Hello Roy, Thankyou for your kind reply. I had probably made a big mistake here on BT by telling everyone about my dad`s side of the family I am quit sure that most if not all on BT will now have a very bad assumption about me now and would rather not associate with me, and that`s OK because I am use to it, it has allway`s been that way. I shall make one thing very clear, I was never a CLUB MEMBER for them, and I shall leave it at that. I needed to show everyone that I am different from all of you. None of you have ever done or lived they way I have, the first 39 years of my life, I know this. And I believe that because of this, it is the reason why it will take me 5 times longer for God to really bust me up and put me back together. I think that God has burnt all my sins out of me, except one. The first 39 years of my life was all booze, drugs, crime, and jail. I am a very hard man to deal with, I trust no one, and that includes God, and I think that may be the problem God has with me, or I have with Him. If you have no one to pray for you, somehow I think it may be harder for God to work on you, I do not know this for sure. I know God is with me but it feels like He may be sitting on the sidelines right now and letting me run the race on my own. I had always thought that God was out to get even with me for my past lifestyle. I have been clean from booze and crime now for 14 years, since 1995 the year I became a christian, and that happened because of a car accident on the Alaska highway. I woke up 3 weeks later 1500 miles away with a broken neck and back. Doctor`s have no medical reason why I am alive and not paralyzed today. If there is anyone here that could pray for me, just once, maybe God could find some mercy for me to help me understand just a little bit.
Thankyou Ricky
maybe God could find some mercy for me to help me understand just a little bit.
I had always thought that God was out to get even with me for my past lifestyle.
Ricky,this an email to Ray,hope you can see some help in it.Lord knows we all have been into things past that
none are proud of, but, by the Grace of our Father we
all will be eventually healed.
All bold emphasis mine.http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,1721.0.htmlDear Chris:
I will make a few COMMENTS in your email.................
Dear Ray,
I am struggling very much in my life.
I am fighting temptation and failing constantly.
I feel so low.
I know this is part of God’s plan for
me, but
I don’t know how much more
I can take. The guilt is so intense because
I know
I am doing wrong yet
I still do it.
I trust in God with all my might, but
I have a bad habit of questioning by faith at times. So
I guess you can say
my faith is weak.
COMMENT: This is not meant to be critical, Chris, but "trusting God will all your might and questioning your faith at the same time" is what we call a "contradiction." You obviously do NOT trust in God with all your might. YOU HAVE NO MIGHT! And neither do I or anyone else. This is a great part of your problem. You are looking to yourself for success and looking to yourself for failure.
Get your eyes OFF OF YOURSELF.
How can
I improve?
I know myself and no man can be perfect as a human being, but how can
I at least wipe out the major sin areas in
my life and fine some peace and confidence in
myself?
COMMENT: You have repeated your same problem over again, albeit in slightly different words: "...how can 'I' find peace and confidence in 'MYSELF?'" Answer: YOU CAN'T. You will never ever find peace and confidence until it comes FROM God and is IN GOD. "For we and the circumcision [those who have had the flesh, carnal mind, CUT from us--the mind that believes in self-confidence and self-improvement] which worship God in the SPIRIT, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH [OUR flesh--our carnal mind]" (Phil. 3:3).
Maybe
I am not praying hard enough. Maybe
I am not trying hard enough.
I don’t know.
I just wish to live a life of honor, but,
I also know that God’s will shall be done and
I accept that.
I can only hope he has better things planned for
me in the future.
I feel a call to minister to others.
COMMENT: Chris, I appreciate your sentiment, but you are in NO CONDITION spiritually to be ministering to the spiritual needs of others. You have not gotten the "log" out of your own eye as yet, and therefore you cannot see clearly to get a "mote" out of your brother's eye (Matt. 7:3-5). Only God can lift you up and give you true confidence and peace of mind, but this can only happen after you are HUMBLED (James 4:3-12).
To heal even. But how can
I this treacherous sinner be a spiritual model for others?
I sometimes wonder that God has made
me know sin so deeply that
I could be beneficial to others in forgiving and healing themselves through the grace of God. After all
I have been there and know first-hand what it means to betray, fail, and disgrace myself in the eyes of the Lord.
Have you been where
I am? If so, how did you get out?
COMMENT:
Yes, of course, "been there done that." You will NOT get yourself out and neither did I get myself out--
But GOD DID. God is in control of your life. You cannot force God's hand. God moves according to His plan and purpose, not ours. The fact that you are asking me these questions could be a sign that God is beginning to deal with you, but He will show you what you must do, and you will then do it. I am just a teacher and a "preacher of foolishness" (I Cor. 1:21-24). But God USES the preaching of foolishness [That is: God uses the poor grammar and ackward words and phrases and mis-spelled that I use to teach and write with TO CHANGE THE SPIRITUAL LIVES of those whom God is calling out of this world. God can accomplish one of His greatest miracles in the universe, that of spiritaully converting and regenerating a carnal mind into a spiritual mind, through what, on the surface, may seem to many to be 'foolishness'] of preaching to SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE."
Don't become discouraged. You are just as God desires you to be AT THIS TIME. I know how discouraging it can be to not be able to have "dominion" over your sins. But in God's time, you will have the victory, and it will come from God, not yourself.
God be with you,
Ray
God bless you for the truths you have brought to my life.
In Christ’s name,
Chris
Peace... Mark