I have read your site over once and agree entirely with
your thesis.Christians today are powerless and don't even know it. Churches are dead,
we know no persecution, and we do not model the words Christ commanded.
I was raised in a Protestant home and accepted my salvation from an early
age. However, I also accepted that I could live in the world and continue
to sin and God would forgive me. I never questioned what faith actually
meant. Recently I have given my entire life to Christ. I live moment by
moment 'letting His will be done' and continuously 'make myself nothing,'
surrendering to God's will when it differs from mine. I am applying the
faith that is modeled throughout the bible and is demonstrated in Jesus',
and later the apostles, lives. Before, when I was living selfishly, I
continued to do the same things I had always done and called myself a
Christian. However, now that I am in submission, I have never experienced
so much freedom. I am convinced, absolutely convinced, that obedience is
the answer. Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my
disciples. THEN you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free.' I gave my entire life to Christ about three months ago. At that
point in my life I was being destroyed by lust. I would spend hours a day
on the computer viewing pornography, would masturbate a number of times
each day, could not stop myself from staring at women as they passed by in
public places, and was using my girlfriend for sex. Since I surrendered
to Christ, I have not once looked at pornography, not once masturbated,
not once fornicated. I have been obedient, and God has set me free. The
freedom I feel is unbelievable, incredible, unspeakable - in short,
immaculate. There is no other answer other than submission to Christ. It
is not a process - when we are saved, we stop sinning, period. Of course
God reveals things to us in His time, and we deal with our insecurities
and pride over time, but the big things - the drunkenness, the orgies, the
pornography, the fornication - it has to go immediately. I am convinced
of this. God has given me so much understanding in the past few months.
I am saddened by the state of the church. After all, it really shouldn't
be surprising that we need to obey, should it? We are striving for
perfection - to enjoy that ecstastic state that Adam knew where he
constantly submitted to God everything that was given to Him - in short,
when he was human. This is knowing God, and has always been God's desire
- that we submit to him and not follow ourselves. All perfection is is to
submit to God's will in every situation. As soon as we choose ourselves
over God we sin. Faith is simply a choice of God over ourselves. It's
actually quite simple - if the goal is to attain this kind of perfection,
which is the only kind, and Jesus came so that we might return to that
spiritual state which Adam knew, then what is the problem?? Through
Christ, we can submit to God in all things and therefore know God, being
perfect. Wasn't this the point of Christ all along? The law was
insufficient to provide submissive faith, because the law is inherently
selfish, and God perfected our faith (which existed all along, even in the
Old Testament) by enabling us to obey through His Spirit. I can't believe
that a Christian would suggest to you that if we could be perfect we
wouldn't need Christ. He's missing the whole point! Without Christ I am
lost in lust. Without Christ I destroy myself. I cannot be perfect
without Christ because it is He that has redeemed me - it is He that has
taken the position between myself and God and allows me to surrender in
all things to my Father so that I can know the loveliness and wonder that
is to be a creature and obey. Our whole culture has been deceived. The
scriptures you chose were beautiful, because they directly proved your
point. How can anyone argue with the fact that our job as Christians is
to submit in absolutely everything to Christ? If they accept this, then
they must believe that it is possible because the whole point of sending
Christ was to make it possible. Paul makes it abundantly clear in Rom.
6-8 that we are freed - that we are now slaves to God. How can Christians
miss this?? We must realize that faith is a means to righteousness, and
that the problem is, and always has been, that we have fallen and are no
longer righteous. For people to think that we can fix the problem of
being unrighteous while continuing in our unrighteousness is nonsense, and
is a wicked teaching that is out of control in our churches. I pray that
God will continue to use you.
Keep up the good work,
Scott Douglas
