We Create Our Own Hell

[elijah23]

He is always gentle with His own. If you hear a harsh tone, it isn't God.

If he needs to be harsh, he is harsh. It is for your own good.

 

[elijah23]

What is a serious sin to you?

As His child, and one who walks daily with Him, I will not commit a 'serious sin'.

That is pride.

 

[Alabaster]

If he needs to be harsh, he is harsh. It is for your own good.

You don't get it. A harsh word is never God's voice. If what you hear in your mind is harsh and condemning and making you feel guilty and that you are going to hell, or you are in hell already, that is the lying and condemning voice of the enemy.

God doesn't deal with us in those ways. He will bring you up short with a quick word in your spirit that what you have just done wasn't right, which should elicit from you some godly sorrow, or remorse, for which you should immediately repent, and be restored.

 

[Alabaster]

That is pride.

There is no pride in it. The word of God tells us that we cannot continually walk in sin, and when we walk with Him, we will not fall.

 

[elijah23]

What is a serious sin to you?

Lust, pride, drunkenness, failure to love the Lord with all our hearts, minds, and souls are among them.

 

[elijah23]

Don't you repent when you sin?

You didn’t answer my question. Why do you sin? Do you yield to temptation or do you have no respect for the commandments of Jesus?

 

[Alabaster]

You didn’t answer my question. Why do you sin? Do you yield to temptation or do you have no respect for the commandments of Jesus?

I sin because I am not fully perfected yet. I will sometimes yield to temptation as we all do, in spite of the fact that I love my Lord Jesus very much.

 

[elijah23]

You don't get it. A harsh word is never God's voice.

I’m not talking about the Lord’s voice. I am talking about the consequences of our sin. The more stubborn we are of repenting of our sin, the more severe are the consequences of our sin.

 

[elijah23]

There is no pride in it. The word of God tells us that we cannot continually walk in sin, and when we walk with Him, we will not fall.

When you disobey one of the Lord’s commands, you have sinned.

 

[elijah23]

I sin because I am not fully perfected yet. I will sometimes yield to temptation as we all do, in spite of the fact that I love my Lord Jesus very much.

I commend your honesty. I also think we have all yielded to temptation.

 

[Alabaster]

I commend your honesty. I also think we have all yielded to temptation.

Where you believe you lose your salvation when you yield to temptation, I don't, according to God's word. Jesus says nothing can separate me from Him.

Read Romans 8

 

[elijah23]

Where you believe you lose your salvation when you yield to temptation, I don't, according to God's word. Jesus says nothing can separate me from Him.

Read Romans 8

I don’t define salvation as you do. I simply think that we suffer for a period of time after each sin. The Lord is a loving parent and it is his responsibility to discourage us from committing sin.

 

[Alabaster]

I don’t define salvation as you do. I simply think that we suffer for a period of time after each sin. The Lord is a loving parent and it is his responsibility to discourage us from committing sin.

Suffer? It is your responsibility to obey God. By the virtue of you being His child, and a new creature in Christ, you are already discouraged from sinning.

You need to learn about salvation, because you have been sold a bill of goods.

 

[A_Wretch_Loved]

Then I ask you Elijah23, how do you define salvation? Does it accord with the word of God? So that there will be no misunderstanding of intent or stance.

 

[cyberjosh]

I don’t define salvation as you do. I simply think that we suffer for a period of time after each sin. The Lord is a loving parent and it is his responsibility to discourage us from committing sin.

Suffer? It is your responsibility to obey God. By the virtue of you being His child, and a new creature in Christ, you are already discouraged from sinning.

You need to learn about salvation, because you have been sold a bill of goods.

I think I can understand a bit about where Elijah is coming from with his comments. On the previous page he mentioned God being harsh with us, which I could possibly see as refering to disciplinary action. Those whom the Lord loves he chastizes, it says in Hebrews. Also Paul had the authority to discommunicate two wayward men in the Church and "hand them over to Satan" to be ruled by their own evil desires for a time, that they learn not to sin (similar to what it says in Romans 1:24, "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts"). This surely is a harsh and radical judgement, but done in hope that since nothing else could turn them from their destructive ways at that point God, in His wisdom (though sometimes difficult to understand), put them through the time of chastizement to ultimately turn them back to Him. God has dealt with me in lesser ways similarly where I was walking a self destructive path and them some judgement comes upon me that causes me to rethink the way I had been living. With backsliding comes judgement, but with humble repentance mercy can be soon to follow.

As for "suffering": with some sins we in fact inflict damage, pain, and suffering upon ourselves. For example Paul said that those who commit sexual immorality sin against their own body. Who knows what spiritual assaults (that can manifest ultimately in the physical) a Christian opens themselves up to if they commit adultery or view pornography, or what long-term effects it will have on them (unbeknownst to them)? These sins bring longer and worse consequences than most, and can indeed cause suffering. Lot's own "vexation of his righteous soul" was self-inflicted because he chose not to leave the vicinity of Soddom and Gomorrah. Mercy is available for such self-inflicted sins but the damage is done. It is not that is unhealable (though you cannot undo what you have already done) but it definitely will take time to heal (provided you even seek a remedy to the way you are living - if not you continue to lay wood, hay, and stubble).

I've been chastized many times by God and out of that comes a realization of what I just said, but I also know the mercies of God and I constantly seek them to keep me afloat.

God Bless,

~Josh

 

[Peregrine]

Pardon my new thoughts, but if you do not believe in salvation, then you are saying you do not believe you have done anything you need to be saved from, right?

Do you think there is anything you need to be saved from?

 

[elijah23]

Suffer? It is your responsibility to obey God. By the virtue of you being His child, and a new creature in Christ, you are already discouraged from sinning.

You need to learn about salvation, because you have been sold a bill of goods.

I have learned much from experience. When I give in to temptation, I suffer. When I don’t give in to temptation, I don’t suffer.

Experience doesn’t sell us a bill of goods. Experience teaches us truth.

 

[elijah23]

Then I ask you Elijah23, how do you define salvation? Does it accord with the word of God? So that there will be no misunderstanding of intent or stance.

Salvation is when the Lord has forgiven you from your sin. He needs to discipline us when we sin to discourage us from continuing in our sin. When he is finished disciplining us, the sin is forgiven and all is well.

 

[elijah23]

I've been chastized many times by God and out of that comes a realization of what I just said, but I also know the mercies of God and I constantly seek them to keep me afloat.

God Bless,

~Josh

The Lord is never harsher than he needs to be.

 

[Alabaster]

I have learned much from experience. When I give in to temptation, I suffer. When I don’t give in to temptation, I don’t suffer.

Experience doesn’t sell us a bill of goods. Experience teaches us truth.

People who believe that their salvation is tenuous at best, depending one whether they sin or not, will most definitely suffer a great deal when they sin.

Imagine a good father denying his own child when he or she does wrong. That, my friend is a tyrant. God is nothing like that...He is the perfect Father.

We suffer when we step out of fellowship with Him. He doesn't want us to suffer. He wants us to be in perfect fellowship with Him, so when we err, He speaks, and we are to turn back to Him. It doesn't necessarily cause undue suffering--just enough discomfort to know we have stepped away from His best. It is all part of an ongoing, maturing relationship.