|
|
| |
 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
|
| |
| The Nashville Statement
|
| |
|
|
| |
Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
|
| |
Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
|
| |
|
email
|
|
| Proverbs 4:18-19 |
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know over what they stumble.
- Proverbs 4:18-19 [NASB]
Here is a simple truth with some practical application.
Have you ever found yourself counselling someone who claims to be a Christian, but denies the reality of Christ in their life through just about everything they think and do?
I find this verse highly effective when counselling those immature believers who have learned to be content with their sin, rather than at war with it.
"Hear the word of God!", I say, "but let the very core of your being accept it as such. This isn't just a few words written in some book. It is God breathed truth - a truth so relevant that God Himself passed it on to us, and not for the purpose of having some light reading, but in order that we might learn something by it.
"What are we to learn?", I say, "What is so important that God Himself has made sure that we have this information?"
We all know how dawn looks. We understand that it begins in darkness, and proceeds to lighten, and continues to do so without pausing, and certainly without reversing its course. We know this, and God knows we know this, when He chooses to use the dawn as the perfect metaphor for the path of righteousness.
Righteousness takes you from a dark place into the light. Where righteousness is genuinely pursued, the one pursuing it is on a path that progresses from darkness to light. Can you stop the sunrise? Neither can you stop the dawning of rigteousness in those who are on the path to righteousness.
When you find yourself counseling someone who claims to be a Christian, but gives no evidence of righteousness in their life, you can use this verse - not to demand that they start giving evidence of righteousness in order to prove that they are genuine, but rather you give this verse as one might give the phone number of a doctor to a sick person. You say, here, come and see. I have found something in the perfect law of liberty - a truth that we can compare our lives to. If my life lines up with this truth, then I am walking in the truth, and if my life denies this truth, then I am walking in a lie, and the truth is not in me.
You know the goal of couselling isn't to make people feel better, or to solicit better "Christian" behavior. The goal of Christ centered counselling is to cause people to stop living carnally, and surrender themselves to Christ. The moment they do, whatever their problem was, it is immediately solved.
This is one of those verses I think ought to be committed to memory, and repeated in Christian company often. |
posted by Daniel @
8:02 AM
 
|
|
| 4 Comments: |
-
Daniel, if a person observes their condition, and they see it as you describe it... "if my life denies this truth, then I am walking in a lie, and the truth is not in me."...Are you not describing a non Christian here?
-
I am saying exactly that, assuming we are talking about the entire testimony of one's "Christian" endeavor. We both recognize the difference between failing to walk consistently in the light and failing to walk in the light altogether.
If one imagines themselves to be on the path of genuine righteousness, but nothing in their life bears witness to that, and no matter how much time goes on, such evidence forever fails to materialize; then I would consider that sufficient cause for alarm and warning.
But that isn't the same as the genuine believer who may not be progressing as fast or as consistently as their heart desires. That's another thing altogether.
Let me know if that cleared it up, or just muddled it up more.
And it's good to hear from you Mark!
-
Sir,
It would appear that you and I are on the same page. Thank you for your gracious response, brother.
Mark
-
Great verse my brother. I love to see the sun come up in the morning. And I love to grow in the grace and truth of Christ. Evene though at times it can be hard, very hard, like an Abraham giving his son Issac, (though I've never had it that hard).
Have a great weekend and especially a fine Lord's day in His river of living water. John 7:37
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
|
Daniel, if a person observes their condition, and they see it as you describe it... "if my life denies this truth, then I am walking in a lie, and the truth is not in me."...Are you not describing a non Christian here?