RE: In a world without God...
June 11, 2013 at 10:09 pm
(This post was last modified: June 11, 2013 at 10:13 pm by Godscreated.)
(June 11, 2013 at 4:03 am)missluckie26 Wrote: Drich, I get what you're saying. But I wasn't 'most'. I didn't consider myself special, but a servant. I was happy and content with dying if it served no purpose but his. My lifestyle was survival of my afflictions--afflictions that I thanked him for each day. I've always been the follow directions unwaveringly sort, and that I did. I made sure minute to minute that I wasn't at fault, by monitoring my thoughts, measuring the purity of my intent, and begging for forgiveness at the most minor of infractions. My mind belonged to god not to me. I have nothing to deny about those times, I was as devoted and pure a daughter of god that one could be. The faith of a child can move a mountain bit was what i lived by per example. I had banished any evil from my life, begged for forgiveness for my inequities, and shunned completely the ungodly acts I'd partaken as a teenager. I was as straight as one can get on that path and he was nowhere to be seen, the entire time, besides my mind.
You can't see what you were doing can you, the NT tells us we need only ask for forgiveness, when you beg for forgiveness (as you put it) you are doubting that God will forgive, you don't trust that He will forgive, you are in fact pushing away His grace. Almost all Christians are guilty of this a some point in their relationship with Christ and I include myself here. You are describing your walk with that of the Pharisees and Sadducees, You described doing these things own your own, you repeatedly say I did this and I did that, scripture tells us that it is God who changes us when we humble ourselves before Him. It is not how good we are, it is how much we allow God to show His goodness through us. We are helpless in this spiritual journey with God, it is beyond us to achieve success in this spiritual walk, that's why we must surrender all to Him. I believe this is why many Christians do not find their walk with Christ satisfying, they want to feel like they have to do things to make Him happy. This could not be farther from the truth, Christ said," Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Just a suggestion here, could it be you were trying to do His work and putting a burden on yourself you could not carry. It has always amazed me how those who have such peace in their lives lived the simplest lives yet so much is accomplished through their lives. I struggle with allowing Christ to do His work in and through me, I'm looking to get ahead of Him, impatient. I want to share an experience in my life, it's not about me it's about a wonderful lady who live her life as I described above and as Jesus asked us to do. This lady 90 years old lived in horrible pain, it was heart breaking to see her suffer, yet she never doubted God's purpose even though it meant great pain for her. I was her deacon and one day I was visiting with her and she asked me, why doesn't God take me, I'm tired of living in pain I'm ready to go home. The only thing I could say was you're still being used by Him as a witness, I knew this was true because she was now to feeble to do anything else. I asked her if she thought she could still witness for Christ, she said yes if that is what He has for me I will do it, she never doubted God, I never told her that she was God's witness to me, showing me how one is to live for Him by allowing Him to live through her, she never struggled with God until the day she died, I will be over joyed to see her again and tell her what God did through her life for me, I will see her not in pain and living in the glory of God. I guess you will see only evil in this and this is where we'll differ, I saw a servant willing to go the distance with God for others, even when she did not know who they were and what her witness was. God worked through her to change lives and many were and I count myself blessed to be one of them. God bless Mrs. Jenny.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.