How do we bring our theology and our daily Christian walk into balance? This is a question that has dogged me years. Venues such as the Puritan Board serve a great need. They allow Christians to pursue theological knowledge in a community of like minded individuals. Doctrines are postulated, attacked, defended, adopted, abandoned, modified etc. Two popular theological topics that are discussed ad infinitum, ad nauseaum are baptism and the sabbath. The posts can range from benign to vitriolic, but in the end I wonder how these doctrines filter down into the daily life of a believer. Is our quest simply to have answers and have all our theological ducks in a row, or are we seeking to conform more to the image of Christ? I know what the answer should be, it's just that I don't always see it realized. Many Christians possess a commanding knowledge of theology but suffer from depression and spiritual impotence. Why is that? I know that my own battles with spiritual depression have (at times) left me incapable of praying, reading or serving Christ. I have been there and understand it is a topic that most Christians avoid talking about. Pastors are ill equipped to deal with it, in fact many pastors suffer with depression themselves. Call it a crisis of faith, depression, or a time of testing – sometimes what we know is not in congruence with how we live.

How do we deal with this in our own life?

How do we minister to others who are going through it?

How do we keep from going through it?

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

We keep clinging to the Cross and fighting tooth and nail against our own sin brother. We must ever stay vigilant and humble and strive with all that's in us to be a blessing to others.
We live in a fallen world in fallen bodies. The curse is all around us. I meditate a lot about death. I'm nearly 49 now and I want what's left of my life to count in Christs service. I do not have any more time to waste.
I struggle with sin, depression and anxiety everyday it seems, but amid all of that I get the biggest blessings from the Lord. I try to live everyday with the providence of God on my mind and prayerfully beseeching His mercy to overcome my corruptions.

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1689 Baptist Confession

Psa 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
James Farley, Wilderness Road Baptist Assembly.
Husband of Melissa and father of Ann.
www.wildernessroadbaptist.org

Conan theological application style works, "Crush your enemies, See them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the arminians!"

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Timothy Johnson
First United Presbyterian of Moline
PCUSA (Yea, I know)
Theology/Philosophy Sunday School Teacher
Davenport, IA

Brother James, I suppose our Western culture is always looking for a quick answer. Take a pill and get better. But there is no pill that can give us peace. I do know that many Christians are suffering, in despair of almost life itself. Perhaps there is no remedy other than to cling to Christ as one would grab hold of a life preserver in a raging sea. And the truth is there are times in my when I pray that God would grant me the desire to hate sin. I should already hate sin, but there are times when I don't. I'm just getting some thoughts out. I don't want anyone to think I'm standing on a bridge ready to jump. This is one of those days when I am not satisfied in what I know. God grant His children the desire and ability to live what they know.

__________________
Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Romans 6. I think it is essential that we as believers understand we are DEAD to sin, but ALIVE unto Christ. I think it essential that we understand that we were once slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to God. It is not our right or choice as believers to serve God, it is who we are.

I think we must meditate on this and allow the Spirit of God to drive it home to our hearts. I think we must preach to ourselves that we are dead to sin and alive to Christ. Sin does not have power and dominion over us any longer. It wants to rob us of peace and joy and so many other things, but we must fight, fight, fight off unbelief by the Gospel of Christ and the promises of grace found therein.

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Ryan Barnhart - Pastor of OGBC
Husband to a beautiful wife, Father to two beautiful girls
"But by the grace of God I am what I am." I Corinthians 15:10

"I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms. And in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." - John Paton

Love Christ and our brothers BB. This is the root of all. It is a great help to have one close to you who can talk with you during these situations.

I liken myself to the parable of the good smaritan at times. I would not have walked by, but I probably would have walked over and asked "DO you believe in Election?" Now dont laugh, cause it is true. Asking a dying man, physically and spiritually if they are credo or padeo shows our rottennes and lack of love.

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N. Robert; Trinity Reformed Church RCA, Holland MI

Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

I'm bumping this thread because when I first read it late last night, I thought it might be very helpful to those of us with similar struggles to hear how others are overcoming them. Personally I could use all the insight I can find in these matters. Hope nobody minds. May honesty and real love for one another here strengthen us all to bring greater glory to our Redeemer.

Amen, brother! AMEN!! Considering my ancestors I may have twenty good years left, dv.

Hand to the plow!

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Ivan Schoen, Pastor * Maranatha Baptist Church * Poplar Grove, Illinois USA www.maranatha-sbc.org/
“One of the most important discoveries I have ever made is this truth: God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him. This is the motor that drives my ministry as a pastor. It affects everything I do.” --- Dr. John Piper

This sentence is something that is good for all of us to think about.

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Ivan Schoen, Pastor * Maranatha Baptist Church * Poplar Grove, Illinois USA www.maranatha-sbc.org/
“One of the most important discoveries I have ever made is this truth: God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him. This is the motor that drives my ministry as a pastor. It affects everything I do.” --- Dr. John Piper

Growing worse?

(John Angell James, "Christian Progress" 1853)

One of the last lessons we effectually learn, is
that true godliness is a constant conflict in a
believer's heart--between sin and holiness.

Some sincere believers mistake a clearer view, and
deeper sense of their depravity, for an actual increase
of sin. The Christian seems sometimes to himself, to
be growing worse, when actually it is only that he
sees more clearly what in fact he really is!

In the early stages of our Christian life, we have
usually but a slender acquaintance with the evil
of our sinfulness, and the depravity of our heart.
The mind is so much taken up with pardon and
eternal life, that it is but imperfectly acquainted
with those depths of deceit and wickedness,
which lie hidden in itself.

At first we seem to feel as if the serpent were killed.
But we soon find that he was only asleep--for by the
warmth of some fiery temptation, he is revived and
hisses at us again!

Nothing astonishes an inexperienced believer more
than the discoveries he is continually making of the
evils of his heart. Corruptions which he never dreamt to
be in him, are brought out by some new circumstances.

It is like turning up the soil, which brings out worms
and insects, which did not appear upon the surface.

Or to vary the illustration, his increasing knowledge
of God's holy nature, of the perfect law, and the
example of Christ--is like opening the shutters, and
letting light into a dark room, the filth of which,
the inhabitant did not see until the sunbeams

__________________
1689 Baptist Confession

Psa 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
James Farley, Wilderness Road Baptist Assembly.
Husband of Melissa and father of Ann.
www.wildernessroadbaptist.org

To echo what has already been said about our sinfulness: Paul started out by saying he was the least of the apostles and by the time he reached the end of his life, he was the chief of sinners. I believe the answer is Philippians 3:7-12
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

It goes back to this and having the mind of Christ. The prayer that changed my life was, "Father, grant me the mind of Christ. Enable me to see the world through Your eyes, may I love the way You love, hate sin the way You hate sin, live like Jesus lived."

How do we deal with this in our own lives? We don't without the grace and power of Christ.

How do we minister to others who are going through it? We direct them to Christ, we love them the way He loved them.

How do we keep from going through it? We can't. Part of being a Christian is sharing in His sufferings, and I do believe that all we go through has already been experienced by Christ Himself, and so as we walk through these valleys of the shadow of death we find "He is with us!"

Christ above me, Christ beside me, Christ within me ever guiding, Christ behind me, Christ before, Christ my love, my life, my All! (taken from a 4th century prayer)

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

I relate well to what you are saying. My view of my sin is so immense that I know I breathe it out of every pore of my body, and it would be as a stentch to God, were it not for the fragrance of Christ covering it. If I examine my heart, I find sin to be a love/hate relationship, with the love part very much alive in greater or less degrees to various sins, and the hate part is present though not easily seen. As I've said before, the reason why we sin is because we don't love Jesus enough. Certainly we lament our condition before the Lord. But, we must always be honest about our condition before him. I must never give an inaccurate assessment. God intends for us to have such accuracy, and will rebuke our stubbornness towards it with a greater aliveness of our sins' reality. We must come to the place where we accurately view ourselves as nothing but a fountain of sin, a factory that only produces sin all of the time, and yet a fountain that has now been tapped into by another source, namely that of grace, which bears fruit in its season. His infusion of the principle of grace into our souls begins only as a spark, like a small candle in the middle of the ocean, like a small stream breaking its channel into an old river, and the process of renewal begins. Our faculites of the mind, will, and affections that were once corrupted and owned by the principle of sin have now been invaded by the principle of grace. They are no longer dominated by one principle, but are influenced by two, and so sin no longer "reigns" or is the absolute ruler there. The Holy Spirit has intruded, and is now weilding influence as well.

It's okay to admit that there are times that you do not hate sin. In fact, if you were to say that there were not times like that, then I would be worried; for then your sanctification would already be complete and you would have already experienced glorification, which is not possible. It is not at all strange that we see that we still have a liking towards sin. It's more strange that we don't admit it, and yet it is not so strange. Paul admitted it. Yet, we grow up in a christian society where we are taught that christians live on some sort of a higher level than unbelievers; that if they admit to these sinful desires that they still have, then they are admitting that they live on a level of defeat. But, justification does not lead to instant sanctification. Sanctification assumes the cancer in us is still a present reality. If it were not present, then we would not need to be sanctified anymore.

None of this leads to sin being now permissable. This isn't promoting satisfaction with our condition. But, it is expressing the reality of it. God already knows we don't love him as we should, and that we still gravitate to sin. Otherwise, why would we need commands and instruction/warnings to do different? The commands do not reveal our ability, but rather the goal, and admit that we are still far off from arrival. God knows we are still distant from that goal. He knows our love and obedience is still mostly corrupted with sin, most of which we don't see but he does. In fact, if he were to measure it, our love and obedience to him would be measured according to what we would do if we had no command from him to do anything. Would we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength if it were permissable for us not to? Would love for God flow from our beings naturally, simply because it was our character and nature to love only God in the infinite degree? Would he be the only object of our affection and desire simply because our affections and desires naturally flow and our bent in that direction, just as a river naturally flows to the left or the right because that is the way its channel is contoured or bent? This is what it means by "writing the law upon our hearts." It becomes our nature to exhibit it, to where no command or law is necessary to compel us or direct us to exhibit it. It's like an apple tree bearing apples instead of oranges. It needs no command to restrain it to not do so, nor does it need a command for it to do so, for it does so naturally, as it's nature compels it to.

The reality is, the channel of our river is still very much bent and contoured towards sin, as believers. That's why it takes rules and regulations to keep us in check, and to stifle the flow of our river. Many read scripture and pray because it is a necessary discipline. But, do we watch TV because it is a necessary discipline? Do we nap on the couch because it is a necessary discipline? Do we go fishing or do we eat our favorite food out of discipline? If we only did exactly what we wanted to do all of the time, what would we do?

These kinds of thoughts cause me to cry out, "O wretched man that I still am, who will set me free from the body of this death?" So, I stand with you, B. Brown. "Our salvation" (or deliverance - as the word means) from this sinful principle within us "lies in hope". "...we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Meanwhile, we are not in despair, for we are now children of God, and nothing can separate us from him, as Rom.8 goes on to say. And, the sin within us can no longer condemn us, because, as Romans 6:7 says, "we have been justified from sin." And, we are confident in this, that "he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?" And, we are confident with Paul that "he who began the good work in us will complete it."

Your honesty is refreshing, brother!

Blessings!

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Charles Plauger
Member/Grace Reformed Church
Oakland, MD

YIKES!

For this statement to be God-honoring we would have to conclude that ALL Arminians are godless and our enemies.

If Arminianism is a spectrum of belief and there are saved sons of God in the arminain camp, then our response would be to pray for our brothers who err, that they might see greater light.

The way you wrote it, it makes it sounds as if the church's chief enemy is arminianism as opposed to other doctrinal errors and to unbelief and Islam itself.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

To live the Gospel I think we must always be reminded of how bad sin.

To do this in ways not merely intellectual this means that we must see and experience the effects of sin in the lives of others continually.

To do this, we must be where sinners are and be a light in their midst.

Only then does the Gospel not be reduced to an academic exercise or trying to formulate a bigger system (bigger club) to beat those who differ with us over the head with.


When we place ourselves in the midst of the sinful and dying then we truly understand that it is only by God's grace we are made to differ and that the Gospel is not mere ivory tower stuff, but it is medicine to the sick and dying, whose stink and rot already pervade this world.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isa 57:16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
Isa 57:17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
Isa 57:18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
Isa 57:19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

__________________
1689 Baptist Confession

Psa 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
James Farley, Wilderness Road Baptist Assembly.
Husband of Melissa and father of Ann.
www.wildernessroadbaptist.org