Next Steps for a Terrible Christian?

[pgwolv]

To me it sounds like you have a "putting on" issue. You have put off the old but not "put on" the new. What people do you associate with everyday as you have said? Are they from Work? School? Neighbors? Somewhere else? Are there any church brethren you can suround yourself with? A lot of the battle is finding pious good people to be around.

Exactly; that's where Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous get it right, even though they're not Christian organisations. Christians need encouragement, good examples, and accountability. We're Sinners Identified

 

[C4MERON]

To me it sounds like you have a "putting on" issue. You have put off the old but not "put on" the new. What people do you associate with everyday as you have said? Are they from Work? School? Neighbors? Somewhere else? Are there any church brethren you can suround yourself with? A lot of the battle is finding pious good people to be around.

“And instead of repenting and turning from those things, I find myself wanting to justify them and hold on to them tighter.
Take my drug use as one of many examples I could give; I have been using drugs for about 2 months now. It has been helpful with shame and anxiety and helpful with overlooking things”

This doesn’t sound like an awful lot of ‘putting off’.

Jonathan,
There has been a lot of good advice given from many posts above. It’s clear there is deep concern for you. This is deadly serious and must be said frankly, with love and grace. You need to be resolved in your mind that to continue in sin is to put your eternal soul in peril. You either forsake your sin and turn to Christ or perish. See, essentially what is happening is that you are buying into the lie that your sin (drug-taking and/or whatever else you know to be of a sinful pattern in your life) is more satisfying than that Pearl of Great Price, Jesus Christ. I think you need to re-acquaint yourself with the holiness of God and the sinfulness of sin and re-acquaint yourself with the loveliness of Christ (to mention 3 books!).
As has been often mentioned above, it is imperative that you liase with your kirk session and submit to the spiritual authority they have over you. This is life and death.

 

[Stephen L Smith]

kirk

For the benefit of people outside the UK, kirk is the Scottish name for church

 

[pgwolv]

For the benefit of people outside the UK, kirk is the Scottish name for church

It's easy for Afrikaners as well, it's "kerk" in Afrikaans

 

[Stephen L Smith]

It's easy for Afrikaners as well, it's "kerk" in Afrikaans

Yes when I was travelling around South Africa a few years ago I drove past a few Kerk's

The Evangelical Reformed Church of the Westminster Confession of Austria and Switzerland, on their website in German, uses Kirche.

 

[DanSSwing]

I thought a kirk session was:

 

[LadyCalvinist]

Jonathan, Jonathan, much Godly advice has been given to you, please listen to it. You need to read the Bible carefully and prayerfully. Above all else, hold onto Christ, because Christ is everything.