| Return Create A Forum - Home | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Religious Convictions | |
| https://religiousconvictions.createaforum.com | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| ***************************************************** | |
| Return to: Sons of God Awake | |
| ***************************************************** | |
| #Post#: 755-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Confession | |
| By: Helen Date: March 17, 2015, 10:30 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I was pondering today on something I read. It was about "Hating | |
| Sin". | |
| As I thought about it I found myself saying to myself. " When I | |
| think about sin ( which I don't much) I usually just SEE The | |
| Cross. | |
| So, what is all this "hating of sin" supposed to be about? | |
| Obviously like us all, I hate it when I hear or read about | |
| someone doing something devilish to someone else. I hate more | |
| war and killing. But can't say " I hate sin", because for years | |
| I have - " seen sin laid upon Jesus." | |
| I just see punishment for those who are doing evil now, | |
| unrepented of. | |
| So I ended up saying to myself " Why don't I hate sin, as so | |
| many Christians seem to spend their time hating sin.Whats wrong | |
| with me?" | |
| #Post#: 757-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: James Date: March 17, 2015, 2:41 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Do "other christians" hate sin or do they as you describe hate | |
| the results of sin, the evil you see which is the fruit of sin, | |
| the sins that man carries out. | |
| Sometimes when one hears such a thing preached what is being | |
| said is to hate the actions of the flesh. | |
| To which do you refer? Just how was it detailed in your book? | |
| #Post#: 767-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: Helen Date: March 18, 2015, 8:33 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote]To which do you refer? Just how was it detailed in your | |
| book? [/quote] | |
| Watchman Nee....that a Christian should hate sin as much as God | |
| hates it. | |
| #Post#: 775-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: James Date: March 18, 2015, 1:32 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Makes me wonder what he had in mind. If he was meaning we | |
| should hate the sin self we are when we fall prey to lust, or | |
| the persona of sin itself. I find that it makes more sense to | |
| me if I think of sin in the same light as the Grim Reaper. Does | |
| that make any sense to you. | |
| #Post#: 780-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: Helen Date: March 18, 2015, 5:20 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote]Watchman Nee.."The Normal Christian Life" | |
| What I feel more and more the need of in myself, and what I feel | |
| that we all as the Lord's children need to seek from God, is a | |
| real revelation of ourselves. ( * Pause for thought? ) I repeat | |
| that I do not mean we should be for ever looking in on ourselves | |
| and asking: 'Now, is this soul or is it spirit?' That will | |
| never get us anywhere; it is darkness. No, Scripture shows us | |
| how the saints were brought to self-knowledge. It was always by | |
| light from God, and that light is God Himself. | |
| We can never know the hatefulness of sin and the hatefulness of | |
| ourselves unless there is that flash of God upon us. I speak not | |
| of a sensation but of an inward revelation of the Lord Himself | |
| through His Word. It does for us what doctrine alone can never | |
| do. | |
| Christ is our light. He is the living Word, and when we read the | |
| Scriptures that life in Him brings revelation. The life was the | |
| light of men (John 1.4) | |
| Such illumination may not come to us all at once, but gradually; | |
| but it will be more and more clear and searching, until we see | |
| ourselves in the light of God and all our self-confidence is | |
| gone. For light is the purest thing in the world. It cleanses. | |
| It sterilizes. It kills what should not be there..... | |
| (from "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee) | |
| [/quote] | |
| So....there you have a snippet of it. | |
| I USED to be a person who would ring my hands before God on my | |
| knees pleading for the Lord to make me holy. Change me. Soften | |
| my heart. Make all my motivations pure. | |
| Like I said in the opening post..NOW, when I think about | |
| sin/sins I 'see" the cross. " To me" that is where God placed | |
| sin...on Jesus. No wringing of the hands...or walking up steps | |
| on one's bleeding knees can make a person one whit more holy. | |
| The only righteousness we have is His. | |
| Philippians 3:9 - And be found in him, not having mine own | |
| righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through | |
| the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith | |
| Galatians 2:16 - Knowing that a man is not justified by the | |
| works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have | |
| believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the | |
| faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the | |
| works of the law shall no flesh be justified. | |
| When I read some of Watchman Nee's I had to confess to | |
| myself...I did not quite relate any more to what he was | |
| saying...but felt that I may have flipped to far over the other | |
| way...bobbing along " Happy in Jesus" and all He has done!! | |
| Hence this thread... thanks for interacting in it James. | |
| #Post#: 794-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: James Date: March 19, 2015, 10:58 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 1Tim1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all | |
| acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save | |
| sinners; of whom I am chief. 16Howbeit for this cause I obtained | |
| mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all | |
| longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter | |
| believe on him to life everlasting. | |
| I do not believe that Paul is just giving us a C of E homely | |
| such as you find on Sunday mornings, no I believe he really | |
| meant it. He saw how he had been fervent for God and in his "so | |
| sureness " had persecuted the church and thereby Jesus who he | |
| now loved. | |
| I personally believe that Paul who very much knew he was | |
| forgiven could never loose the awareness of what he had done and | |
| what he was capable of. By this I do not mean his conscience | |
| was confused or that he was metaphorically wringing his hands in | |
| self hate, yes he was righteous but he knew what lay in him just | |
| like it did for Cain, remember " [color=black]and if thou doest | |
| not well, sin lieth at the door." | |
| Isaiah a man of self awareness, unclean lips, yes he was touched | |
| by the coal and sent to preach and good stuff it was to, yet | |
| being made clean for purpose and appointed a position does not | |
| remove the awareness of who we could be in an unguarded instant. | |
| I am saved and made white as snow but that does not let me | |
| forget who I might have been and who I could by deceit one day | |
| again become. This I think is the point that Watchman is | |
| making, it is why Paul said "when I am weak then am I strong." | |
| the weakness was seeing that he Paul could never change what he | |
| was deep down the strength was that God could and had and as | |
| long as he Paul had only confidence in that then he would not | |
| one day be a castaway. | |
| "In me dwells.............." | |
| Apologies for scriptures. I need the crutch to make my | |
| point.[/color] | |
| #Post#: 798-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: Helen Date: March 19, 2015, 1:44 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Very good James...that really helped to clarify some things for | |
| me and make it clearer. | |
| I was feeling guilty that I had long ago moved away from the " O | |
| wretched sinner that I am." and focus so much on " Saved and | |
| being delivered." | |
| I tried to get Dave to join in on this...but he is having | |
| another of his forum grumps at the moment LOL | |
| #Post#: 830-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Confession | |
| By: James Date: March 23, 2015, 2:16 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I thought that this quote from John Wesley put up by Ivor fitted | |
| in here as we consider sin. | |
| [color=black]�Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but | |
| sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether | |
| they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of | |
| hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.� [/color] | |
| I am sure that John Wesley meant fear of sin in themselves, to | |
| such a degree like Paul they would not stop from pressing into | |
| God and his city. | |
| ***************************************************** |