we are to walk the Christian life, we must be faithful to put God's word into our lives each day, by reading it, mediatating on it, talking to God about it, and living it. What we put into our eyes, and the other members of this body of death we all must carry around, will manifest itself in our lives. If I seek to fill my eyes with bad things, I will not be happy, and my spirit will be harmed. It's like eating processed, junk food instead of God's food - salad, healthy meat, etc. I hope you see what I'm saying here - you will not break free of this cycle, until you get off the road you are on. You must allow yourself to accept God's provision of grace and power over sin. And it's not just one thing. It's a combination. It begins with the attitude you have written about above, and it takes legs in the form of the tools he has given us. There is no other way. Tool #1: Daily time in God's Word - taking it to heart. Tool #2: Avoid those things that tempt you, and the things that lead you into temptation. Take your eyes, ears, hands and feet - and don't allow them to see, hear, touch and walk into sin. Tool #3: Prayer, constantly. You must be intimate with your Creator. Tool #4: God's people. You must surround yourself with genuine believers who don't make excuses for sin, and fill their lives with loving others through works of sacrifice. Again, your mind and body are not redeemed. They are under the consequences of sin, and must be treated carefully. You will receive a new body without corruption, but for now you are stuck like me with a 'body of death'. Our minds must be renewed, and our bodies must simply be vessels of the part of us that won't die - our spirit. I want you to consider reading a book that helped me. It's called True Spirituality by Schaeffer. Here are some quotes: The true Christian life, true spirituality, is not merely a negative not -- doing of any small list of things. Even if the list began as a very excellent list of things to beware of in that particular historic setting, we still must emphasize that the Christian life, or true spirituality, is more than refraining from a certain external list of taboos in a mechanical way.
(Francis A. Schaeffer, True Spirituality, Ch. 1)


We do not come to true spirituality or the true Christian life merely by keeping a list, but neither do we come to it merely by rejecting the list and then shrugging our shoulders and living a looser life.
(Francis A. Schaeffer, True Spirituality, Ch. 1)


Desire becomes sin when it fails to include love of God or men.
(Francis A. Schaeffer, True Spirituality, Ch. 1)

God bless you Stanley. I know God wants you to live a life worthy of Jesus' death for you on the cross. I pray that you begin now, and take the steps needed to grow. Here's the steps to take, and a verse worth memorizing: 2Pe 1:1 � Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2Pe 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:1ff

Find a local church that can help you add these things to your faith... God's peace to you Stanley. Your struggle is common, but don't let that keep you from breaking free from it.

Finally, if you have hurt someone recently who is a believer, you should reconcile with them unless it would put you in danger to revisit the sin and fall back. But, what I did is I went to my pastor for counseling. So find people who are following God closely and join in His work to redeem others and glorify Jesus.