Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
“Buried with Christ …. Dead to the old life …of sin.”
Don’t we just wish? We sing the song. We mean it sincerely. We try to believe it really happened when we were baptized. But, the reality that rots away our hope and that Satan twists to tempt us and bring us back down is that not much seems to have changed. We proclaim that we have Christ and we come to church and we put on the front, but we are still tempted by the same old passions that we were last year, and the year before our conversion and that we did AGAIN last week and we wonder if our only hope is that our last prayer comes after the last time we yielded. Boy, doesn’t the devil just love this attitude, “Just go ahead and give up,” he says. We need to talk to each other and help each other.
Listen to the man who wrote the words behind the song above, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no more I that lives, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.” High and noble and don’t I just wish I was on that peak?
Some time later, Paul wrote. “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” (1Cor 9:27). Though he had already penned Gal 2:20, Paul still struggled; so great a struggle that he called it beating himself into submission.
If Satan can get us depressed over our failures, we will repeat them. We can triumph, but it is not easy. It is not supposed to be. We are in training to be a spiritual elite, not SEALS, Christians; not SWAT, children of God. Tough training makes tough soldiers of faith.
Don’t give up. Try harder. Pray more. Get a fellow soldier to help and help him. Even Paul had to work at it.
“Just say NO!” Nancy Reagan was mocked for her motto. It is God’s motto. I’ve seen the billboards, “What part of “Thou Shalt Not” did you not understand?” If one believes in God, he must also believe that he is a created being, not a being that is the result of chance. God says that the beings He created have a choice. They can say, “NO!” to Satan. God gave them this power.
Stop it with the excuses.
The mystery …now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great …are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. [Col 1:26-27]
Keith Ward
For instructions on using this blog, click on FAQ and Tutorial on the left sidebar.
“Buried with Christ …. Dead to the old life …of sin.”
Don’t we just wish? We sing the song. We mean it sincerely. We try to believe it really happened when we were baptized. But, the reality that rots away our hope and that Satan twists to tempt us and bring us back down is that not much seems to have changed. We proclaim that we have Christ and we come to church and we put on the front, but we are still tempted by the same old passions that we were last year, and the year before our conversion and that we did AGAIN last week and we wonder if our only hope is that our last prayer comes after the last time we yielded. Boy, doesn’t the devil just love this attitude, “Just go ahead and give up,” he says. We need to talk to each other and help each other.
Listen to the man who wrote the words behind the song above, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no more I that lives, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.” High and noble and don’t I just wish I was on that peak?
Some time later, Paul wrote. “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” (1Cor 9:27). Though he had already penned Gal 2:20, Paul still struggled; so great a struggle that he called it beating himself into submission.
If Satan can get us depressed over our failures, we will repeat them. We can triumph, but it is not easy. It is not supposed to be. We are in training to be a spiritual elite, not SEALS, Christians; not SWAT, children of God. Tough training makes tough soldiers of faith.
Don’t give up. Try harder. Pray more. Get a fellow soldier to help and help him. Even Paul had to work at it.
“Just say NO!” Nancy Reagan was mocked for her motto. It is God’s motto. I’ve seen the billboards, “What part of “Thou Shalt Not” did you not understand?” If one believes in God, he must also believe that he is a created being, not a being that is the result of chance. God says that the beings He created have a choice. They can say, “NO!” to Satan. God gave them this power.
Stop it with the excuses.
The mystery …now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great …are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. [Col 1:26-27]
Keith Ward
For instructions on using this blog, click on FAQ and Tutorial on the left sidebar.
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