Christian Living
“When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” Jonah 2:7
The prophet Jonah, oft called ‘The Reluctant One’ is seldom used as a good example, yet some of his actions before and after the belly of the ‘great fish’ shed light on the common problem of our day among people religious.
My little wife of these many years loves to watch Dr. Phil, the well known cussing Baptist TV mind doctor. I am trying to get on Dr. Phil’s program and tell him how she has held me at her beck and call as a love slave for 45 years. She refuses to go. I will give the good doctor an A+ due to his insistence that if you ‘don’t own your behavior, you cannot be helped.’ Seems like a modern version of 1John 1:9 to me.
The continuing saga of a nationally known pastor is textbook case 101. After three weeks of intensive counseling after he was caught in a homosexual affair which lasted over three years, he has smilingly announced, ‘I’m Straight.’ I could buy ‘Forgiven’ or ‘I found mercy’ or even a crooning line on being delivered from demons, but, “Hey, I was never really gay” is a tad beyond the pale.
Jack Burbridge travels the globe telling how Christ saved him from a terrible life, underworld enforcer, heroin addict, a bank robber, among other things, I have never heard Jack say or read in one of his books that he never really was a bank robber. He does emphasize that though he was a bank robber, an armed bank robber, he is NOW a Christian and for decades has walked tall to back up his assertion. Art Lindsey, now in his nineties played a big part in Jack’s salvation while jack was a prisoner at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute many years ago.
I am certain the scripture asserts that Christ came into the world to save sinners. When there is a refusal to acknowledge that we are sinners, then Christ is of no positive effect to us. I have interviewed a few men who served time for robbing banks and they admit to their life being changed as a result of the testimony of Jack Burbridge.
Do you notice the difference between “I am not…” and “Jesus saved me from…” Be sure the difference is not semantic, but real. Sin manifests itself in many and varied ways in life, sometimes we are utterly delivered from a sin symptom and other times we are called upon to deny our yearning for a particular deviation from God’s standard and take up our cross daily and follow Christ. Too many groups want to do away with the ‘taking up the cross and self denial.’ Does it no longer register with so many that any departure from the Lord’s pattern is catering to the self? This is what Christ meant when he taught about the importance of self denial. With all of the emphasis on ‘discipleship’ you would think that teachers would know better than to cave into Freudian heresy and play down the necessity of self denial in our Christian walk.
Please, I am not against a famous or any other preacher who has taken a fall. I want them to find true peace. But peace can only come to any of us on God’s terms. And God’s terms demand an owning up to the transgression, an agreement with God as to the despicable nature of whatever the transgression and a forsaking of said transgression. I am convinced the Bible teaches that Christ is greater than the homosexual pull, that Christ is greater than the pull of drunkenness, that Christ is greater than any thought or act that can keep a person headed to hell or any thought or act that can keep a Christian in ‘sin unto death’ without that person going along with the sin.
Paul gives great insight into this line of truth when he states in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Such ‘were’ you is the active for purposes of this rambling. The genius of the Christian faith has been from day one that the vilest sinner can be saved, forgiven, restored and enabled to walk the Christ life through the resurrected Christ living in us via the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The same power that brought again Jesus our Lord from the dead is the power/person living in our hearts and we do not have to make all sorts of excuses in vain efforts to hide our true selves. We NEED Jesus and the sooner we began teaching and personally owning up to our weakness and His strength the sooner we will stop covering our sin and engaging others in the process. I simply cannot imagine a legitimate counselor alleging after a three year tryst with a gay man who alleges others are involved in this scandal that sensible people are going to buy into this line. I did hear one man tell his wife about meeting with gay men that he had met via the Internet and then meeting with a counselor for two thirty minute sessions and the counselor assured him that he was not gay. This counselor must be very good!! Priceless.
When will the Lord’s people come out of our caves of denial and just be open, honest and contrite and admit we are prone to wander and this wandering may take on horrible aspects, but we can be truly thankful that Christ’s blood still cleanseth from ALL sin?
The thrust of this article only appears to be directed toward practicing gays, in reality it is directed to all who fall prey or dive into some sort of sin and need forgiveness and restoration, for I believe the scripture is clear that forgiveness and restoration go together like a horse and carriage.
In the early days of my life as a Christian the most damaging overt sin was the sin of drunkenness. Our churches were filled with men and women who had received Christ and through walking closely with Him stayed sober. Some testified that Jesus had taken away all desire for Old John Barely Corn as many called strong drink. Others gave testimony to the fact that when they slacked off on Bible reading, prayer and or faithfully attending the preaching services, the old thirst began to return. This experience proves true regardless of the nature of the addiction.
A true born again experience with Christ and surrender to His will and way, usually called discipleship, secures the vibrant life we want in the innermost recesses of our heart.
In our day with drug addiction, drunkenness, wild passions running unchecked, young beautiful women flaunting themselves and their ‘secret’ parts before our version of paparazzi thus leading even younger girls into a life of a debauchery; isn’t it about time someone, somewhere stood and cried aloud of the terrible price associated with such behavior?
And isn’t it about time all branches of the Lord’s vine began to honest, one branch ceasing to approve such behavior, another branch to stop telling these sinners there is no hope for their type of sin and for the other branch to get over the fear of what Pharisaical brethren will say if we are caught helping these kind of people out of the quagmire they have fallen or dove into?
After many years of hearing preachers call people to Christ assuring them that it doesn’t matter where you have been or where you are, I now understand that many of the preachers have no idea of the depth of sin and when confronted with human depravity in all of its filthy garments, they don’t have a clue of the true gospel of grace which really is greater than all of our sin.
When Jonah came to the end of himself near death’s door, he cried out and God heard.
You may be at the end of yourself and religion has you bound by the belief that there is no hope for you. Jesus says there is hope for you right where you, right now to cry from your ‘death’s door and He will hear your plea. LML
****
Remember: Reach, Raise and Restore.
Sermon From March 07 issue of my paper, Larry Lilly's Journal.
PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com. This is especially true with articles that
deal with personal healthcare and prophecy. We encourage the reader to make their own decision in consultation with God, His Word, and others as needed.
This article has been read 928 times < Previous | Next >
Read more articles by Larry Lilly or search for other articles by topic below.
This article has been read 928 times < Previous | Next >
Search for articles on: (e.g. creation; holiness etc.)
Read more by clicking on a link:Free Reprints
Main Site Articles
Most Read Articles
Highly Acclaimed Challenge Articles.
New Release Christian Books for Free for a Simple Review.
NEW - Surprise Me With an Article - Click here for a random URL
God is Not Against You - He Came on an All Out Rescue Mission to Save You
...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... 2 Cor 5:19
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38
LEARN & TRUST JESUS HERE
FaithWriters offers Christian reading material for Christian readers. We offer Christian articles, Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction, Christian Bible studies, Christian poems, Christian articles for sale, free use Christian articles, Christian living articles, New Covenant Christian Bible Studies, Christian magazine articles and new Christian articles. We write for Jesus about God, the Bible, salvation, prayer and the word of God.
I wish I could physically shake your hand brother and say well done. Keep working for His glory.
There is too much covering up of sins and religious activities taking place in our churches for leaders to be remotely concerned about 'the truth of the gospel' these days.
I am so disheartened by it and worse I am hurting deeply for the ones they are supposed to be teaching. I have been praying for God to shake up the church - shaking souls out of their comfort zones. It was such a blessing to read your article knowing I'm not alone and God is at work.
Thank you for sharing this peace with us. It will help a lot I believe.