When I think of the filth and depth of my sin, I am still brought to tears by knowing the while I turned my back on Him, He did leave the 99 to search me out and bring me back home. Believe me, I never forgot the night I finally realized the magnitude and depth of His love, and His willingness to.put over my shoulders the royal robe; kill the fatted cow; and hold a feast, because Paul Zimmer,who was reckless and lost in sin, had returned homd. But, the emotional breaking point wasn't just His robe over my dirty garments, or a welcome homs feast, it was placing the brass ring on my finger, signifying I was still, without a doubt, His child.
I think the link, below, a quote from Ravi Zacharias is pertinent to this topic. Open the link, and let me know what you think of Ravi's prophetic view of sin, and its progression.
Not all addictions result as a choice to sin. I was addicted to medication that I had to take. When the condition improved, I got off it, but it was Hell. The Dr. Was willing to keep me on it indefinitely. He actually encouraged it.
I agree. I don't think we should be surprised when a Christian sins. I think we should be amazed by God's grace when a Christian doesn't sin.
The good news, though, in the words of the late, great Adrian Rogers, is that we cannot outsin Christ's ability to save.
When we allow ourselves to be fooled into believing that we are above sin to the point that we CANNOT sin or cannot commit certain sins, then pride takes over and we WILL more than likely commit the sin or sins that we think we cannot commit.
We still have our sin nature; that isn't taken away until we're called home. However, we have no excuse for continuing to live in sin and using the excuse that "I'm just human." If we are born again, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We can call on Him for the grace to bare and resist any sin. If we try to rely on our own strength, we will find it greatly lacking. The grace of God is unlimited, as everything about God is.[/QUOTE]
Beat me to it, one of my favorite verses.
It tells me that I'm capable of every kind of sin, except for the final rejection of Christ that leads to the lake of fire.
That sin was eternally averted when He saved me.
God is so good; the very next verse promises that we will never be unduly tempted, and that God will always provide an "escape" from yielding to temptation, but we need to trust Him fully to access that escape.
I believe that Christians can be addicted to many things, and they can backslide to the point that we cannot discern Christ in their lives yet without them ceasing to be a child of God. I believe that the role of the Church is to treat such people (people, whether Christian or not we cannot truly know) in accordance with the fruit of their lives (the church is not to condone sin).
It would, but even then this is done in love with the hope of reconciliation. I hate to say it, but it also probably needs to be done more often. I don't think as a whole we are very good at church discipline
(which is essential to discipleship).
And for some reason I can't edit my post, but I meant to say - yes it is possible. About 50-70% (depending on what studies you look at) of professing Christian men, struggle with sexual immorality. Not all 70% of them are probably actually saved, but yes, it is possible for a Christian to struggle with porn.
Should a Christian struggle with it? No.
Is it okay? No.
Should we keep sinning so that grace abounds? No.
If we sin, does grace abound? Yes.
The last two is about a heart attitude. Even in my worst times of giving in to sin, when I was doing it and ignoring the conviction, I still knew it was wrong and never once did I think "this is a good thing, I have so much grace, I'll keep sinning to get more". However, when I did sin, there was grace, it helped me get back up, repent, turn to God, seek him.
It seems to me that this forum is a little afraid of being open about the struggle with sexual sin. I've brought mine to the light, because it thrived in the darkness. I'm not saying everyone here is struggling, but in my search and reading back through posts, there doesn't seem to be a lot of encouragement or help for people that have opened up.
I'd like to be proven wrong on that observation :)
I think that we would be surprised onhow many Christian men have struggled, and still ahve issues, with sexual sinning, as it is much easier to do that on the internet, than to actually go out on wife and have the affair.....