Intentions

[Chad]

Intentions - November 12, 2005

There is a saying which goes, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." How true this is for when we sin. It is not usually our intent to hurt and disobey God, but isn't that exactly what happens?

Think about the young man sitting in prison for shooting another man. "I never intended to shoot the gun! I just wanted to scare him a little but I guess my anger got the best of me," the man states as he stares at the cold dank walls of his jail cell.

Or what about this one? "I didn't intend to be unfaithful, but it just sort of happened!" replied the middle-aged woman to her marriage counselor.

Or this: "I walked into the store intending to simply shop, but once I saw the diamond ring and how beautifully it sparkled, well, I figured no one would notice if I slipped it in to my pocket," stated the young woman as she tried to explain her crime of shoplifting to the police officer.

The problem with sin is it rarely initially exposes itself for what it truly is: evil. Instead, purposeful deceit is reduced to nothing more than a "little white lie," while the sin of adultery masks itself as a night of so-called harmless fleshly pleasures, and viewing pornography is justified as "harmless" titillation.

My dear friends, we need to beware of sin, and learn to quickly recognize it for what it is. It doesn't matter what our intentions are, because the true proof to our walk with God is whether we will flee from sin or walk toward it.

Today, if you are someone whose intentions have been misdirected by the lure of sin which presents itself as sweet, but in reality is putrid and decaying to your soul, please know that God is merciful and forgiving to those who repent and seek His good way.

"Dear God, I know I have made mistakes, some of them very serious. I also know that you came, not for the perfect, but for the imperfect. I have made some bad decisions, but now I am ready to make those right by walking away from the evil that has so bound me. I am ready to make You, not sin or my own flesh and selfish desires, Lord of my life. I ask you to forgive me, God, and wash me clean of my sins. I ask You to make me a new creation that is pleasing in your sight, and to show me how to have more strength and wisdom so that I can better recognize evil where it lurks. This I ask in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen."

Contributed by Melanie Schurr

 

[foreverwjesus]

We have been givne the mind of Christ but we also have a mind of flesh its never easy to walk in total righteousness but we have been sent holy spirit to guide us in our ways .I have also found in my past when I rebeled against him and his word that I didnt hear the holy spirt nor did I feel his presence I know he was with me but his hand was lifted . Thank you God for being a forgiving God because if he wasnt so forgiving then I dont think anyone would make it to the Kingdom of Heaven. I once heard my pastor say that we have to sacrifice our flesh daily . I am far from perfect I struggle just as much as anyone else I to also ask for him to make me a new creation so I may better serve him. I praise the Lord for what he does in each of us and Chad thankyou for posting this your faithfulness is pleasing the Lord and he is the one that counts most! your sister in Christ forever

 

[Yeshua]

Walk In the SPIRIT....

I was going to post the link to the answer the Lord has shown me but it is in the MENS forum so I copied it for you here it is:

This IS the answer for all sins of the flesh:


This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Gal. 5:16


If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13


Sow to the spirit of love: Be Charitable.

Sow to the spirit of a sound mind: Read and study the word of God and fast from fleshly desires.

Sow to the spirit of power: Walk in the faith of God's word, let it live in you and trust in JESUS and trust NOT in your own understanding.



Pray knowing that God knows what you need and ask the Holy Spirit to pray for you.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. Matt.6:8

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Rom.8:26



Also it is good to remain in prayer everytime you are being tempted.

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matt.26:41

Also it is wise to avoid anything that tempts us in the area which we are most apt to give into temptation.



:thumbs_up

We have been givne the mind of Christ but we also have a mind of flesh its never easy to walk in total righteousness but we have been sent holy spirit to guide us in our ways .I have also found in my past when I rebeled against him and his word that I didnt hear the holy spirt nor did I feel his presence I know he was with me but his hand was lifted . Thank you God for being a forgiving God because if he wasnt so forgiving then I dont think anyone would make it to the Kingdom of Heaven. I once heard my pastor say that we have to sacrifice our flesh daily . I am far from perfect I struggle just as much as anyone else I to also ask for him to make me a new creation so I may better serve him. I praise the Lord for what he does in each of us and Chad thankyou for posting this your faithfulness is pleasing the Lord and he is the one that counts most! your sister in Christ forever

 

[Coconut]

“The branch cannot bear fruit of itself.” John 15:4

How did you begin to bear fruit? It was when you came to Jesus and cast yourselves on his great atonement, and rested on his finished righteousness. Ah! what fruit you had then! Do you remember those early days? Then indeed the vine flourished, the tender grape appeared, the pomegranates budded forth, and the beds of spices gave forth their smell.

Have you declined since then? If you have, we charge you to remember that time of love, and repent, and do thy first works. Be most in those engagements which you have experimentally proved to draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from him that all your fruits proceed. Any holy exercise which will bring you to him will help you to bear fruit.

The sun is, no doubt, a great worker in fruit-creating among the trees of the orchard: and Jesus is still more so among the trees of his garden of grace. When have you been the most fruitless? Has not it been when you have lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ, when you have slackened in prayer, when you have departed from the simplicity of your faith, when your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said, “My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved”; and have forgotten where your strength dwells—has not it been then that your fruit has ceased?

From him all my fruit must be found, for no fruit can ever come from me. We are taught, by past experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace of God in Christ, and wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh! to trust Jesus for fruit as well as for life.

-Spurgeon