Hi Nelson.
You bring out some great points, I used to love going to church at one time, going to church was awesome to me , you might say I was a fanatic.
I never could back in those days understand how within five minutes after leaving church I was actually sinning ........the opposite sex is you know what I mean.
I always felt condemned and when I would mention my lustful ways to a fellow church member I found some were kind and considerate in explaining how not to and others I wished I never mention it, I guess those where the most holy ones of us all.
Each group of believers with all their knowledge could not help me to overcome my issue, I even had one believer tell me keep going to church , it’s fireproof insurance.
I’ve learned many things here at B.T., wonderful things like who God is what God is doing and who I am and why I do the things I do.
I can study the scriptures all day but unless God opens them up to me I study in vain. I can read about the gospel but I’ll never understand anything at all about the gospel within the gospel.
There was a time I believed in the sovereignty of me not God because I thought I had free will and choice and because I believed this my salvation was up to me. If I could just somehow learn to do what is right I would be saved but I had or have this one little problem that will keep me out of heaven unless I can conquer this problem on my own.
I don’t feel I need to read the scriptures to know what is right and what is wrong, I think most of us know right from wrong. It’s in the performance and that is where I fail most miserably.
Rom 7:19 Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong.
Rom 7:20 And so, if I don't do what I know is right, I am no longer the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them.
Rom 7:21 The Law has shown me that something in me keeps me from doing what I know is right.
Rom 7:22 With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God.
Rom 7:23 But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do.
Rom 7:24 What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die?
Rom 7:25 Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me. So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin.
The only hell I know of today is the hell Christians put me through with their false doctrine.