09.04.05
Summer School
Can a person backslide in their faith? This has been a matter of contention for me for some time now. I am familiar with the reformed doctrine on perseverance of the saints and I have always felt that those are given faith will not lose it and those who claim to have lost faith never had it to begin with.
But what about those who are pursuing faith? Can a person who is seeking faith lose momentum and fall away from the pursuit?
To digress, my Freshmen year of college was a spiritual revival. I had grown up in “Christian” family where we occasionally attended church and took part in the sacraments of baptism and communion. It wasn’t until I became active in Campus Crusade, though, that I came to learn what it means to be a Christian.
Throughout the school year I became active in bible studies, real-life, group activities, and was even able to go to Chicago to do missions work over Spring Break. I made true friends; the kind who are honest and genuine. All of this showed me what it means to be a Christian. To truly humble oneself and devote their ENTIRE life to serving God. This was something completely alien to me and I absolutely loved it. I longed, and still do, to life with such fervent desire to honor God with everything I have.
But then summer break came. I think that the combination of working 65 hours a week, volunteering at the hospital, and trying to do some of the wedding stuff simply stole all of my time. I became apathetic to church and reading my bible and slowly lost contact with those people from Crusade who influenced me the most. I spent only a brief amount of time with anyone from school or in any activity centered on Godly things.
That is why I so desire to re-start school. It also makes me fearful though because I don’t want my faith, or the pursuit of it, to be pended upon the influence of others around me. Surely John the Baptist sustained his faith to his execution without the need of reassurance from anyone. If I learned anything this summer, it is that that is the faith I need. Faith that perseveres.
Chris Poteet Said:
September 6, 2005 at 7:36 am
Bro, I understand not wanting your faith to not be contingent upon others; but when you’re in the early stages of development you almost have to lean on older believers. You know the doctrines, you know God can and will save you, so don’t worry about that. It’ll happen.
The biggest part of faith is faith. The minute you try and reconcile one thing with another you’ll get off track. I was told three things by Mr. Jason O’Rourke that helped me when I was struggling.
1. Understand the divinity of Christ.
2. Understand Christ’s righteousness.
3. Understand your need for His righteousness.
The first alone was enough to put me to faith, and you heard a sermon by a “flaming evangelist” on the other two! :)
Ja'Son Said:
September 6, 2005 at 2:26 pm
“Jesus is all the world to me, my life my joy my all
He is my strength from day to day, wihout him I would fall…”
So begin a song written by Will Thompson. These word speak powerfully into the life of the christian, simply because they tell us that Jesus is everything, and that we are dead without him. Colossians is a beautiful book that even expains this point. Chapter 2 tells us that neither 1) Theology/Philosophy, 2) Ritual practice, 3) Mystical experience, nor 4) Ascetic practice does anything in and of itself in restraining sensual indulgence. Only a constant connection with Jesus, submitting to his Holy Spirit, will bring to us the knowledge that 1)Jesus 2) is God and 3) that I need the nature of Jesus to live through us. By “nature” I mean his righteouness, his character. Any of the above 4 that do not drive me to back to these 3 is anti-Christ. Even if my theology is sound, it means nothing. Sound theology does not in and of itself produce submission of the heart.
Submission of the heart to Jesus must come by believing the word of God above our logic, our emotions, our feelings, our sense, all of which constitute the flesh. Satan works through these things to cause us to believe that if I feel unsaved, if I feel out of God, if I feel tempted, if I don’t feel like praying of studying, then I am out of God. It is a mental trap, because “…as a man thinketh in his heart so is he…” What happens is that we approach our Christian walk not through faith but through the flesh. WE believe the lies told to us by our flesh, and act out of that belief. So if I don’t feel like praying I don’t think I need to pray, and there for I don’t pray, when the truth is that, regardless of how I am feeling, my need to pray is greater than ever.
Rom 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. (NASB)
It should be noted in this text that the NASB be states that justification came unto all man. Now how you work that “all” into your theology is not my concern, but it is apparent that the issue has never been the gracious gift, but who man would believe, the Faithful Word of God or the fleshy word of Satan. As it says in Hebrews 4, “…they did not enter in because of unbelief…” They believed their fleshy situation, their fleshy senses and emotions, their fleshy logic, over the Faithful Word of God.
To Perry I say this: The devil is trying to sift you. He wants to control you through your Job, your life, you emotions, you feelings, you logic. If anything has begun to eclipse the rays of the Sun (Son) of God from shining on you in all their glory, beware. I would even go so far as to say repent, you have not fallen, but God is trying to show you how much more you deparately need Jesus, more than you may have previously thought. Also, just because you are feeling tempted, or tired, or depressed, or hurt, or angry, or horny, or whatever, it does not mean you have sinned until you have allowed the thought to simmer in the mind, having not cast it out by the Word of God, having not fled to Jesus for saftey through prayer. When we being to let sin simmer in the mind, we will sooner or later act out what we think about. Do not for one second accept the fleshly lies of Satan. Let Faith, the total belief, trust, and the dependecy in the Word of God, guide your actions. Let it dominate your thoughts. Let Faith be your vision, your logic, your feelings, your emotions. Faith must become our reality, superceding every thing earthly.
Respectfully,
Ja’Son