Purgetheevil
Puritan Board Freshman
Finding pleasure in pursuing Christ can be difficult for me at times. Other times though, the pleasure derived from His ways seems absolutely unmatchable by the things of this world.
My request for everyone who reads this post is this:
Think of a sin you have struggled with. Post for us a time when you experienced more pleasure from acting righteously instead of giving in to that specific sin you struggle with. I'll give an example...
I used to evangelize a lot in Santa Monica. I learned very quickly that people there see Christians as retarded, people who can't think, and get duped into making an illogical leap of faith. This led me to study a lot, and seek to intellectually destroy anyone who set themselves against the things I was preaching. I was determined to show that Christians were not only intelligent, but more so than anyone else. As you can imagine, this led to many an intellectual battle, which would only stroke my pride and anger (unrighteously) the person I spoke to.
So I struggled with prideful intellectualism, which made my evangelism worthless. I was convicted by a passage in Romans, and a passage in 1 Corinthians.
First, Romans 1:17, "...for it [the Gospel] is the power of God for salvation..." The Gospel, not my intellect, is going to get people saved. And secondly 1 Cor. 13:2, "and if I... know all mysteries and all knowledge... but do not have love, I am nothing."
I applied this wisdom to my evangelism. I preached the Gospel as lovingly as possible, in humility, letting people tell me I'm stupid, and always responding with a loving exhortation not to reject the message I've brought, answering questions and giving reasons still, but always with love and humility. The passion and pleasure I now have for evangelism greatly exceeds that of the intellectual domination of my previous evangelistic experiences.
So again, in relation to specific sin, where have you gained more pleasure in the righteous, versus the sinful, act?
What does this tell you about other sins you struggle with?
My point here is mutual encouragement in seeing love to Christ through obedience lifted up as the most satisfying way to live, pressing others on in their struggles to do the same.
My request for everyone who reads this post is this:
Think of a sin you have struggled with. Post for us a time when you experienced more pleasure from acting righteously instead of giving in to that specific sin you struggle with. I'll give an example...
I used to evangelize a lot in Santa Monica. I learned very quickly that people there see Christians as retarded, people who can't think, and get duped into making an illogical leap of faith. This led me to study a lot, and seek to intellectually destroy anyone who set themselves against the things I was preaching. I was determined to show that Christians were not only intelligent, but more so than anyone else. As you can imagine, this led to many an intellectual battle, which would only stroke my pride and anger (unrighteously) the person I spoke to.
So I struggled with prideful intellectualism, which made my evangelism worthless. I was convicted by a passage in Romans, and a passage in 1 Corinthians.
First, Romans 1:17, "...for it [the Gospel] is the power of God for salvation..." The Gospel, not my intellect, is going to get people saved. And secondly 1 Cor. 13:2, "and if I... know all mysteries and all knowledge... but do not have love, I am nothing."
I applied this wisdom to my evangelism. I preached the Gospel as lovingly as possible, in humility, letting people tell me I'm stupid, and always responding with a loving exhortation not to reject the message I've brought, answering questions and giving reasons still, but always with love and humility. The passion and pleasure I now have for evangelism greatly exceeds that of the intellectual domination of my previous evangelistic experiences.
So again, in relation to specific sin, where have you gained more pleasure in the righteous, versus the sinful, act?
What does this tell you about other sins you struggle with?
My point here is mutual encouragement in seeing love to Christ through obedience lifted up as the most satisfying way to live, pressing others on in their struggles to do the same.